After reading Jessica Zafra’s review of I, Frankenstein, I wanted to see it. I knew that it would most likely suck but what the hey. When the great Jessica Zafra says that a movie is fun, you go out and see it.

Here’s the round up of writer Stuart Beattie (best known for writing the Pirates of the Caribbean series)’s I, Frankenstein.

Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

The movie opens up with a three minute summary of Mary Shelly’s titular work so, I presume, that whoever’s been living under a rock for the better part of a century and not familiar with the plot gets up to speed.

Very quickly things get weird. While (the then unnamed) Frankenstein’s monster (Aaron Eckheart – The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking) is busy digging up the grave of his creator, he gets attacked by demons who, he hears, have been given orders to be ‘taken alive’. He is saved by angels who take the form of stone gargoyles during their down time and the creature is presented to the gargoyle queen, Leonore (Miranda Otto – freakin’ Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings trilogy). Leonore, despite the counsel of her head guard Gideon (Jai Courtney), allows the creature to go free and even names him Adam.

Fast-forward to modern-times, Adam has taken it upon himself to hunt down the demons who are still pursuing him. We learn that he is needed by the demon prince Naberius (Bill Nighy – Love, Actually, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) because “he is the first true sign that God is not the sole giver of life” and he plans to have unwitting scientist Terra (Yvonne Strahovski – Chuck) study how he ticks so they use Adam as a template to build his reanimated corpse army.

THE GOOD:

1. The delicious accents. It’s a breath of fresh air when everybody in the cast enunciates each word they’re saying. Pretty helpful when following the story, although in this film the plot is pretty much as straightforward as it gets.
2. Eowyn!!! I had no idea that she was in this film. Egads, this woman did not age a bit. She’s totally wasted in this performance-wise but her voice had that commanding tone that you believe her as a queen.
3. The special effects. They were great and considering the flimsy plot, they were the saving grace of this film.
4. No romance. Thank GOD. I mean, Aaron Eckheart is as fit as it gets but had they tried to push a romantic angle, it’d just come off as skeevy.
5. Bill Nighy’s eyebrow. There was one moment in the film when Adam was mocking him and he raised his right eyebrow just so. He didn’t even need words to rebuff the taunting.

THE BAD:

1. Terra’s accent. Was that supposed to be British? Sorry, it was just jarring to hear the girl from Chuck talk non-Americanly. I read somewhere that at actress is actually from Australia though so I guess this is all on me.
2. The slow motion effects during fight scenes. Overkill, I felt. The action sequences were great on their own and weren’t fast paced enough that the audience would need slow-mo’s help.

THE UGLY

Nothing really.

All in all it was an enjoyable film. Nothing fantastic or mind-blowing but this film is proof that if you handle a really simple (albeit slightly silly) plot well, you can sneak away with a relatively good film. Sure, Aaron Eckheart was totally wasted in this and there are probably a hundred other actors out there who can do the role, but I am thankful for those abs. Mmm.

THE VERDICT: A respectable 6.5/10. See it if you don’t fancy anything else.

*All images are from the film’s IMDB page.