Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

Released in 1994 under the direction of Kenneth Branagh ("Henry V," "Thor") on a budget of $45 million with distribution through Tristar Pictures; "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein," is one of a slew of horror remakes that came about in the 1990's following Francis Ford Coppola's critically praised "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Other remakes that came between 1992-1999 includes the likes of 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula," 1993's "Body Snatchers," 1994's "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein," 1995's "Village of the Damned," 1998's "Psycho," 1999's "The Haunting," "Sleepy Hollow," and "The Mummy."

Of these movies, three were spiritual remakes of the movies by Universal Studios from the 1930's which were in themselves, adapted from novels (except for "The Mummy" but that's debatable). Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Dracula was a superb, albeit flawed, adaptation that set the movie at the novel's original setting and followed the story more closely than previous version. Stephen Sommers' "The Mummy" was a special effects extravaganza that celebrated the pulp action feel of the time with a fantastic cast of actors to sell the absurdity of the story. 

I bring this up because if you look at these three movies together and wanted to give medals to each one, I would award them in this order: Francis Ford Coppola receives the gold, Stephen Sommers would receive the silver and Kevin Branagh would receive the bronze. If you think I'm doing that out of disdain and preference over directors, I ask you to see these movies again and think if my decision is warranted. Strap in ladies and gents cause it's time to give this review LIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!!!

Plot: In 1794, an ambitious adventurer named Robert Walton (Aidan Quinn) risks his ship and crew to reach the North Pole. While trapped in the ice, he discovers a man walking over the ice and brings him on board his ship to hear his story. The man is Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh) and this all began when Victor's mother (Cherie Lunghi) died giving birth to his brother William Frankenstein (Ryan Smith), prompting him to obsess over trumping death. He leaves his adopted sister Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) and father Baron Frankenstein (Ian Holm) in Geneva, Switzerland and goes to a college in Ingolstadt, Germany. There, he befriends medical student Henry Clerval (Tom Hulce) and Professor  Waldman (John Cleese) who shows Victor his experiments with using electricity to make small creatures and limbs move. 

But it takes the death of Professor Waldman at the hands of a one-legged loon to make Victor create life by combining "raw materials" together to build his creature: the body of the loon who killed the professor, the brain of Professor Waldman and the leg of some guy at the morgue. But instead of lifting the body onto the roof and letting it get shocked with lightning, he puts his creation in a container full of birth canal fluid and electric eels that brings it to life…though it barely resembles how Mary Shelly described it in her novel. The Creature (Robert De Niro) is shaven, super strong, has one yellow eye, but is also very confused by what has transpired. Instead of helping The Creature, Victor is horrified by what he has made and attempts to dispose of it, but his creation steals his coat and flees, only to be hounded by the villagers thinking he is the cause of a cholera outbreak, which prompts him to flee into the woods and hide in the barn of a family. There, he learns to speak and read as he attempts to befriend this family but is chased away like before, prompting The Creature to seek vengeance on his creator.

Getting Victor's attention by murdering WIlliam and framing his nanny, Justine Moritz (Trevyn McDowell), Victor meets with The Creature who demands he make him a bride and in return, he will leave Victor alone forever. Not wanting to use the body of Justine, Victor breaks his promise to The Monster and The Monster retaliates by breaking Elizabeth's heart…by ripping it out. So Victor takes the brain of his wife and places it into the body of Justine and brings her to life, only to have her realize she has been horribly scarred by Victor and, rather than live like this, she sets herself on fire, which makes the entire mansion explode into flames apparently. 

Thus Victor's story ends as he dies on the ship, The Monster arrives and mourns over his creator, calling him "his father" as he sets himself on fire with Victor's funeral pyre, which prompts Robert to go home.

Well….it's closer to the novel than previous adaptations. It still has the elements of Frankenstein everybody came to see: Victor Frankenstein takes body parts to create his creature, he abandons it, it learns to speak and read but is constantly rejected by others because of his hideous appearance, yadda, yadda, social message this, social message that. It has the idea right, but it clicks by at such a manic pace that it feels as though the movie is just as eager to get to the part where the monster comes to life as we are. But as a result, it comes off as really campy, even more than the 1999 Mummy movie was was intentionally tongue-in-cheek.

Characters:

The actors play their part and do an…all right job. Really, the best thing in this movie is, no surprise, Robert De Niro as The Monster. He's the only one who seems more reserved and sympathetic while everyone else acts like they escaped from a mental hospital, there's this very moving speech the Monster gives near the end of the second act describing his treatment by people. Kenneth Branangh is a good actor, the man was nominated for an Oscar for playing Henry the 5th, but good Lord, seeing him in this movie, it's like the man has forgotten what subtlety is and he overacts almost every other scene.Tom Hulce is actually pretty good, but I'll always think of as Mozart from "Amadeus." As for Helena Bonham Carter…um…well, she's…okay? Yeah I don't really have anything much to say about her, but seeing her heart being torn out was probably more satisfying than it should have been.

Ian Holm does a fine job with his small part, so does John Cleese and Richard Briers and that's really the best of what I can say about the casting in this movie; the actors that are really good at what they do work, they do for what the script calls for them to do. But what really makes me scratch my head were the choices made by Kenneth Branagh to push so much ham into his role that you mistake Kenneth Branagh playing Dr. Victor Frankenstein for trying out for Dr. Fro-drick Fronk-enstein from "Young Frankenstein," minus the "DESTINY! DESTINY! NO ESCAPING, THAT'S FOR ME!" and "Putting on the Ritz."

Production:

Just like Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film adaptation of Dracula, Branagh's adaptation looks fantastic and fits the era it's set in. Bringing the feel of 18th Century medical equipment and the dirty look of Europe during the Dark Ages…that…that didn't sound right. 

Yeah, this movie feels a little confused historically. While the students at the medical college and at the Frankenstein Manor look and dress the time period, the villagers looked like they came out of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," I half expected one of them to say "There's some lovely filth over here!"

In terms of music, Patrick Doyle's score is about as subtle as the movie. It's bombastic and loud whenever Branagh's hamming it up and soft when it tries to be innocent or heartfelt whenever Victor and Elizabeth are together or when the Monster tries to connect with people.

But my favorite scene that cracked me up was when Elizabeth in her new body sets herself on fire and then runs through the mansion, setting it on fire. This was so hilariously over-the-top I honestly thought I was watching something out of a Hammer Horror film than something that was produced by Coppola, hell, even Coppola's movie wasn't this hilarious special effects-wise.

Bottom Line:

Um….wow this was goofy. I won't say the production is horrible or that the casting is terrible or that the movie is unfaithful to the original source material (which I barely remember reading back in Jr. High), but I will say that the tone for this, when it's taking it's time, it does work. When the movie can slow down and actually examine Victor Frankenstein's line of thinking, but so much of this movie feels too campy to take seriously. There's this 2 minute sequence in which after The Monster has come to life, Victor let's the monster out of the case, with all this birth canal fluid spilling out, the two of them keep slipping and sliding in this fluid, Victor Frankenstien not even wearing a shirt and the Monster is buck-ass naked, now in my more immature mindset, I would make some homosexual joke; but instead, I ask you to watch this scene with Wacky sound effects and a comical rolling piano line to go with it. Well, that's better, hopefully nobody gets insulted now.

But you see my point though, yes? The movie is just so campy when it's trying to take itself seriously and the first half clicks by so fast that the movie seems to want to get to the Monster like we all are. The sets are still cool to look at, the music is pretty good and Robert De Niro really is the best actor in this movie, working really well with all that make-up on his face and body. But if you asked me whether or not to watch it, I'd say, "eh, go ahead, but don't expect a repeat viewing."

Final Rating: 2.75/5