Aaron Eckhart overcomes a monstrously mediocre script in ‘I, Frankenstein.’
It seems inconceivable that anyone would pay $12, let alone venture out in 12-degree weather, to see "I, Frankenstein." But maybe there are reasons. Perhaps you're an Aaron Eckhart completist? A former English lit major with a secret yen for fan fiction based on the classics? Or maybe, and more likely, you're just exhausted at the end of a long week, and really want to turn your brain off completely for a couple of hours.
Should you happen to fit any of those categories, the movie will … suffice. You won't remember it in a week, and if you do it probably won't be with any particular fondness. But at the very least, it does provide an easy excuse to sit in a heated room eating popcorn. (Lionsgate wouldn't screen the movie in advance for critics, but they are welcome to use that endorsement in their ads.)
One word of warning: if you're the type to grouse that the title doesn't make sense — really, it should be "I, Frankenstein's Monster" — move swiftly along. Stuart Beattie's script was written as an excuse to stage some video game-style action, not to pay great tribute to Mary Shelley's original book. (It is, however, based on Kevin Grevioux's graphic novel.)
We do start where Shelley finished, with a haunted creature left alone in a world that can't understand or appreciate him. A quick fast-forward to the present, though, and he's got himself a fan in the Demon Prince Naberius (Bill Nighy). Naberius wants to build an army of re-animated corpses and take over the world, but he needs inspiration, guidance, an example of somebody who's already — hey, wait a minute. There is a guy like that! It's Him, Frankenstein(s monster)!
And so, our already-burdened hero finds himself hunted by Demons intent on using him to destroy humanity. And that's just the half of it. The Demons' enemies, the Gargoyles, are also tracking him, to keep him out of Tiberius's evil hands.
Though the Gargoyle Queen, Leonore (Miranda Otto), takes her orders from Heaven, she doesn't actually seem much nicer than the Hell Prince. But the opposing teams provide several decent, fiery fights and lots of CGI-enhanced transformations, which is really all that matters in a movie like this.
As an action hero, Eckhart leans more towards the Liam Neeson style of sullen scowling than the Tom Cruise method of people pleasing. It works well enough for the role — the monster does, after all, have plenty to scowl about — and he should get a few extra points for all that time he clearly spent at the gym. Surely not even Shelley, a bohemian romantic, imagined her monster as ripped and regularly shirtless as Beattie requires.
Nighy and Otto bring a bit of cosmopolitan dash, but not much effort, while none of the other actors makes any impression at all. (Except for Yvonne Strahovski of "Dexter," laughably unconvincing as the brilliant scientist employed by Naberius.)
Given that Shelley's book is a masterpiece of psychological insight, one is tempted to find some great metaphor in the movie's opposing forces of good and evil. Don't waste your time. The meaning is money; the aim is a franchise. Beattie keeps the pace moving, Eckhart holds our attention, and that's pretty much a win for a January action flick. I wouldn't say "I, Frankenstein" is alive, exactly, but at least it's not DOA.
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