“Frankenstein” (2025) Review
Can humanity be created? Would it have original thoughts or a soul? Would it want to find love? Can a man-made consciousness ever become our equal, or even surpass us intellectually? Am I talking about A.I. or Frankenstein?
To all the above: I’m not sure.
What I do know, is that I liked the movie. What stood out to me the most was its tone. The branding and previous iterations of the oft-told story led me to believe this would be a grim and gruesome tale through and through, but I was wrong.
To me the film felt theatrical, as if it was written as a play. I thought it vibed a lot closer to Phantom Of The Opera than Nosferatu. The dialogue was excellent and literary, paying homage Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein novel from 1818.
The style and makeup of the Monster, the laboratory set designs, as well as the trope of the misunderstood and lovable outsider all reminded me of director Guillermo del Toro’s previous work The Shape Of Water (yes, we know it won an Oscar). While The Shape Of Water wasn’t awful, Frankenstein is a superior film. The visuals are mostly great, with a few rough CGI moments here and there. The cast is stellar, and the writing is good. It’s a winning formula for a movie.
Oscar Isaac plays Dr. Frankenstein and absolutely nails it, first gaining your sympathy and then slowly making you resent him as the film goes on just as if he were your own cruel and narcissistic creator. By the end of the movie you’ll despise the guy. The genius of his character is that you follow the doctor like he’s the protagonist of the story, while simultaneously functioning as the film’s primary antagonist as well.
“Bring him to me..”
Jacob Elordi is phenomenal as Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, portraying the character with such a childlike sweetness that makes every mistreatment of him stab you in your natural, human heart. He even gives the famed character a rare amount of sex appeal, no small feat.
The Monster has one prevailing desire throughout the entire film, and it is quite possibly the most human yearning he could have: connection. He succeeds in this where the Doctor couldn’t, connecting with their shared love interest Elizabeth and even ultimately with Dr. Frankenstein himself at the end.
Mia Goth covers a much ground in playing two characters: Dr. Frankenstein’s short-lived mother, as well as Elizabeth, the love interest for three male characters in the film (Dr. Frankenstein, his little brother William, and the monster himself). She is a mysterious character, both fascinated by the Doctor’s work and disgusted by his personality. She immediately connects with the Monster, and ultimately chooses him in her moment of greatest need.
“The Monster did it!”
The question of humanity overstepping the bounds of nature is one at the heart of the original 1818 telling of this story, but the question still remains as we all collectively swim deeper into the uncharted waters of artificial intelligence.
AI was created by people and its ‘mind’ is built from all the information we have uploaded to the internet. It is being actively taught and ‘trained’ by people as well, with many content and copywriting jobs for example now being replaced with ‘AI Trainer’ job positions, for example. You could make many connections and comparisons of AI to Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, but where they differ is the undeniable benevolence and pure heartedness of Jacob Elordi’s monster.
As corporations continue to invest millions into AI, patching its mind and body together via expensive laboratories (data centers) and pieces of discarded human remains (the internet), it is yet to be seen if our real-life Frankenstein creation has any of the likable traits of Jacob Elordi’s character, or that it is simply a monster.
Rating: 7.3/10