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Film: I, Frankenstein
Year: 2014
Director: Stuart Beattie
Writer: Stuart Beattie
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy and Miranda Otto
Review:
This film begins filling us in on the back-story of what happened in the tale of Frankenstein. The year is 1791 and Victor Frankenstein has died, he is brought back to the cemetery of his family to be buried by his monster, played by Aaron Eckhart. While in the cemetery he is attacked by some people. He kills one of them, but the body is engulfed in red flame. We then see a gargoyle come to life and help him. They chase off the rest of the group.
He is then taken to a cathedral. There he learns that he was attacked by demons. Gargoyles are thought to be statues, but really are a race that was created by the Archangel Michael. Their queen is played by Miranda Otto. We learn that her best warrior is Jai Courtney as well as Caitlin Stasey and Mahesh Jadu. They know all about Eckhart and they want him to join their cause. He refuses, stating he wants to live out his life alone. They do allow him to take a weapon that will kill demons.
He begins his trek into the woods, but he is attacked by two demons, which he kills.
The film then jumps 200 years into the future. Eckhart has been chased the whole time, so he has decided to go to the city and go on the offensive. He goes to a club where a few different people turn their attention to him. He ends up meeting one of them in the alley, played by Steve Mouzakis. He tries to question him, but when a police officer interrupts, Mouzakis escapes. The cop is killed and Eckhart takes out a few demons. Before he can leave, he is grabbed by a gargoyle.
He is taken back to the cathedral, but they are seen by a demon played by Socratis Otto. Eckhart is yelled at for fighting in the open, for a human dying and he is locked up so he cannot continue on this path.
We then meet the demon prince that the gargoyles are looking for. He is played by Bill Nighy and he is pretending to be a wealthy businessman. The head of his security is played by Kevin Grevioux. Mouzakis reports what happened and he is punished by Nighy.
Nighy is running a secret operation that is led by two scientists. There is a woman played by Yvonne Strahovski and a man by Nicholas Bell. They are trying to bring a rat back to life. Bell thinks they failed, but Strahovski has done it. Nighy inquires how long until human trials and Strahovski thinks they are a long way off. Nighy tells her that he may know of some information that could speed the process up.
Socratis then meets with Nighy and tells them what they saw. Socratis leads an all-out assault on the cathedral. A lot of demons die, but so do gargoyles. Courtney chases after them and Eckhart is freed to help in the fight. All the while this is going on, Miranda is kidnapped. A special artifact is required to get her back. It turns out to be the journal of Victor Frankenstein. Courtney gives Miranda back in the deal.
Eckhart is even more upset that they had the journal and didn’t tell him. Eckhart visits the lab where Strahovski now has the journal. She is making sense of Victor’s experiments, but with the monster in front of her, she may not need it. Nighy tries to convince him to join them, but Eckhart knows his plan. He is trying to create an army like Eckhart. He takes the journal and flees.
Eckhart is now hated by both sides. The gargoyles want him destroyed so he can’t be replicated while the demons want to do just that. Will Eckhart survive this? Will Strahovski learn the secrets of Victor Frankenstein and be able to do his experiment? Will Eckhart convince Strahovski to help him and can he protect her? Can the gargoyles save humans or will the demon army prevail?
I have to say that this film has an interesting storyline. There are a lot of really good actors and I think they do well in the roles they are given. The battle scenes are solid and despite what are going on look about as realistic as they can get. I do like that this film takes place after Frankenstein. One thing that blew me away was that if we are going to assume what Victor Frankenstein did was real and we still cannot replicate it, that would mean was truly a genius like no other. Strahovski is very attractive as well and it is nice to see her with her native accent in the film.
Now I had a lot of issues. First I didn’t like the concept of this film. I knew Eckhart would be hunting demons as Frankenstein’s monster. I don’t mind that. Eckhart plays it emotionless, which is good speaking he is a ‘monster’ and doesn’t have a soul. The film lost me when it introduced gargoyles as a race that is fighting the demons. I didn’t like it and that is such a weird thing to represent good. I didn’t even mind the army of Frankenstein monsters and having demons possess the soulless bodies. I also was confused as to when and how Eckhart ‘grew’ or developed a soul. This concept was too farfetched and not enough explaining.
With that said I wouldn’t recommend this film. The acting isn’t all that bad, the fight scenes are good, but I just had too much issue with the concept. I don’t see how a race of gargoyles would be good and that they are fighting demons. I know this is based off a comic, but I might have decided to make some changes to this before moving forward. The story of what is happening isn’t bad, but not enough to save it either. There is better Frankenstein, action or horror films out there, which I would recommend seeing instead.
My Rating: 5 out of 10