Frankenstein (2025)

Some stories are so universally timeless that even years after their exception, they can inspire adaptations that are able to deviate from the base text but still remain true to its words through surviving characters, visuals and themes. One such story is Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein; a true pinnacle of gothic horror storytelling that was insanely ahead of its time and forever immortalized the concept of a zombified corpse being resurrected from the dead by a deranged scientist who desired to play God. While the story has been brought to life on the big screen multiple times, with one of the most famous being the 1931 version directed by James Whale, many of the more modern adaptation have set away from the classical spooky nature of the story in favor of a more contemporary genre-friendly sci-fi approach, which in turn made Guillermo del Toro’s proposed adaptation all the more enticing given his love for dark and creatively twisted ideas and imagery. While the film would take decades to come to fruition, the eventual 2025 adaptation released on Netflix with a star-studded cast was met with moderately positive reception and even scored a few Oscar wins, proving that even after all this time, the tale of the modern Prometheus still holds value.

While on an expedition to the North Pole, a Royal Danish Navy ship comes across a badly injured Victor Frankenstein (played by Oscar Isaacs) and barely survives an encounter with a ferocious monster that howls for him. After fending off the creature as the ship remains trapped in ice, Frankenstein tells Captain Anderson (played by Lars Mikkelsen) about his past as a brilliant but unconventional scientist who was obsessed with conquering death spurned from the tragic death of his mother. With most of the scientific community viewing his experiments as ‘unholy’, Victor is offered a promising deal from arms dealer, Henrich Harlander (played by Christoph Waltz), who gifts the doctor unlimited funding and an isolated tower to conduct his ultimate experiment; fully resurrecting a corpse made up of various different body parts through the use of electricity. After miraculously pulling off the experiment to create this new creature (played by Jacob Elordi), Victor’s fascination in his new ‘son’ quickly turns to disdain after seeing how slowly the creature responds to basic responses and actions, deciding to leave him to die in the tower. The creature managed to survive however, and after experiencing the good and bad of existence (as well as learning of his unholy origins), he plans to track down his creator and force him to know the pain he’s inflicted onto him.

The 2025 iteration of Frankenstein certainly stands out for its visual fidelity and scale but struggles to escape from usual trip-ups common in most del Toro flicks, including fairly bland characters and a pretty cliched narrative. Despite this, it doesn’t stop the film from being a good time, with spectacular visuals, pretty good performances, and enough understanding of the concept to carve out its own legacy through some new ideas while still keeping the original pieces.

Guillermo del Toro had adapted pre-existing stories and characters with his own spin before through his work on Blade 2, the Hellboy movies and his 2022 stop-motion Pinocchio film but taking on such a monumentally gothic story would’ve been so appealing to the avid lover of the kooky and cryptic, desiring to make the film as early back as 2007. However, after his initial chance with Universal was crushed after their Dark Universe scheme quickly fell into ruin, it wouldn’t be until Netflix revived the project in 2023 as part of a multi-year deal with del Toro to produce films for their platform, that he would be able to bring it to life, and you can certainly feel the passion. With Netflix securing the film a budget of $120 million (which is a pretty sizable number for a passion project done by a quirkily unconventional filmmaker), it allowed del Toro the opportunity to go all in with his vision without restrictions, and there are both pros and cons to this. The plus side is being able to see such a classical story brought to life with enough backing to allow for gloriously grand visuals and effects, dramatic performances led by fairly well known talent, and an execution that feels very digestible for a modern mainstream audience while still holding onto what made the original story so poignant and revolutionary through its themes surrounding identity, the terrifying evolution of modern medical science, and the arrogance of man and the consequences that come from it.

However, while del Toro is a visionary who clearly loved bringing these images and scenes to life with sweeping angles, saturated colors and lighting, and the appropriate amount of over-the-top intensity, he’s a director who often struggles with bringing the same kind of unique energy to his writing, which is something this film is sadly plagued with to a noticeable level. For a story bustling with universal themes, complicated characters, and a story that while simple on the outset, led way to incredible psychological discussions surrounding the meaning of being human, most of that is explored at a very surface level in this feature, being addressed enough to not feel entirely flat, but never going further than the base understanding to truly leave a unique perspective. With del Toro being the sole screenwriter as well as director and a producer, no one was able to help elevate his slightly cliched writing style and choice of narrative focal points. With a two-and-a-half running time, it does manage to fit many iconic sequences from the story yet is forced to go at a constant pace that prevents much time to slow down and process, providing an experience that’s zippier and full of dazzle rather than one that’s contemplative and composed. It’s still functional but isn’t as complex as it should’ve been.

The cast is filled with recognizable talent that you’d imagine would be perfect for this story told by this filmmaker, and while some are able to bring the best out of this combination and offer some great eye-catching performances, others feel suppressed by the limited writing of their characters. Thankfully, the two best characters and performances are Oscar Issac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as The Creature, with both giving very passionate, visceral and emotional performances that are backed by solid character work and efficient writing. Issac was a great pick for Frankenstein already, his expressive and manic energy really lends well into building this version as soulfully arrogant, and while his backstory is a little predictable, it does create new insight into his relationship with the creature, so he feels well-rounded by the end. Elordi is also very captivating as the creature, being able to craft a character who feels more physically imposing and verbose than past iterations yet still retains that child-like purity through his shaky movements, wide-eyed facial expressions, and gripping delivery of every line of dialogue, it’s a great showcase of both actors.

Sadly, the rest of the cast may still be performed at a serviceable level, but don’t have as much intrigue behind their characters, and therefore feel more mundane. People like Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz are positioned to be interesting and are great picks for this environment, yet aren’t very complicated roles and therefore feel a little stifled which comes through in an occasional awkward line reading, Lars Mikkelsen is actually pretty decent as the ship captain listening to the stories of both inventor and creation and has a small but meaningful change of heart by the end that feels like something ripped out of a classic cautionary story, but doesn’t do much else to showcase his abilities, David Bradley is actually really good as the blind old man who teaches the creature language and compassion, but mainly just serves as a tool for the story to continue moving, and Charles Dance as Frankenstein’s stepfather and Felix Kammerer play what should be crucial roles in the story, yet don’t do anything distinct to stand apart from other examples of their tropes.

This is a very visual movie that feels drenched in so much extra detail, flair and structure that it kind of overwhelms the story and characters in parts, which is why it’s extra frustrating that (much like the script in question), it doesn’t play much of a role in building upon ideas and instead just feels like expensive cake frosting on an already large cake. It’s clearly using its money effectively with grand shots of the landscape and sets, and everything from the production design by Tamara Deverell, the costume design by Kate Hawley, to even the score composed by Alexandra Desplat, is evoking that slightly kooky gothic feel that keeps the film from being entirely somber and bleak and brings a touch of levity to otherwise grim and even disturbing scenes (any moment showing Frankenstein’s experiments are openly gory and icky), but because the script and narrative doesn’t have many layers, the environment just feels eccentric and hyper colorful for atmospheric and aesthetic purposes rather than for anything meaningful.

The effects range from genuinely beautiful to pretty subpar (expected of a Netflix film), most of the make-up work is pretty good on the creature even if it isn’t shown off in full, and you can feel del Toro trying to show off as much of this movie as possible with shots that glide through the sets and constantly shifting perspective angles during conversations, but it can sometimes feel overly jittery and unable to sit still as a consequence, so it can be distracting despite how well angled and framed some of the shots are.

There’s a lot to admire about Guillermo del Toro, and with his next feature set to be an original stop-motion film, it’s great to see a high-profile director championing underappreciated ideas and forms of moviemaking, but all of his great qualities do have to contend with some slightly messy issues as well, and Frankenstein kind of spotlights every facet. There are some great visuals, fun performances (mainly from Issac and Elordi) and contains enough strengths from the original book to be a valuable adaption, but it’s a movie that doesn’t have much substance and fails to reach its true potential due to its weak characters and pretty cliched narrative direction. Still a good time and does showcase del Toro nicely as a creative, but there are probably other versions that feel a bit livelier.