Del Toro's "Frankenstein" is as Gorgeous as it is Frustrating

[the following review is spoiler free]

Guillermo Del Toro is one of those filmmakers whose work will excite me even if it was just footage of paint drying. I can probably count on one hand the amount of filmmakers I can say that about but he is one of them. So imagine my excitement when it was announced that he would be adapting Frankenstein for the big screen. On top of that, I’m also just a really big fan of Shelley’s original 19th century novel, so this Frankenstein adaptation in many ways my personal match made in heaven. I know that this may make people think I’m in a biased position to be able to discuss this film objectively, but I would argue exactly the opposite; mainly because this is the most frustrated I’ve been by a Del Toro film ever. 

The film takes place in a prelude, and two parts depicting the POV of events from Viktor, and The Creature’s perspectives, respectively. Jacob Elordi is very deliberately credited as “The Creature”, and not “The Monster”. The film also makes some pretty radical changes to the book, and focuses largely in the first hour on Viktor’s childhood. His father in the film is far more abusive than he is in the book, and this extension translates to Vitkor’s eventual abuse towards the Creature in the latter half.

The Creature (played marvelously by Elordi) is almost entirely wiped of any sort of wrongdoing or development in favor of a generational abuse theme. This is interesting, but the lack of moral ambiguity present in The Creature’s character eliminates a lot of depth, and feels contradictory to the novel’s original goals. Simultaneously, a lot of The Creature’s perspective is reduced to a lot of repetitive ideas Del Toro has done countless times before. At one point The Creature looks Viktor dead in the eyes and says word for word “You’re the monster!” But not before giving more than one monologue about how the world is inherently evil and there’s nothing we can do about it. There is far more telling than there is showing here, which is uncharacteristic for Del Toro, and largely disappointing. There are further issues I had with story changes, but they lean more heavily into spoilers for the film, so for the sake of preservation I’ll avoid discussing them here.

This is far from an overall condemnation of the film, because in many ways both visually and sonically it’s Del Toro and company's best work. When introducing the film on Monday night, Del Toro said that this is the best that one of his films has been mixed in the thirty years that he’s been making movies, and I would be inclined to agree. The sound is extraordinary, and paired with Alxandre Desplat’s haunting, ethereal score make it a significantly rewarding auditory experience. 

The film also boasts the best Production and Costume design of the year, and nothing comes close to either. This was another area that Del Toro expressed great pride in in the post-screening Q&A, and it’s most certainly deserved. Longtime cinematographer, Dan Laustsen shoots these locations with grace, intent, and surgical timing. The camerawork is fluid with evidence of both intense preparation and fun experimentation. 

This film has a high concentration of CGI blending along with practical effects, and while it isn’t bad by any means, it is far more noticeable than Del Toro's other work. It’s certainly used with intent, and I was never given the impression that any of it was used as a crutch or compromise. With that being said, I don’t understand how in the year of our lord 2025 we still can’t seem to make a fully convincing CGI fire effect. 

For what it’s worth, stylistically Frankenstein is pretty much everything you would come to expect from a standalone Guillermo Del Toro film, for better or worse. But for a Del Toro adaptation of Frankenstein, it was about as far off from my expectations as I could have imagined, once again for better or worse. I can’t imagine having to watch this for the first time on Netflix, so if you’re able to find a screen and the time to catch it during its limited theatrical run next month, I implore you to do so. The more I’ve sat with the film, the more I respect the choices they made, but there is still a part of me that has been left puzzled by the whole thing.