{"id":4863,"date":"2016-04-27T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/?p=4863"},"modified":"2016-04-27T10:06:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T14:06:26","slug":"review-victor-frankenstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/2016\/04\/27\/review-victor-frankenstein\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Victor Frankenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Victor Frankenstein<\/em> recently released on RedBox and Netflix. I decided to rent it on a whim, but mostly because I had a free rental coupon. I\u2019d seen the trailers back in November and couldn\u2019t decide if I wanted to see the film or not. The American trailer framed <em>Victor Frankenstein<\/em> as more of a buddy comedy situation, while the UK trailer hit on the darker material, i.e. the whole stitching together corpses and reanimating the dead deal.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m all about honesty, guys, and you know how I feel about Victor. I was apprehensive. I was sure it was going to be terrible. I was certain it would leave me feeling angry. However, a good friend promised it was entertaining, so I bit the bullet and determined to watch it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4852\" src=\"http:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/victor-frankenstein-poster-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"victor-frankenstein-poster\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/victor-frankenstein-poster-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/victor-frankenstein-poster-768x1134.jpg 768w, https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/victor-frankenstein-poster-693x1024.jpg 693w, https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/victor-frankenstein-poster.jpg 1956w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/>It wasn\u2019t <em>bad<\/em>. First off, the film is visually stunning. From the bright circus tents where we find Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) to the decadent lab occupied by Victor (James McAvoy), the designers did a remarkable job of capturing a version of Victorian London. The costuming is a bit off in terms of Victorian design and fabric, though there was no indications of exactly which year the film is set in.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, it was beautifully made. I enjoyed the few scenes where anatomical figures were juxtaposed with the actors, creating a breathtaking visual dynamic I haven\u2019t seen since the Sherlock Holmes films. There\u2019s also some great dialogue and fantastic one-liners and jabs. Victorian sass is my favorite sass.<\/p>\n<p>Shockingly, I found myself pleasantly surprised by McAvoy\u2019s Victor. He\u2019s charismatic, charming, on my preferred level of moral ambiguity, and at times completely manic. He\u2019s living embodiment of \u201cjust because you can, doesn\u2019t mean you should.\u201d Likewise, Radcliffe\u2019s Igor was equally interesting, although I wish they\u2019d done more with him.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201ctwist\u201d in this retelling is that it\u2019s told from Igor\u2019s point of view. Igor didn\u2019t appear in Mary Shelley\u2019s original novel, and the first \u201cassistant\u201d to Frankenstein was a hunchback named Fritz in the 1931 film version. Later sequels did feature an assistant named Ygor, but overall, Igor has basically served as a stock Gothic villain substitute. Creating an original story for him was an interesting premise. This Igor (who is nameless until he takes on the identity of Victor\u2019s flatmate) was a circus clown with a knack for medicine.<\/p>\n<p>(Point of contingency: I\u2019m not sold on the concept of someone touted as a clown\u2014constantly ridiculed, mocked, and beaten\u2014also serving as the circus\u2019s physician. Sorry, but no. If I\u2019m painting your face and loading you into a cannon, chances are I\u2019m not going to let you set my broken shoulder. I\u2019m also uncertain how he managed to learn to read and write. Whatever. Belief suspended.)<\/p>\n<p>The one addition I did find clever was using an untreated abscess (yes, gross, I\u2019m sorry) as the explanation for his hunched back. Igor is, in fact, not a hunchback at all, though his spine is severely weakened by eighteen years spent bent over. As a result, he has to wear a back brace.<\/p>\n<p>[blocktext align=&#8221;left&#8221;]I\u2019m not sold on the concept of someone touted as a clown\u2014constantly ridiculed, mocked, and beaten\u2014also serving as the circus\u2019s physician.[\/blocktext]This is where my praise largely ends. The plot is a mish-mash of murder, stolen animal parts, homunculi, and the desire to atone for sins of the past. The Victor\/Igor duo work well together, and then they toss in a hitherto unrequited romance that disrupts a film that I really wanted to be about science bros.<\/p>\n<p>While I\u2019m thrilled they chose a legitimate medical reason for Igor\u2019s condition, I feel apprehensive at the same time. Ableism is the notion that disabled people are inferior due to\u2014in this case\u2014physical disability. Igor is extremely intelligent, but it doesn\u2019t matter because he\u2019s a circus freak. Victor, the handsome, able-bodied physician, notes his potential and resolves to help him escape. The \u201cmagic cure\u201d for Igor\u2019s disability (Victor draining the abscess) not only provides an alibi (the police are looking for a hunchback, now you aren\u2019t one), but lends itself to the problematic tropes of the able-bodied \u201csaving\u201d the disabled and the ever-popular \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/2014\/06\/13\/imthehero\/\"><strong>now you\u2019re cured, so the hot chick notices you<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d Enter the no longer unrequited romance and the demand to choose between science and love.<\/p>\n<p>[blocktext align=&#8221;right&#8221;]The \u201cmagic cure\u201d for Igor\u2019s disability&#8230; lends itself to the problematic tropes of the able-bodied \u201csaving\u201d the disabled and the ever-popular \u201cnow you\u2019re cured, so the hot chick notices you.\u201d[\/blocktext]Lorelei (Jessica Brown Findlay) was an aerialist in circus Igor lived in. After a fall nearly kills her and Igor saves her life, she\u2019s taken to a hospital, and somehow acquires a benefactor who pays her to be his escort in public while he enjoys the company of gentleman in his \u201coff hours.\u201d Random chance has Igor and Lorelei meeting up again at a ball, she recognizes him, and it\u2019s a sad, sad case of insta-love.<\/p>\n<p>Victor is immediately jealous that this girl is occupying their science time and demands Igor stop seeing her. Igor, of course, does not, and two scenes later, he and Lorelei are consummating their relationship. At no point does anyone mention the whole \u201cformer hunchback\u201d deal. It\u2019s just vanishes. Sure, starting a first date with \u201cSo, remember what I thought was a hideous spinal deformity?\u201d probably isn\u2019t a slick move, but I have a hard time believing she wouldn\u2019t be the least bit curious.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s best bros with a doctor now, so it\u2019s all unfortunately convenient, and it falls into that gray area of being problematic without any real resolution.<\/p>\n<p>Igor serves as Frankenstein\u2019s voice of reason, which is opposite his role in nearly every previous portrayal. In fact, Igor might be even smarter than Victor, better at science, but unwilling to play God in effort to create human life. Nonetheless, Victor feels he must create a life to replace one he took, which I found a profound sentiment for a character who\u2019s often seen as more villainous and unconcerned than compassionate and sympathetic. The film ultimately culminates in that once-iconic scene, where Victor raises his creation (here named Prometheus) and uses the electrical force of lightning to reanimate it. Disaster ensues. Together, Victor and Igor must stop the monster.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the ending was horribly bland. After all the buildup and intensity, it just . . . stopped. I think they wanted the audience to feel ambiguous about it without adding suspense, but it missed the mark. I\u2019m not persuaded it actually tried to hit the mark, or anything in the vicinity of the mark. Bad endings definitely let me down more than if the entire film had been bad.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, I didn\u2019t hate it. I didn\u2019t regret the $1.50 I would have spent on it, or the two hours I could have spent doing other things. I was indeed mindlessly entertained, and the soundtrack was great. Would I watch it again? Probably not by choice. If I was looking for background noise and it happened to be on television, I wouldn\u2019t click away, but I wouldn\u2019t devote my attention to watching it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>2.5 out of 5 stars<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Meghan Harker<\/strong> is a Horror writer for Girls in Capes. She\u2019s currently working on her own Gothic novel and hosts the Courting Casualties podcast. When not writing, she\u2019s either drawing, reading, hunting antiques, or lamenting that she wasn\u2019t born in the 1800s. If you follow her on Twitter (<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/http\/\/www.twitter.com\/ExquisitelyOdd\" target=\"_blank\">@ExquisitelyOdd<\/a><\/strong>), you might get the chance to play Guess Who\u2019s Dead!, her favorite post-mortem photography game (no one else likes to play.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite being visually gorgeous and in some ways even innovative, VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN (2015) ultimately falls into tired tropes and problematic solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[1200,492,285,1201,1091,1202,124,1156,963],"class_list":["post-4863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-daniel-radcliffe","tag-film-reviews","tag-horror","tag-james-mcavoy","tag-mary-shelley","tag-retelling","tag-reviews","tag-the-military-issue","tag-victor-frankenstein","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/victorfrankenstein15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3zNPp-1gr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4863"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4867,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863\/revisions\/4867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlsincapes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}