VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
Director : Tom McGuigan
Year : 2015
Genre : Horror
Rating : ***
Despite strong performances from box office champions James MacAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe, Tom McGuigan's horror reboot 'Victor Frankenstein' sadly lacks the vital spark of life that awakened the titular antagonist's creation. Telling the immortal Mary Shelley story from the point of view of Frankenstein's long-suffering assistant, 'Victor Frankenstein' certainly takes some bold artistic liberties with the hallowed 18th century text and while not every invention works to it's maximum potential, there is a great deal to enjoy here. Radcliffe delivers a fine performance as the hunchbacked yet humble Igor - a poorly treated circus performer whose remarkable intellect proves to be the real brains behind the unholy operation while the always enjoyable MacAvoy lends a monstrously entertaining psychosis to Shelley's archetypal insane scientist who rescues Igor from his carnival prison and draws him into the world of dissection and re-animation. The set design is wonderful too - a mixture of gothic architecture and lightning bolt strewn laboratories that really give the movie an authentically Hammer-ish vibe. However, things begin to falter as the strenuous second act begins to kick in. Here, the stitching of the narrative begins to come loose and the internal organs that were holding the piece together gradually spill out in an expectedly unsightly manner. The floundering screenplay by Max Landis shows ambition but much like his 'American Ultra' script, it fails to live up to it's scrungy potential while the CGI heavy and overly rushed final act dispenses with any of the imagination or passion of it's preceding hour.
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