A film full of sensations.
Since the beginning I knew I’d feel the deepest pain towards the creature whom I’d refer to as “him” because he’s not an entity as Victor kept repeating. With this part settled, let’s begin!
On the picture, colours, score and the flow of the camera one must say that Del Toro is a directorial genius. The way each element was used in the right place to create a unique effect on the viewer was very interesting.
Every picture was treated as a canvas where camera stands in the best angle ever to capture that specific sense of coldness in blue lights, madness in red ones and intelligence in green one where the future stands!
Retelling Mary Shelly’s vision through Del Toro’s work shapes a new way of viewing it as a whole as it contains opinions on morality and the limitations of knowledge. This film is a mirror.
The film did begin with a soft and simple tone that kept getting more and more intense and dark till you, my dearest reader, reach intoxication when a young soul, fuelled with vendetta, defied DEATH creating signs of life out of vanity.
When vanity is fed with money, it creates an enormous sense of self-worth that lacks any desire to see two steps ahead of this rapid change and growth that knows no limits.
This is Victor Frankenstein; a man with no plan who lacks compassion and has a very intelligent mind.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein transforms the myth of creation from a horror fiction into a meditation on compassion, identity, and the ethics of genius.
Victor created a life not knowing how much effort this life will require to be presentable and capable of leading. Frankenstein never intended to nurture what he made; he wanted only the thrill of godhood.
Victor saw no future for the life he created if he wasn’t a part of it. He thought nothing of him but a slave!
Del Toro reimagines Victor not as an inventor but as an emblem of unchecked ego, a modern allegory for creation without empathy.
On the other hand, you see a newcomer to this world!
Fully grown and crafted with pure passion and with not a single drop of compassion, he suffers as a newborn baby whose family has abandoned him.
The most sensitive one was the one who gathered many emotions from various parts of strangers who might’ve never met before to be treated as pieces of a puzzle for the pleasure of warlords and this mad scientist.
He was cold, alone, badly treated and troubled, till Elizabeth came and offered a glance of what goodness and kindness meant! First time to be affected was by the hands of Elizabeth. The film did play on these strings and made me feel for him so much.
Jacob Elordi succeeded in capturing my attention using his eyes. He made an excellent impression since the first moment till the final scene depending on his eyes only! He was AMAZING and despite being the “coldest” he gave the most warm performance of them all.
Elizabeth with all the power she had on men, I admired her for the way she recognised that she’s got a choice and that choice was the correct one. As one could do wrong and repent, it shows your true self and she was so pure like an angel.
Oscar Isaac too was terrific! The mad scientist part suits him very much.
Mia Goth is so pure and did her part well that I kept thinking of that link between her and him (The Creature) a lot during the course of events because they were so good even in silence. Del Toro did get the best out of them.
Christoph Waltz, you were incredible!
For the best experience and to capture the essence of this masterpiece you, my dearest reader, should watch it at midnight while embracing the silence and surrender all your senses to Alexandre Desplat’s rhythm and to the unique perspective of a life gathered from fractions of others portrayed with the best usage of colours and techniques to make it vibrant, powerful, terrifying, and at the same time tender and sincere. Del Toro reminds us that the true monster is not the creature, but the creator who abandons what he makes.