YNMS: Victor Frankenstein
Thursday, August 20, 2015 at 3:15PM Jason from MNPP here with a look at the first trailer for Victor Frankenstein, the tale of... Igor, the hunchbacked assistant. This follows the grand tradition of movies being named after a supporting character that comes to transform the lead (look no further than Carol, which book-wise is really Rooney Mara's story, although I won't be surprised if Todd Haynes gives Cate Blanchett a little more to do and hey look how I turned this into a post about Carol, isn't that funny...)
But back to Igor & Friends (which would've been a far greater title if you ask me) -- the previously ghastly assistant ain't so ghastly this go-round - the hunchback's been swapped out for the big blue eyes and bounteous neck-beard of Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, who is taken under the well-muscled wing of Professor X I mean Dr. Frankenstein, played by Mr. James McAvoy. Let's Yes No Maybe So this sucker.
Yes
-- They're smart to showcase McAvoy & Radcliffe's playful chemistry by having them introduce this first trailer... but this kinda ends up becoming a commercial for X-Men Apocalypse and how scorchingly hot James McAvoy is with a shaved head.
-- The creature effects that they show off here look wonderfully appropriately gross and refreshingly practical; those disembodied blinking eyes are everything a Frankenstein movie in 2015 should be.
Even if some of the computer-generated scenery is giving me bad Van Helsing flashbacks (jeeez that lightning) the monsters thankfully are not.
-- The way Jessica Brown Findlay pronounces it "Franken-schteen" made me chuckle, even if they drag the joke out two beats too far. But can we talk about JBF for a sec...
... girl, you should definitely fire your agent.
-- That shot of the doctor's spectacular library is tickling all my library fetishes - I already posted about this over at my blog, where I openly fetishize movie libraries with no shame!
No
-- Oh my god, Daniel Radcliffe's hair. Unless we find out that hair-don't is a parasite that's been brought back from the dead and has been living off of Igor's brain there is no excuse for that thing otherwise. (Just ask Corey Stoll!)
-- The slow-mo action scenes and the jokey tone feels very Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie Edition) and if there's anything that makes me want to flee in the other direction it's thoughts of Robert Downey Jr. wearing powder and a wig while running along the top of a train.
-- I realize I have more under the "Yes" column here than I do the "No" so this bulletpoint is here just to underline the previous one, in that the tone in this trailer is terrible, and makes me want to run away. The force of no is strong with this one, despite the little flashes of possibility buried around it.
Maybe So
-- The presence of the terrific Andrew Scott swerves us towards the correct Sherlock to emulate (Benedict Cumberbatch Edition) but the trailer makes me worry he might be under-used... which is to say I be more excited to watch "An Andrew Scott Movie" starring Andrew Scott than I am watching a movie starring either McAvoy or Radcliffe. (That's not to say I don't like either McAvoy or Radcliffe, it's just that Andrew Scott is better.)
Victor Frankenstein rises from the grave at Thanksgiving.
Reader Comments (19)
Yeah James looks HOT. But am I the only one disturbed immensely by Radcliffe's neck hair?
I saw some site talking up how it's been a while since we've had a truly great Frankenstein movie, but I don't know that "give it more of a 'Lethal Weapon', buddy comedy vibe" is the direction I'd have chosen. Cautious maybe.
I don't even really need to see the trailer to know I'm a YES. I've seen most McAcavoy films (probably only missing 1-3 films) and I think Radcliffe is a sweetheart. And yes ANDREW SCOTT. I just need him to be just as big as a household name as Bendihur Cumbernickle. Universe, make it happen!
Nope. Nice cast, but the wink wink references to Frankstein '31 and Young Frankenstein, the liberally CG'd visuals, and the buddy movie dynamic don't exactly scream "must see" to me.
Dave S: Based on that trailer I'm a cautious yes, mostly because of Max Landis. Because of that name, this has a chance of being the best possible version of this tone of a Frankenstein story you could hope for.
Seems light for no reason. Othewise seems decent but without reason for existing. I'm a Maybe So/No.
No
ANDREW SCOTT!!!
No to the film, but I'm here to say that James McAvoy is probably the best "leading man" in his age bracket from the British Isles. He's got charisma and wit in spades and is a far more emotionally reactive, fluid performer than most of his peers. I think his height/boyishness is the reason he's less in demand than Hardy/Fassbender/Hiddleston/Cumberbatch/Farrell.
What, no hunchback?
Murtada...well, I think Radcliffe's neck hair is HAWT!!
As for the movie itself, I can't figure out why it exists at all, so I guess that makes me a "no."
I'm a NO, though I'm a big McAvoy fan and he looks good in this costume. But this is not the type of material that benefits from wink wink. You gotta play it straight, but you can still be witty and sly, like Coppola did with Dracula.
Andrew Scott. Hmmm. I thought that was Giovanni Ribisi.
You gotta play it straight, but you can still be witty and sly, like Coppola did with Dracula.
Or like Penny Dreadful.
Paul, I've heard so many good things about that series I need to check it out! The idea sounds very cool.
YES on Andrew Scott.
YAAAS on James McAvoy's shaved head (unfortunately not in the movie)
NO on everything else - especially CGI.
brookesboy: EVA GREEN, real horror sequences and no-holds-barred sex scenes of all stripes. What more could you ask for?
Patti Lupone, you say? She owns an entire flashback episode.
Radcliff should have played the Doctor- but right now the best Frankenstein is in "Penny Dreadful"
The winky adorable campy tone makes me SCREAM NO IN MY BRAIN SO LOUD.