Victor Frankenstein is a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from Igor’s perspective. Igor is given a back story of abuse and brilliance. Victor, an eccentric medical student, rescues him and immediately recruits him to be his partner in his experiments. Their hijinks attract the attention of a fundamentalist detective who disregards the law to relentless pursue them. Cue Shelley’s theme of the limits of science and man acting as God. A fellow medical student from a higher class than Victor, but with even fewer scruples and limitless funding, encourages Victor’s scientific exploration. Igor recognizes that he may have just entered another cycle of abuse, tries to separate his identity from his rescuer and tries to conduct a psychological intervention to prevent Victor from going too far.
If Victor Frankenstein as a movie could be saved by the enthusiasm of its stars, the eternally magnetic James McAvoy and the incessantly sympathetic Daniel Radcliffe (I think it is his eyes), then Victor Frankenstein would work because the stories’ framework is intriguing and has a lot of momentum. Unfortunately Victor Frankenstein doesn’t work. Instead Victor Frankenstein feels like a mashup of Moulin Rouge, Sherlock Holmes, Rise of the Planet of Apes and The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Victor Frankenstein mistakenly aims for blockbuster bucks. Instead Victor Frankenstein should have aimed for moderate independent film success and really elaborated on the the homoerotic themes and the cycle of abuse and exploitation for formerly exploited persons in relationships, even initially benevolent ones with rescuers and the threat of erasure of the self.
Side note: does Charles Dance get all the roles for characters that are domineering, disapproving fathers?