{"id":2289,"date":"2014-01-27T16:38:49","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T23:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/?p=2289"},"modified":"2014-01-27T16:38:49","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T23:38:49","slug":"i-frankenstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/2014\/01\/27\/i-frankenstein\/","title":{"rendered":"I, Frankenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IFrankenstein\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Directed by: Stuart Beattie
\nStarring: Aaron Eckhart, Yvonne Straohvski, Miranda Otto, Bill Nighy, Jai Courtney
\nRated: PG-13 for sequences of intense fantasy action and violence throughout<\/p>\n

Some movies, you can tell whether you want to see them or not by the previews alone. \u201cI, Frankenstein\u201d is most assuredly one of those films. It has a ludicrous plot that can literally be summed up in a single sentence, heaps of action, and loads of gorgeous cinematography. It\u2019s based on a graphic novel (by Kevin Grevioux, who worked as a writer on the \u201cUnderworld\u201d movies), and it shows. If you are looking for an hour and a half of brainless entertainment, you could do a lot worse than \u201cI, Frankenstein.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gist of the story is this: Frankenstein\u2019s monster (Aaron Eckhart) is drawn into the ongoing war between the legions of hell and the Gargoyle Order (yes, gargoyles, like the carvings on old churches. They\u2019re sort of like junior angels). There\u2019s more to it, but not a whole lot. The demons, led by Prince Naberius (Bill Nighy), are trying to rediscover Victor Frankenstein\u2019s method for reanimating corpses \u2013 for a sinister reason, of course. The leader of the Gargoyle Order, Queen Leonore (Miranda Otto), tries to recruit Frankenstein\u2019s monster to help her dwindling forces, but he\u2019s on nobody\u2019s side but his own.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an utterly ridiculous premise, but makes for seriously awesome special effects. The demons look like regular people until they decide to look like demons \u2013 then their skin burns away and you see their demonic head instead. The gargoyles look a lot like grotesques \u2013 big bat-like wings, animalistic features, etc. \u2013 except when they want to look human. They can snap between the two instantly, which gives them some very interesting capabilities in battle. When a demon\u2019s body is killed with a sanctified weapon, their spirit becomes a streaking fireball which descends back into hell, where they are then trapped. When a gargoyle is killed (which can only be done by a being with no soul), their spirit becomes a beam of light and ascends up to heaven.<\/p>\n

The special effects are generally very good, if ridiculous (the machine Terra and her fellow scientists use for reanimation looks utterly absurd, and there\u2019s a huge corpse storage facility which is lifted pretty much straight from the \u201cMatrix\u201d movies). The actors are all serious about their roles, which is a little disappointing. Movies like this are bit more fun when the actors really sink their teeth into the scenery. The one exception is Bill Nighy, who seems to have a delight in playing the antagonists of cheesy monster movies. Eckhart, who is an incredibly skilled actor, gets little more to do than fight, deliver awkward expository voiceovers, and wear scar makeup.<\/p>\n

If you like the \u201cUnderworld\u201d movies, you\u2019ll probably like \u201cI, Frankenstein.\u201d They have similar styles \u2013 both emphasize form over function, going all out on the visuals while barely bothering to flesh out a real (or even coherent) plot. The characters are basically costume holders and fight choreography performers, with very little in the way of development or motivation (for example, Leonore\u2019s right hand man gives no indication of why he\u2019s her most trusted soldier; he questions, yells at, and outright disobeys her throughout the film).<\/p>\n

In short, if you just want to veg out in front of some pretty pictures of monsters fighting, \u201cI, Frankenstein\u201d will handle it for you. If, on the other hand, you want to see a movie that\u2019s thought-provoking, coherent, and full of fully-developed and well-crafted characters, go elsewhere.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Directed by: Stuart Beattie Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Yvonne Straohvski, Miranda Otto, Bill Nighy, Jai Courtney Rated: PG-13 for sequences of intense fantasy action and violence throughout Some movies, you can tell whether you want to see them or not by the previews alone. \u201cI, Frankenstein\u201d is most assuredly one of those films. It has a ludicrous plot that can literally be summed up in a single sentence, heaps of action, and loads of gorgeous cinematography. It\u2019s based on a graphic novel (by Kevin Grevioux, who worked as a writer on the \u201cUnderworld\u201d movies), and it shows. If you are looking for an hour and a half of brainless entertainment, you could do a lot worse than \u201cI, Frankenstein.\u201d The gist of the story is this: Frankenstein\u2019s monster (Aaron Eckhart) is drawn into the ongoing war between the legions of hell and the Gargoyle Order (yes, gargoyles, like the carvings on old churches. They\u2019re sort of<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,57,65],"class_list":["post-2289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-fun","tag-rated-pg-13","tag-silly"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/IFrankenstein.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSX4-AV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2291,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289\/revisions\/2291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}