Victor Frankenstein (2015) | Film Review

(First viewing via VOD) - A horrible trapeze accident leads to a chance encounter between a mad scientist and a nameless hunchback clown at the circus. When the nameless hunchback saves the woman with a pocket watch, the mad scientist decides to free the hunchback and make him apart of his grand experiments. What experiments you ask? To render death a temporary condition.

I don’t know how this one got by me back in 2015, but I have no memories of Victor Frankenstein ever coming out. So when I stumbled upon it while looking for something to watch, and noticed it featured Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter, Guns Akimbo) and James McAvoy (X-Men First Class, Split) in the lead roles, I figured it would be worth a watch. Then I  noticed it was written by Max Landis (Chronicle, Bright), and my intrigue was tainted a bit. I decided to press on thinking this would either be a pleasant surprise, or a total train wreck. In a way, Victor Frankenstein wound up being a bit of both.

The first two thirds of this film are a load of fun. Radcliffe and McAvoy (playing Igor and the titular Victor Frankenstein respectively) play off of each other really well. They have a natural chemistry, and Radcliffe’s restrained performance gives McAvoy’s mania a lot of room to run wild and play. It would surprise me to hear that these guys didn’t enjoy making this movie, as they sure looked like they were having fun on screen. 

The over-arching plot of the film is very familiar, with Frankenstein trying to create his monster, and Igor assisting him along the way. Where this version of the story differs is in making the relationship between the two less master and servant and more brotherly. The two men find a common ground in their love of science and medicine, and their personalities are diametrically opposed making them a near perfect team. Frankenstein is the mad man shooting for the stars, and Igor is the grounded one helping navigate the way. While the movie doesn’t dig too deep into the hows of what they’re doing, it does address the whys which I found to be satisfactory overall. 

There is a small love story that plays out as well between Igor and the trapeze artist he helped save at the beginning of the film. I could nitpick the story with how quickly Igor goes from zero to hero enough to catch her eye, but I didn’t mind that too much. There is another subplot of a religious detective slowly becoming obsessed with stopping Victor and Igor that comes to a conclusion in the third act, but sort of goes nowhere. 

And that’s the biggest issue with Victor Frankenstein. For all of the promise it sets up and the good times has in the first two thirds, the third act completely falls apart. When we’re finally introduced Frankenstein’s monster, the results are very underwhelming. Visually the monster is extremely bland… imagine a watered down version of something out of Resident Evil. The monster looks cheaply made with a lot of noticeable rubber latex. The character resolution for Frankenstein also feels unearned, and Igor is largely sidelined.

Despite not thinking much of the film’s conclusion, I still had a lot of fun watching Victor and Igor’s relationship throughout the film. And I wish more emphasis had been placed on that relationship to build it up to more of a brotherly bond rather than glorified lab partners, because that would have given the end more weight, and perhaps nudged the film to a slightly different conclusion. If you think you’d have fun watching Radcliffe and McAvoy play off of each other, despite an undercooked ending, I’d say you’ll have a good time with Victor Frankenstein. But if you’re thinking you’ll be disappointed because of third act, I’d recommend giving it a pass.