When my brother-in-law was visiting over the holidays, he saw a trailer for "I, Frankenstein" on TV and commented that the movie looked terrible. He wasn't far off. The film has an interesting premise, but fails to do anything with it. It never really comes together.
If the screenplay is any indication, this movie was doomed from the start. It is a series of scenes loosely connected into a "plot", and lazily written. At one point, Adam (the monster) sneaks into the bad guys' lair and walks around almost freely, getting hints as to what their Big Evil Plan is. The lack of security is ridiculous. The only reason he's able to walk around freely is because that's what needs to happen for the story to progress and the writer could not be bothered to make the situation any more believable.
It's also hard to care about what we're told is the imminent destruction of the human world, when the number of human characters could be counted on one hand. There aren't even any extras populating the world. When the characters do battle throughout the streets of the city, those streets are completely empty. One look at this empty city with its desaturated, bluish hues, and one wonders what human world they're trying to save.
I was a little disappointed by this film. It was well made and featured some great performances, but it never really grabbed me, so I was not as invested in what happened to the characters as I could have been.
The film is oddly paced. It frequently skips time, jumping months or years into the future. Many films do this, but in "Dallas Buyers Club", the skips do not feel as natural because every time they take place, a title card pops up saying "Two Months Later". Such title cards can be used occasionally to good effect (there's an example in "The Wolf of Wall Street"), but when they show up all the time, they pull me out of the film. They create the feeling of distance between the viewer and the story, and when bad things happen to the characters, I find myself thinking "Gosh, that's a shame" instead of feeling the righteous indignation the filmmakers are probably aiming for. The film's ending is also strange. It has a climactic moment, yes, but not one that it feels like the whole movie has been building towards. Then, a final title card appears on screen and the movie is over. For me it was too sudden, but was also reflective of the film's failure to fully connect with me throughout.
None of this is to demean the performances however, some of which are likely to win awards on Oscar night.
Next time: "That Awkward Moment" and "Gravity".
No comments:
Post a Comment