Adam's fit for the fight against evil

Film review: I, Frankenstein (12a)
Running time 92 minutes
Rating:**
It’s a rare thing to find a film that in some respects is a pot of ordure, but would mostly likely entertain the creator of the original idea. I, Frankenstein (how many film titles can you name with punctuation marks in them? ) is a spin off from the Underworld film franchise, but this time features an immortal Frankenstein’s monster as the combatant against evil. Written by Kevin Grevious (who plays a demon in the film), the concept started life in a graphic novel of the same title and poses the idea that demons are constantly trying to take over the world while humanity is protected by Gargoyles, created by the Archangel Michael to defeat the agents of the old enemy, Satan. How Frankenstein’s monster becomes involved in this rendering of the tale is utterly idiotic, but fun nevertheless. The monster, having killed Frankenstein’s wife as punishment for the scientist trying to kill him, flees to the Arctic, where he is then overcome with remorse. There follows many a good-versus-evil scenario with the ugly demons entering the fray. Bill Nighy plays Prince Naberius, the leader of the demons, as a smooth-talking businessman, keen to discover the Frankenstein secret of the creation of life (it’s electric eels in this version of the film, in case you need it sometime). There are battles, many Buffy the Vampire Slayer-type moments as demons meet their doom, and some humour along the way as Nighy milks his role to the max. The effects are good, the story fantastic and silly at the same time, and some of the dialogue so wooden you could build an ark out of it. (Clearly, I have another soon-to-screen film – Noah – much on my mind). Still, the originator of the Frankenstein idea – young Mary Shelley – may well have been mightily amused by the whole thing. This early 19th-century wild child who believed in feminism, free love, radical politics and total freedom of the individual, wrote Frankenstein in 1816 as a way of combatting boredom in a Italian villa being used as a retreat by poets Shelley and Byron, along with some others who from time to time made up a complex ménage a trois, or even quatre. I, Frankenstein does faithfully include many of the narrative twists of the original, which would have delighted Mary, an author never particularly possessive of her own creative ideas. That said, it still doesn’t help the film much, but such comparisons do provide an interesting diversion.