Frankenstein

Frankenstein is one movie that could have benefited if more attention was directed towards character building.  I knew a lot about the characters in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein because she gave so much detail to character building.  The movie however dives right into things with not a lot of background information.  Also there is no set building in the movie either, you know that there is a town and a country/mountainous area around the town, but geographically never discussed.  Which does not seem super important but when it comes to the town celebrating and gathering to riot after the monster it is not really clear at what time period the townspeople live in.  There is a university with men and women in the science classes in suit like attire and then there are the townspeople in what looks like maybe traditional Swedish outfits.  There is just some disconnect between scenes that bothers me a bit and makes the film lose some credibility.

The movie starts out with Frankenstein and Fritz creeping on someone's funeral, as if that isn't enough they go and dig up the body after its been buried.  Its clear Frankenstein has no sense of respect for the dead and treats these bodies as found treasures in a way.  With almost all of the body parts needed in his possession he must find a brain, he sends Fritz to fetch one from Frankenstein's old professor's lab.  Fritz of course is a cluts and drops the normal brain and then grabs the abnormal brain instead.  Frankenstein has a girlfriend, Elizabeth, and a best friend, Victor, and they both are worried about Frankenstein after Elizabeth gets a letter from him.  So they set out to go see him, along with the old professor, to their surprise Frankenstein is completing his experiments that very night!  They all watch as the monster becomes alive.  Frankenstein thinks he is brilliant until he learns he has put an abnormal brain in the monster, why he didn't look at the jar the brain came in I have no idea.  They hear screaming and it's Fritz getting attacked by the monster because Fritz is a jerk and has been picking on the monster.  Frankenstein and the professor decide to kill the monster which ultimately results in the death of the professor by the hands of the monster after the rest leave for town because Frankenstein "falls ill", guess you need more than one syringe to kill a monster.  The monster is free and stumbles upon a little girl, who for some reason is not afraid of the walking corpse, and he throws her in the pond.  News gets out the monster lives and is terrorizing people so all the men start raging with torches, also they all change into their suits to go kill him.  Elizabeth is locked in a room and the monster breaks a window to come in a scare her then escapes to the mountainous country side.  They find Frankenstein fighting the monster on top of a mill and burn it down after the monster tosses Frankenstein over the edge, which somehow he survives without breaking all of his bones.  The movie ends with Frankenstein's father joking about drinking wine with the helper ladies.    

In the end I was basically left amused by the whole movie.  I really enjoyed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and I know that would make an awesome movie if details are paid attention to.  The monster in this film has no personality, he is this poor character that grunts and screams but shows that he is capable of more when he is with that little girl.  It bugged me that the film tries to show the monster as being just that, a monster.  While trying to portray Frankenstein as this helpless man devoted to his studies and when he does finally own up to the disaster that has happened nobody is even mad at him, they are all pissed at the monster.  It was the towns peoples ignorance that destroyed the monster, starting with Frankenstein allowing Fritz to bully him and keeping the monster in a dungeon.  Frankenstein said in the film referencing the abnormal brain, that it was just a piece of dead tissue, to me that meant that it could be molded into something new if given that opportunity.  The sets and special effects of this movie were nothing as good as Metropolis, possible the given budget, but the scene when Frankenstein gets tossed from the mill appears really horrify but somehow he lived without any bloodshed even.  A lot of elements adding up just puts this films believability in check for me.  The potential is there it is just not taken out.