Frankenstein — Forever Childish

Guillermo del Toro tries so hard for grandeur in Frankenstein that he misses what always made the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley legend work. Del Toro over-scales the story of Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), who ventures to “conquer death” by reanimating assembled corpse pieces into a monster, though the result parodies his attempt to play God. Victor’s hubris stands before him as a ghastly creature (Jacob Elordi in tighty not-so-whiteys) embodying the nightmare of original sin, the grasp for knowledge that is exposed as out-of-control egotism.