This post may contain affiliate links, which earn us commission. Learn more.
The story of Frankenstein is very, very old. Thousands of years old, in fact. The plot is about a renegade god named Prometheus who gathers some clay and breathes life into it. It doesn’t end well.
The Greeks did not write science fiction, however, since the story predates science by millennia, and science was first practiced by Galileo in the 1500s. There are other creation stories based on the Prometheus myth, including the Golem of Prague (16th century) and even the musical My Fair Lady (1964), but these are also not scifi. Jules Verne (1828) and H.G. Wells (1866) are often credited as being the fathers of science fiction, but Mary Shelley (1797) was truly the first with her novel Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus (1818).
Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 adaptation of Frankenstein is a pretty good retelling of that tale. Dr. Victor Frankenstein (the modern Prometheus) creates a monster that is a remarkably strong, sensitive, and intelligent creature who is hellbent on revenge against his creator. He gets his initial vengeance in a departure from the novel that is a bit jarring, but the point is the same. Victor then follows his creation to the ends of the Earth to continue the cycle of revenge and perhaps to atone for his sins. The creature is both a victim and a monster. Can he forgive his creator? Can he ever be redeemed?
It’s not a perfect movie. The superhero healing factor is a bit much, but it is a part of the plot and, ultimately, the bitterness of a monster who didn’t ask to be born and cannot die is a character-driven motivation, not unlike Marvel’s Wolverine or Deadpool, but it is honestly distracting. The entire middle section, featuring the blind old villager and his family, is weak, but the 150-minute runtime doesn’t feel too long.
As is typical of a del Toro movie, the visuals are spectacular and glide from act to act with entrancing color. The early scenes are anchored by intense performances from Dr. Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac dressed in white and black and red) and his strangely obsessed patron (Christoph Waltz). Elizabeth (Mia Goth) is a surreal presence in lush and living greens, a sympathetic symbol of the natural world.
The movie is sumptuously gorgeous and rivals director Zhang Yimou’s films in the purposeful use of color to convey meaning and metaphor.
Visual and narrative parallels bind the story together in bone, blood, sinew, and flesh, although the movie is not gory.
Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a beautiful movie. It’s a tale of gothic horror, hubris, love, tragedy, revenge, and, possibly, redemption.
