Frankenstein (2025)

Guillermo del Toro's neat art project lacks necessary substance

Guillermo del Toro has always had a keen eye for world-building. From his earliest work up to and including Hellboy, to Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley, and others, del Toro’s ability to create scenery equal parts imaginative and alive are a big reason he’s held in such regard.

Del Toro is a visionary and he puts a lot of thought and consideration into every detail of his work. That’s been apparent throughout his career. Frankenstein is no different. Del Toro predictably insisted on real sets for such integral settings as Frankenstein’s laboratory and Captain Anderson’s ship. And indeed, the visuals these provide are integral to the aesthetics of the story he is trying to tell.

It’s unfortunate that the impressive production design, as well as the set pieces, costumes, hair, and makeup, could only go so far. Del Toro has long dreamed of telling his own version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but this version of the story is too lacking in depth, and its development of characters too shallow, to fully flesh out everything he is trying to accomplish.

Oscar Isaac is part of the problem. There are and have been plenty of roles in which the veteran is suited, but Victor Frankenstein is not one of them. For a character who is the central focus of the scene approximately 80% of the time, he far too often comes across as he’s just reciting memorized lines, and when he is maniacal it’s too theatrical to be imposing.

Jacob Elordi, on the other hand, is incredible. You’ve got to give him credit for this performance. Since his breakout on Euphoria, the young Australian could’ve very easily slid into the low-stakes world of Hollywood Hunkary. Instead, he went Full Skarsgård, turning himself borderline unrecognizable as the creature paramount to the film.

It also required much more acting than I would’ve imagined. Del Toro said in interviews that the theme of his film was about failed parenthood more so than the themes associated with Frankenstein, chiefly the mishandling of science and the perils of trying to play god. This is a clever take on paper, but it’s not executed well. The episodic nature of the film doesn’t give us enough time to flesh out the relationship between the creature and its creator. We’re instead subject to a confusing, half-baked flirtation between first Victor and a lazily written Mia Goth character, and then Goth’s character and the creature.

There are a lot of good ideas in Frankenstein, and I will always give del Toro credit for his ability to put together a film with striking visuals. The whole just doesn’t live up to the sum of the parts.