I, Frankenstein

As in the same vein as the "Underworld" and "Resident Evil" franchises, we have yet another possible franchise, or is it in the form of "I, Frankenstein". The question is: do we really need another film like this? Probably not, but if you're into this kind of genre, it makes for great escape fare.

Frankenstein's creature, Adam (Aaron Eckhart) finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans playing a spiritual tug of war with humanity hanging in the balance.
Adam is taken in by angels called Gargoyles on Earth headed up by Queen Leonore (Miranda Otto) and head angel Gideon (Jai Courtney) many, many years prior. Now that it is present day, the demons headed up by Naberius (Bill Nighy) and head demon Zuriel (Socratis Otto) are scouting the whereabouts of this creature the Gargoyles, in their opinion, are harboring. You see, Naberius wants to reanimate dead bodies he's kept in an underground warehouse by using scientists, Terra (Yvonne Strahovski) and Carl (Nicholas Bell) to come up with a way to bring life into these bodies so he can use them to overcome and destroy humanity. Naberius feels there's got to be a connection with Adam's undead status being undead and reanimating these dead bodies. But how?

Others to round out the cast are Caitlin Stasey as Keziah, an angel, Manesh Jadu as Ophir, another angel, Steve Mouzakis as Helek, Deniz Akdeniz as Barachel, Chris Pang as Levi, another angel, Kevin Grevioux as Dekar, and Bruce Spence as Molokai.

Considering his lack of feature film directing, Stuart Beattie ("Tomorrow When the War Began" '10) executed this film with as much clarity as one could expect. I've seen seasoned director's work not nearly as delineated. His ability to show Adam as lifeless, but at times with a trace of compassion was subtle, and well thought out. It was written by Beattie based on a screen story by Kevin Grevioux and Beattie which is based on the Darkstorm graphic novel by Grevioux which, again, is based on characters created by Mary Shelley. What makes this script palatable is how these guys were able to combine the classic, Frankenstein and a graphic novel about angels vs. demons and actually make it work. There were a few inconsistencies in the script, but not enough to take away from the story at hand. The visual and special makeup effects alone will keep you riveted.

To give this credit, this genre isn't one of my favorites, however it actually was able to keep my attention from minute one to the end. Surely if you like this genre, you'll be in your own little heaven, but as I've proven, it still keeps you on the edge of your seat all in a 3D format.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                          Rated: PG-13                           92mins.