Frankenstein (2025) Review
Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein is having a limited run in theaters before dropping on Netflix on November 7th. I was lucky enough to see the film on the big screen a few days back. What did I think about this film? Is it any good? Let’s talk about it!
The Good
Right out of the gate, when I first heard about this film I thought to myself this seems like a match made in heaven. Guillermo del Toro has made himself famous with his creature designs and telling stories about monsters. Frankenstein is maybe the most iconic monster in popular culture. Everybody knows Frankenstein and the classic lines and imagery. When you watch this film it feels like a mix of classic Frankenstein source material with Guillermo’s spin on the entire thing. He creates films with incredible production design that puts you into a different world. Pretty much from the opening frames of the film you feel like this world is so distant from our own. Even the design of The Creature has the classic Frankenstein look to it with the different body parts coming together but it’s also a fresh new spin on it, it has that Guillermo del Toro touch. In an interview Guillermo del Toro talked about a hypothetical situation of watching this film with Mary Shelley (the author for Frankenstein) and he said the experience would be similar to Stephen King’s perception of The Shining. Infamously Stephen King does not like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining because Kubrick took the story in such a wildly different direction from King’s book. I found that to be an interesting comparison of having this very different take on Frankenstein because you have a masterclass director with Guillermo del Toro at the helm.
One of the things that really surprised me and worked about the film was its emotional hook that draws you in and makes this film a fascinating look at two different broken characters. The film is called Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is the main character but it’s more so the story of The Creature. The film does some interesting techniques that I wasn’t sure about at first but by the end of the film I got what Guillermo was going for and liked that choice. The film starts with the ending of the film and when you first watch it you interrupt it one way because of what The Creature is doing and how the scene is staged. But as you go throughout the film and you see the journey of these two characters it suddenly makes you view the beginning differently because we’ve caught up to it in the timeline of the story. You see this broken character in Victor Frankenstein that was learned to be obsessed with power at such a young age and that defined who he was when he became an adult. As is often the case with these stories, the power consumes him and gets the better of him. You contrast this with The Creature’s journey and you see how he’s broken and you watch his journey that’s sort of the opposite of Victor’s journey. Victor starts the film with all of this power but loses it, The Creature doesn’t have any power but gains it throughout the film. I found that to be so fascinating that you’re more invested in the monster of the film then the lead character. The people that were sitting next to me in the theater when it ended one of them said “that’s one of the most tragic films I’ve ever seen”. They’re right, this is a very tragic film because you have this creature trying to figure out this place in it.
Another thing to talk about here is you have some really great performances here. Victor Frankenstein in here is played by Oscar Isaac. He’s of course a great actor, he doesn’t need to prove himself as an incredible talent. But from the performances I’ve seen from him, this seems like a very different type of character from him. He’s normally playing pretty likable characters that you’re rooting for. Given the source material and the character he’s playing, Victor Frankenstein isn’t that. This performance allows him to be very unlikable and this breaks many that’s obsessed with power and you buy into it. Isaac does such a good job of playing this very complicated character and every decision that he makes you understand completely. Another that you have to talk about and I’ve already seen people talk about him a lot is Jacob Elordi as The Creature. This is a guy that’s known for playing the hot attractive guy, because he is an attractive guy. He actually wasn’t the original pick for this role. Originally, Andrew Garfield was going to play The Creature but Elordi replaced him because of scheduling conflicts. Elordi seemed like a weird pick, based on Saltburn and other things he didn’t seem like he’ll be able to play this character. When you watch this film, I mean he’s giving quite the performance. This is really a pretty fantastic performance that all around delivers something really special and unique. He’s able to take this character that shouldn’t be relatable because he’s not human but finds all of the humanity in him. I’ve heard some people discuss a possible Oscar nomination for him in the supporting actor category. I would love to see it. Will it actually happen I’m not sure because it seems like there’s a lot of competition but you never know.
I touched on this earlier but the production design for the film is pretty incredible and one of the best of the year. I think this is one of the film’s locks for an Oscar nomination. If it only walks away with one nomination, I think that’s for production design. Every new location we go to, every new room we go into has so much detail and feels lived in. That’s the case for the entire world that Guillermo created, it feels like a lived world where everything and everybody has a history to it. The budget for the film is about $120 million, Guillermo’s most expensive film since Pacific Rim. When I first heard that I thought it sounded crazy and insane that Frankenstein would cost that much. After seeing the film, they used the budget wisely and made a film that’s beautiful to look at and now having seen the film I think it justifies its $120 million budget. The buildings that our characters are in look incredible but there’s all of these outside locations on the ice with boats that we explore and it feels so big and epic even when they’re fairly small sets.
One final thing to say here that sort of recaps the positives of the film is I appreciate that it feels like one unified vision. There’s so many movies nowadays whether theatrical or streaming originals that feel generic and directed by a committee of people. You watch Frankenstein and so early on you feel that this is Guillermo’s unified vision. With the case of Netflix and Apple TV+ they right blank checks to prestigious directors from Martin Scorsese to Ridley Scott and now Guillermo del Toro and give them full creative freedom to do whatever they want in hopes they get Oscar nominations. In the case of Frankenstein, it feels like Guillermo was given full creative control and I liked that. I found it refreshing when we’re in an era where creative control isn’t as common as it should be.
The Bad
Honestly, I really dug this film and so there wasn’t much about this film that I didn’t like. I think ultimately this is a bit of a one time watch type film. It’s very good, there’s a lot of images that stick in your head. SinceGuillermo did such a good job crafting this film and it is so emotional and gut wrenching as you move into the third act, it means that it’s not the most rewatchable film. It’s a film that I can appreciate and respect what Guillermo was going for. I really dug what Guillermo was going for and I hope it gets a lot of Oscar nominations. But that doesn’t mean it’s a film that’s fully designed for me and or how I’m wired. That is holding this movie back by how much I can actually enjoy the film, but it also is a huge compliment to Guillermo because he made the movie that he wanted to make and the film sticks with you.
My other issue with the film isn’t necessarily something that the film got wrong, but it’s just the inherent nature of doing an adaptation of classic source material. And that’s the fact that we’ve seen this story and the themes done before. I don’t know the last time we’ve done an adaptation like this with this much style to it. We’ve done stories about the lonely monster trying to find his place in the world before and wanting to defeat his maker after he was wronged before. This version is very well done and of course this book is the original one of these stories. But since it is such a thematically rich story other people have wanted to tell this story before and they have done it. That doesn’t make the film bad, but it adds a certain familiarity to it.
Final Thoughts: Frankenstein is a great movie and one of my favorite films from Guillermo del Toro. He brings all of his style and weird creature designs to the world of Frankenstein. The movie we’re left with is one of the best looking films of 2025 that’s emotionally and thematically all at once. Jacob Elordi as The Creature gives one of the best performances of 2025, I hope he gets Oscar buzz. If you’re a Guillermo del Toro fan and you like the story of Frankenstein, you’ll love this film when it drops on Netflix on November 7th.
The Score: 8.8/10 (B+)
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