Finally Seeing "Frankenstein"

Yesterday, after an afternoon of cooking and baking, we settled in to watch the newest version of Frankenstein, the Guillermo del Toro version.  We didn't have Netflix at the time it came out, and we may not have it much longer, because it keeps making us enter information that the platform already has.

I was excited when it first came out.  I thought it would be more faithful to the book.  I was wrong.

I'm not one of those annoying English majors who believes that the movie adaptation must stay faithful to the book.  I realize that decisions must be made for the sake of brevity or art or any number of other reasons.  But I do wish that those decisions made sense.  This movie had decisions that did not make sense to me.

I read about the change of Elizabeth to be less of a love interest.  But frankly, she's such a minor character in the film that I didn't understand the change.  The ending, where Victor apologizes to the creature, was such a different ending, which does such violence to the text.  By then, I was barely able to watch the movie, which would be ending in a few minutes, because of those kinds of changes.

My spouse was more puzzled by the ways the plot parts made no sense, particularly the creature's ability to heal when hurt and the fact that he could not die.

In places, the movie was gorgeous; there is that going for it.  During the first part of the film, I was intrigued by the intellectual part of the movie, but once I saw how Victor treated the creature, and realized it was going to continue, I found it a tough watch.

I'm glad I watched it for many reasons.  I appreciate del Toro's enthusiasm, for one.  And if I do teach the text again, I'll want to have seen it.

I do not feel the same about the current adaptation of Wuthering Heights.  I don't have that kind of time to spend on that movie.