Frankenstein's Monster joins the Gargoyle Army!

Nice to see Bill Nighy once again in a horror film, this time in a suit yet still quite villainous as “Satan’s prince”, desiring Frankenstein’s “monster” (a few scars on Aaron Eckhart’s face and a lot of attitude make up this incarnation of the “ soulless monster stitched together from the dead scraps of a graveyard of bodies”) so he can study “it” in a master plan to reanimate a centuries-worth of corpses in the hopes of possessing them with demons from hell so he can overthrow Queen of the Gargoyles (warrior angels, basically), Leonore (played with conviction and integrity by Miranda Otto) and her Warriors of God. The plot is the obvious excuse for lots of comic book violence, action, and special effects. Dracula and Frankenstein have been tied to a lot of this lately. Now you have Victor Frankenstein’s creation tied to a spiritual warfare where humans could be fated to either be destroyed or enslaved by Nighy’s “Dr. Charles Wexler” (AKA, Naberius) once his legion of corpses are invaded and used by demons summoned from hell. As silly as the plot is, the film is damned good looking and the pace is all accelerator-to-the-floor. The way the origin of Eckhart, the Monster, and his creator is sped through so rapidly, the plot is dying to get us to gargoyles (and those wings spread) engaging in battle with the nocturnal uglies (that burst into flames once killed) that emerge to kidnap the prize Naberius so seeks. Eckhart’s adversary is not only Naberius (and his officer Dekar (Kevin Grevioux)) but Leonore’s lead warrior, Gideon (played by Jai Courtney, snobbishly considering Eckhart’s monster of no value whatsoever). I think it is easy to see that Gideon and Dekar both will be nipping at the Monster’s heels (Leonore named him Adam, and she feels there’s hope for him), and certain to battle him eventually. The gargoyles “ascend” when killed; a bright spirit goes to heaven. The demons, once killed, “descend” to hell in flame. This film has that slick “urban goth” look where most of the time we only see the story during the noirish, bleak, glum night and a lot of the structures (buildings of different types) are either condemned or ready to be declared ready-for-the-wrecking-ball. The special effects—for me—are at their best when buildings suffer the wrath of the spiritual warfare with Adam right slap-dab in the middle of it all. Windows break, bricks crumble, and whole buildings capsize (roofs and the tops of these buildings collapse) as Adam endures punishment and dishes it out with whatever creature tangles with him. To tell you the truth, this is a summer blockbuster film than a true October horror film I would prefer in my cut for the month. It belongs next to something like Constantine. Still, this is well made even if its nonsense that would probably leave Mary Shelley with mouth agape if she knew her cinematic work had been reduced to this. The gorgeous Yvonne Strahovski of Chuck and Dexter is a scientist that Adam befriends and assists along the way…she was working for Wexler, not knowing what her research and experiments were being planned for use.

 “You’re only a monster if you behave like one.”

I, Frankenstein (2014) **