5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Told from Igor's perspective, we see the troubled young assistant's dark origins, the redemptive friendship with the young medical student Victor Von Frankenstein, and become eyewitnesses to the emergence of how Frankenstein became the man and the legend we know today.
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown Findlay, Andrew Scott, Freddie FoxHorror | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 77% |
Period | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Turkish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
If there’s one thing Akira Kurosawa’s iconic masterpiece Rashômon has taught discriminating cineastes for several decades, it’s that a change of perspective can often recast a story in unexpected ways. That approach has been repeatedly utilized by filmmakers who aren’t exactly in Kurosawa’s league, frequently with regard to well known properties that are revisited from the point of view of a supporting or even tangential character. Some of these, like Without a Clue, have rather cheekily not just reinvented basic story tropes (in this case, the legendary tales of Sherlock Holmes) but even the preconceived perceptions audiences may have of the characters within those fictional worlds. Something rather similar to Without a Clue is on display in Victor Frankenstein, though probably to less felicitous effect. Just as Without a Clue posited Dr. Watson as the “real” brains in the outfit, a brilliant detective who had invented a fictional character (i.e., Holmes) and then hired an actor to portray him as a “front” for his efforts, Victor Frankenstein offers Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) as something akin to the “power behind the throne”, an intuitive physician whose knowledge of anatomy becomes integral to the experiments of the not quite totally mad (yet) Dr. Frankenstein (James McAvoy), who is in fact still in medical school in this version. Victor Frankenstein was greeted with pretty blistering reviews when it was released theatrically (including by our own Brian Orndorf), but I had a somewhat more favorable response to the film, which is not to say that you’re about to read that this is some kind of undiscovered masterpiece. Buoyed by a rather handsome (if appropriately grimy) production design and interesting if mannered performances by Radcliffe and McAvoy, Victor Frankenstein is something of a cobbled together monster itself, with parts that function at least relatively well and others that seem to be about as useful as an appendix stolen from a rotting corpse and transplanted into an about to be animated body.
Victor Frankenstein is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. According to the IMDb, this was captured digitally at a 2.8K source format by Arri Alexa XT cameras, from which a 2K DI was prepared, which I'm assuming was in return utilized to prepare the master for this Blu-ray. The results are often quite sumptuous looking, courtesy of a handsome production design by Eve Stewart. While some of the CGI effects are a little hokey (including some fairly unconvincing matte paintings used to "create" the grimy streets of London), some of the practical effects, including the bits and pieces of bodies Frankenstein and Igor utilize, are quite impressive and feature at times discomfiting levels of fine detail (that is, if things like entrails with spiky animal fur poking out around the sides causes you to squirm). The film has its fair share of color grading, once again (seemingly inescapably) exploiting blues and yellows at various times, but detail levels generally remain quite high. Some darker scenes have a very light dusting of noise which is typically transitory and relatively nonintrusive.
Victor Frankenstein's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 sparks with life (sorry) in some of the film's big set pieces, including the silly showdown at the circus which comes early in the film and which features a glut of sound effects courtesy of events like a fire breather attempting to take out Frankenstein or a knife thrower attempting to take out Igor. The film's climactic sequence with the monster also features some great LFE, and an earlier sequence with a kind of horrifying chimp hybrid that the duo brings to "life" has some fun "crackling" effects that whip through the surrounds. Dialogue is cleanly presented and Craig Armstrong's unsurprising but at times boisterous score resides comfortably in the rear and side channels.
Note: All three galleries offer either Auto Advance or Manual Advance options. The timings are for the Auto Advance options.- Production Design (1080p; 1:58)
- Production Photography (1080p; 2:38)
- Behind the Scenes (1080p; 3:08)
Perhaps because I suffered through a less convincing "update" of this venerable tale, 2014's largely flaccid I, Frankenstein 3D, Victor Frankenstein didn't strike me as being quite as bad as initial critical assessments at the time of its theatrical release had led me to believe. The film has more than its fair share of problems, but it also has some exciting sequences and the basic premise is decent enough, even if the realization of that premise repeatedly stumbles. Fans of the cast or those entranced by Shelley's source novel may want to check this out as a rental if nothing else. Technical merits are generally strong for those considering a purchase.
Warner Archive Collection
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