The Reel Rejects - FRANKENSTEIN (2025) IS A GOTHIC TOUR DE FORCE! MOVIE REVIEW

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Starting point is 00:01:25 Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. a movie I've been looking forward to for quite some time that exceeded my expectations. We are going to be diving into your patron questions after we gave our own little reviews. I want to thank the fine folks at Prepper for editing this down.

Starting point is 00:01:44 It's a nice two and a half hour thick boy. So I don't know what this runtime's going to be but what an experience that was. So thank you to Prepper. Thank you to you guys for watching this. Before I get into my thoughts, Aaron, your first Frankenstein. Yeah, so was my first Frankenstein. And I have to say, it did not disappoint.

Starting point is 00:02:02 This was a very beautiful, extremely well-paced, extremely well-acted film. It's the one I'm going to be chewing on for a minute. I just thought it was great all around. And the themes that it has in here about humanity and what it means to be human and life and death and the power we have, or if we should do certain things with our abilities and how ego can be the downfall of people or ill intent and just how we can learn to appreciate life

Starting point is 00:02:41 through it's through I don't know through Frankenstein through simplicity I thought it was a beautiful film I don't think it's perfect but it's great what is that Lars Mickelson Lars Mickelson was the captain knew that guy yeah i feel though everything was good i feel like the

Starting point is 00:03:03 if i had one minor like criticism or critique i felt like the ending didn't feel a little a little rushed for me but other than that i thought it was really well-paced i felt like from the moment he's frankestine's chasing him through the end i feel like that could have, I don't know, something wasn't the, from him going from, I'm hating, I'm hating him to, you're my son, forgive me. I feel like there was something like could have been a little bit more there. But other than that, everything else was, was incredible and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I, uh, man, I'm living how to quantify. I love literature. Like, I love like a good book. And I find I don't have, um, the bandwidth to add that to what I'm doing.

Starting point is 00:03:52 in life and I really need to. I make excuses. Everybody says, like, they don't have time. But at the end of the day, like, I don't prioritize reading. And this felt like reading. And I say that with the highest praise. Like, I had to read comics for my work. I've got to read stuff for work all the time, but I don't enjoy just reading. And I miss that. And this felt like a good book. This felt like literature. It, like, the dialogue felt like you could chew on it. The scripture and the language felt so lived in um i've been really struggling with uh like my shortening attention span i've been really struggling with my um inability to be patient and that's all affecting my enjoyment of reading and of watching and of consuming art like it's affecting my my experience with art and this was

Starting point is 00:04:40 really nice because this felt like i got some of my um appreciation for ponderousness and introspection and like the beauty of language, the poetry of language, like the feel of word. And it was really wonderful because I, you know, we watch movies on camera. We're sharing it with you. And sometimes that makes it hard to not feel performative. It's not feel like, you know, pulling face. And so this was really interesting because like I love getting to share experiences with you. But I also didn't ever feel like I had to be on.

Starting point is 00:05:18 and that was really nice the movie was so good i never felt um like there was anything that made me like i should talk it's been 10 minutes like there wasn't that that little voice in the back of the head of like oh it's the job part like i got to just be experiencing art so um i really love this enough that it was able to be um enrapturing while also i had enough to say and it was so good that i didn't feel like us talking took me out of it so like that's the highest praids i can give an experience for a first watch on camera at the top i was you know sassy about not getting to see it in theater and and i and i mean that with like i want people to experience art in their own manner and and to me um it is kind of tricky to be like what's the thing we're

Starting point is 00:06:03 going to skip for work what's the thing is this is a job like we are doing that and to not have this in theaters it was a bit of a like oh man that's a bummer but if you know you guys watching now had a different experience because of us and more people see it or like, you know, the word gets out like that's end up positive. And I do want to say that like Netflix taking a risk and doing this is a commendable. Like to make a two and a half hour epic sweeping Gienel del Toro Frankenstein film, you know, I wish it was in theaters longer and more of a window. But if that is the cost of it, I'm glad it exists. So, you know, if, if the mom, of streaming is the undead machinations of theatrical dying at least it lives so yeah i i had a

Starting point is 00:06:50 really good time with it um i yeah i i mean it's definitely my favorites of the year and i didn't know if that would happen um i didn't know if if by the end of the film i'd be you know as resonant as i was in the beginning because the first 20 minutes i was like the novelty was so strong and like the period piece the production design the costumes the the artistry the sheer imagination of it, I was afraid that I was just like struck by GDT. And would I feel that in two and a half hours? And then by the end, I was like, no, it's even better. Like for me, and I agree with your one negative though. I do think that the scene on the ship of forgiveness felt fast. And that was suddenly like, I get why it had to be. I get the narrative purpose of it. I just wish like,

Starting point is 00:07:35 even a few minutes longer, a little bit more of an arc to really land there. Because it did feel like, like, I'm got to wrap it up. But other than that, like, I really wouldn't change much. and the whole thing and that was really wonderful and epic and I love the relationships and I love the cinematography and I loved the humanity like it just did all the things I want movies to do so I got a lot of this one yeah no I thoroughly enjoyed it I loved it a lot yeah and it's it is more reflective and talking about the human condition and the choices we make and then all the visual symbolism as well and how you know he Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein was a father to the monster, but he was also a son

Starting point is 00:08:17 who was upset with his father for not treating him the best and feeling ignored by him and then in the wake of his mother's death wanted to learn to conquer death and then he treated his own son which was the monster and then his son learned to value life and then kind of this thing of wanting to die

Starting point is 00:08:40 and if he can't die he wants a partnership And he ultimately doesn't get a partner. He has to continue living on. So I has to find new meaning in his solitude, which, yeah, I don't know he'd ever make a sequel. But, like, I really enjoyed the character exploration and in introspectiveness this movie had coupled with how poetic it expressed its thoughts and feelings. So many lines about humanity. Yeah. boom boom yeah like there were

Starting point is 00:09:14 there were lines of dialogue that I want to like read like I want this I want to like look at the script I want to like experience this in another form because it was so many good lines that were just like god damn that was a bar yeah the script was poetry truly from from someone who is a poet yeah I mean I'm the expert

Starting point is 00:09:30 of the poetry the man who would know but yeah there was so much so much beauty in this do we have any Netflix I mean do we have any Patreon questions we should but yes the mouse is over there let us get these go As always, thank you to the patrons for giving us some questions, and we really appreciate you guys helping guide the conversation after our initial review. And also thank you to everyone who likes and subscribes and does any of the YouTube things, leaves comments.

Starting point is 00:09:54 Those help us very much as well. So appreciate it. Okay. All right. First up from Jaden Rhodes. My question is, have y'all seen the original movie and how would y'all compare it to? We talked about that at the beginning with Aaron. I assume when you say the original movie, you're meaning the 1930s universal moment.

Starting point is 00:10:12 monster movie um very different uh yeah like the the universal monster movie is is um you know playing more with that time and you know it's camp in its own fun way it's got a lot of fun you know energy and kineticness to it but it's very much of that time it's a beautiful movie i i admittedly um i've seen like the aranickart i've seen um you know the 1930s like there's a lot of i've seen the comedy you know bride of frankenstein there's so many different iterations that by the time we were watching certain scenes i was blending them like okay there's going to be villagers and pitchforks and they're going to storm the castle like those were the things i was waiting for um but to compare the two i would certainly say this is more my jam um i think that one is a beautiful

Starting point is 00:10:55 thing i actually rewatched all the universal monster movies in 2021 i watched dracula the miserable man the mummy like i did all of them and uh i was really struck by how well they hold up for a hundred years later they're incredible but this was uh this was poetry yeah uh for my first time into you know a proper frankenstein adaptation i thought it was incredible i thoroughly enjoyed it i obviously through cultural osmosis have seen other things with frankenstein know that you know the con popularity contrary to misinformed popular belief that people think that Frankenstein is the monster, but Victor Frankenstein is the guy. The monster is Frankenstein's monster.

Starting point is 00:11:41 And seeing these other adaptations, more, I guess more recently, James Gunn's adaptation, also very different from this one. It's interesting kind of seeing how the creator is in and of himself the monster. And the monster is the thing that is pure, purely human more so than the man who created to himself. So in that regard, the way it's actually. executed was done masterfully and yeah makes me want to go back and check all these other adaptations and it makes me also weirdly excited for I guess that the maggie jillenhall version that's coming

Starting point is 00:12:16 out dude that looks so good the bride doesn't it I saw cinema con footage like back in april and I was immediately like whoa whoa whoa it's like next year is one of the craziest years in cinema like 2026 is insane the bride is in the top 10 for that for me I am even with everything that's coming out like that looks bananas I think that's her directorial debut March yeah and like the way she was describing frame rates and the way she was describing like lenses she was so film geeking out on stage and like the way they're using different anamorphic ratios uh in order to like show in the mind of characters and like perspective like all of it got me so jazzed man so yeah i'm excited for the bride yeah i'm gonna head can in that as the as the pseudo sequel the pseudo sequel to

Starting point is 00:12:54 very different tone like punk rock bride to like this beautiful gothic poetry yeah yeah you know he's i think that one's more modern day if i remember so who knows maybe i don't know but uh he'll Turn to Christian Bale over the course of 200 years. You know what happens. Yeah. But, yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed this. And, yeah, I will get a thorough comparison after the fact. And maybe we'll let you know on social media, how I feel.

Starting point is 00:13:17 There you go. You get the companion piece that he never got. No companion for him. All right, next up from Baby Cables. So excited to see this movie. I haven't seen it yet. So I'm writing this blind. I want to know if you've read the original text and what you thought of the story in general.

Starting point is 00:13:31 How effective was it? And how does it, in your opinion, fit into the good? gothic genre. Well, I can speak to my literature experience, but that was in 2005, 20 years ago. I was a junior in high school, I believe. I was either a sophomore or a junior. Once it's past 20 years, my memory's not so great. So it's been a little while. I remember liking it. I remember thinking it was very, very well written, but a little bit of that. I struggle with an overabunded of description at times, even when my memory is doing better, and even when my attention span is good, there are times where I'm like, we get it. The fire is descriptive. And like, it's just a

Starting point is 00:14:14 different time. Like, it was written in the 1800s. That was your entertainment. It was fun to be lush and right. Like, there is shades of gray to this. I remember my only negative was like, okay, the doorknob, I understand. Let's open the doorshelf. Like, there were times that I just felt, but overall, like, the grasp of emotion, the poetry of the language, the use. of beautiful imagery, the fact that she was a child and she wrote one of the most beautiful commentaries in the human condition when she didn't even have a lot of life experience. Like all of that is what I think of with that book, but it's been 20 years. So I remember really liking it, but it's been quite some time. And then as far as the Gothic

Starting point is 00:14:51 genre, I love Gothic art, but I don't think of myself as seeking it out. I think for a long time I was really averse to horror and that's changed in the last few years like the last four years I've I've been much more open-minded to horror so my love of Gothic and my avoidance of horror were often at odds um but now that I'm being more open to horror I think I'll appreciate gothic even more but like Guillermo is one of those geniuses I love Tim Burton I love um I love like the rich darkness of like the way art can make you feel a certain emotion in its darkness and production design and those things but now that I'm more open to horror I think I'll like even

Starting point is 00:15:36 more. Yeah, I can't comment on the text part of it because obviously I haven't read the book. This is my first Furee or into Frankenstein. But what I can say is that I have seen other things in the Gothic genre and I think this is a much

Starting point is 00:15:52 to welcome addition to that genre and I feel like even within the gothic genre there are many flavors within that overall umbrella from like the more kooky Tim Burton to like the offbeat indie feeling of something like a poor thing. I feel like there is enough room for all of these things. And I feel like this takes a more old school sort of poetic approach into the realm of the gothic genre itself.

Starting point is 00:16:19 And I'm happy. I'm happy that it's here. I would love to have like a little goth night, you know, get some eyeliner on, some black clothes and just watch all these gothic movies back to back and sort of compare them in their tone. and how they reflect what it means to be within the gothic genre i thoroughly uh enjoyed it and i've watched plenty of those types of movies on this channel as well and we watched uh tim burton together we did we watched the ours a text yeah not gothic but burton i was like what did we watched that i said a director of yeah it was burton yeah but i saw a nine before christmas here i saw the edward cister hands here i mean i saw poor things in theater

Starting point is 00:17:02 but yeah those are the ones that are coming to the immediacy of my mind yeah i think yorgos is really reviving a like poetry and gothic art i haven't seen bagonia yeah but i'm excited to oh it's awesome yeah i'm so excited to hear you talk about it but yeah i would say that's my my answer and uh yeah baby cables appreciate you and i like your name residence z so glad i waited on seeing the movie so i could watch along with you too i avoid pretty much everything wow that is so you avoided and you waited for us including trailers after i saw that gammled del to was directing since I trust his vision a lot of love for this comment my question is are there any other directors that as soon as you see is attached to a movie you know it's in

Starting point is 00:17:41 good hands oh plenty yeah obviously you know i feel like tarrantina has a pretty good track record no one has a great track record jordan pill has a great track record those are stevens spillberg has a great track record obviously yeah there's there's a multitude of directors So I think that, you know, you see them attached and you get excited. I said no one already yet. Andy Muscietti, you know, there's just a whole pot of great filmmakers. All the ones you listed for sure. I'll add to those Fincher.

Starting point is 00:18:14 Anytime Fincher gets announced on anything, I'm excited for years. Like that's the, I follow every nook and cranny. Lord and Miller, anything they do, I tend to think is kind of like genre shifting. I think they're big zeitgeist shifters. I would also include Soderberg. I would include Wes Anderson. I've really fallen in love with Wes Anderson again in the last few years. I would say, I know there's so many I'm forgetting, but off the dome, it's so hard because there's just so many incredible filmmakers.

Starting point is 00:18:43 A little addition to the question. Eric Sorkin as a director now. I've been enjoying as well. He's one of my favorite writers, but I like his directing as well. What else would you like to see do a Frankenstein movie? Fincher. Oh, okay. Comfortably Fincher.

Starting point is 00:18:56 if they're going to go comedic Wes Anderson West Anderson's like a full campaign just ridiculous but no in real life in real life venture oh Catherine Bigelow I love and I think she'd do an interesting

Starting point is 00:19:09 like like a gritty tech modern military fragenstein I don't know if it would get the human condition as much but I really love Catherine Bigelow's work you know Catherine Hardwick's also great Lords of Dogtown is such a human movie

Starting point is 00:19:24 and she did you know the Twilight which everyone loves but yeah those are those are the people that i like if i see their name those jump out right away yeah dude this was so good this is awesome i think it's my favorite my favorite movie it's my number three yeah it's up there's probably my top five much better than the book gregg does not like the book i was just brag about the book that mary shelley's a bitch so this this in eddington you're not your top two we just did uh we just did uh we're about I just did fun.

Starting point is 00:19:57 Jay Rushton. Oh. Good stuff. So we just did residency. For me, I think it's once by a time in Hollywood, Superman, and then this. Like, so it's high.

Starting point is 00:20:07 Once by time in Hollywood? I was not this year. Oh, shit. One battle after another. I have like muscle memory from saying one. And my brain's like, what's the rest of that sentence? That's a long title.

Starting point is 00:20:17 One battle after a time in Hollywood. Yeah, one battle after another, I think is my Eddington. I don't know. Yeah, join us. Yeah, come on, man. Let's talk Frankenstein. Get in here. But this was comfortably, like, such an experience that it didn't distract me

Starting point is 00:20:32 being on camera, and that's, like, the highest praise I can give when I'm, like, so immersed that I'm like, yeah, more of this. Donny boy. Have you seen it, too? Yeah, yo, you saw it early. John saw it first. Yeah. John saw it before anyone. Wacky today, guys. Oh, this is the thumbnail.

Starting point is 00:20:47 It's everyone looking for mics. It's in here somewhere. I'll fly one in real quick. Yeah. Oh, ooh. I read the book to talk about the movie, and then Olivia never wants to go to the theaters. And, of course, she's like, I want to see this in the theaters. I'm like, oh, I read this whole book where I can review this.

Starting point is 00:21:10 So now's your time. So now's my one opportunity to get some opinions out there. So what were your thoughts as compared to the book as a hater of the book? I'll go and say, I'll get my mind. All right. I'm holding this like a microphone. vote it's accord we're going to answer this last one from jane them we're all going to crowd review this together yes yes our last uh patron question from j rushden question what actors should make a good bride

Starting point is 00:21:36 for the bride of frankenstein here um okay so he is very tall and i also feel like um there's a little height difference cuteness that can be done but i also feel like that really beautiful uh goth energy now the tricky thing is the first time i have that comes to mind is a lot older than him but I don't know if that matters with the undead but Ferrusa Bulk Fusa Bulk I'm not familiar She is a Gothic goddess Oh she is fine

Starting point is 00:22:03 And I see that for the bride If you want to pull up a Ferusa Bulk there If you can read good tallness I can do it long arms Any one come to mind for you Oh man I like Star of the Craft Who's we'd Greg and Roxy Reacted on this channel

Starting point is 00:22:20 Oh Check it out Check it out I'd name my second car forusa after forusa bulk really big old crush on that woman uh f a f a i r o za i have never seen the word forusa before oh i might have spelled it wrong she's water boy b a l k i know is her last name i might have just spelled forusa boy yeah that's how you spell it's a u za my bad oh okay she is she's so foying yeah okay to me this is like the the what goth hotness looks like

Starting point is 00:22:53 I could see her. So she's the bride to me. She blew me away in the craft. Oh, yeah. Stop talking about her. She's, uh, it was for me, for me, the movie that no one gets a crush out of. American History X. I was like, this woman's so hot.

Starting point is 00:23:11 Conflicting feelings. All right. So yeah, she's my bride. I think Maya Hawk would be a good bride. Ooh, that's fun. And that's more age appropriate than Jacob O'Hawty. I thought me and got off would have been good. Do you have a, you think would be a bride, a good bride for him?

Starting point is 00:23:27 Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, Monica Balucci. Oh, that's fun. I like that a lot. Monica Balucci. Okay. From the Matrix sequels amongst other many fine Italian films.

Starting point is 00:23:41 She's almost like, I'm going to fuck this cake through dialogue. Yeah, well, she was in freaking of the most recent Beetlejuice, right? Yeah. Tim Burton's a girl? Also, Monica Babaro, who just popped up, would be a great one as well. Monica Barbaro? Yeah, she was so good in that Timmy Shalemate movie. Yeah, so we're looking for it.

Starting point is 00:24:01 That's the one. She'd be a great The Bride. Okay. Tell us your thoughts. Greg Red Holbrook. Yeah, she'd be good. That was so hard to get through. He was just talking about how much details in about a freaking doorknob or something like that.

Starting point is 00:24:21 Yeah. Oh, my God. First off, the book is, it's so, how did you, John put it pretty well? Like, spiritually this movie is, is very much the vibe and the aura and the tone of the book. And fairly much for the creature, it's pretty accurate. But it's also a very, very, very different experience than the book. Like, there's, Christoph Walt isn't in the book. None of the, oh, that's what he asked me, and I was like, I don't think so.

Starting point is 00:24:50 no like there's no investment or the tower like no he makes it in at college and in the book there's no real moment out of it

Starting point is 00:25:01 he makes the monster at day one he's like oh god this is fucking horrible idea I don't want to be a tad no no abort abort he just like fucks off

Starting point is 00:25:12 it hangs out with a friend and then he comes back and the monster's gone and then a year later his brother's, so in the book, Elizabeth is his, like, step-sister. Oh. And they're lover.

Starting point is 00:25:27 They're like, that's the love of his life. So it's like, all that's, like, made up with a brother and falling in love with his brother's fiance. And it's all made up for this movie. Wow. And none of the whole, like, bonding with the creature. So everything added, so good. I was saying, it's about a running man experience.

Starting point is 00:25:45 This, to me, is the great blend of a director who obviously loves the original Frankenstein movie, which is not accurate to the book, whatever. It really sets you up for failure if you're about to read the book. Oh, wow. But definitely loves the book and modernized it with a lot of Catholicism angles. There's

Starting point is 00:26:04 like the Canaan Abel side to the brother dynamic. The God and Sunfield. God and Adam. The God and Adam is very much in the original Mary Shelley book, but this also kind of feels like a God in Jesus. Although Prometheus stuff is what I remember about Mary Shelley's. Like, and that's where I discovered the

Starting point is 00:26:20 concept of Prometheus. I discovered Prometheus through the book Frankenstein and I remember that element because that's what drew me to group gods and myths and all that and I was also like the perfect age for that but I didn't remember that they added an entire benefit factor because when he asked me about it I was like yeah I think that was totally awkward

Starting point is 00:26:35 It's the kind of guy who would be there. Yeah, why nice. So it also with the creature they removed something that would make you think of the creature very different where what happened is that he's just like traveling the creature. He's like just doesn't know what he's doing.

Starting point is 00:26:52 He's like, I love how they include the moment with berries because he's like, oh, I could just live up berries. He didn't realize he could. And he bumps into a Frankenstein, who's not Victor, and he learns his name, and then he just lashes out and kills this guy, then he frames this completely different person named Justine, and just this whole trial.

Starting point is 00:27:07 Whoa. The whole time, like, I know it was the monster. It had to have been the creature. What the hell? So, yeah, and so everything done here is just like so much more poetic, and I love, like, again, the Catholicism sides to it, yeah yeah I love I love the language in it is some of the best beautiful like there were so many moments there I was like I want that like as a tattoo like there's just so many lines of dialogue but I was like the human condition in seven words it's incredible and there's no dead there's none of the killing of the wolves in the book when he that's accurate he's stalking this family and he's learning about English and then he like finally he like musters up the courage to meet the blind guy and he meet the blind guy's like interacting with him and bride of Frankenstein actually takes inspiration

Starting point is 00:27:50 from that, but then the family comes back and they all like start, there was more family members. I went in with him for like a day and then he like burns it down. Damn. So basically in the book, the creature does take a more violent turn. Where here they really make him innocence.

Starting point is 00:28:06 Yeah. Kills by being attacked or a defense or provoked. But I think Jacob of Lourty, there's a lot of people who love him or are giving him crap for being too crazy still. And I think he is phenomenal. He is my, this is going to sound like a into a lot of

Starting point is 00:28:20 built makers like, Boris Karloff. I'm like, no. After reading the book, I'm like, no,

Starting point is 00:28:25 this is this guy. This is the best. Freak, like, I don't, he's not a fan of the De Niro one. And I really like this one a lot.

Starting point is 00:28:33 So I thought, I'm freaking, I love, I think Oscar Isaac is compelling to watch him if you don't like him. Yeah. It's so compelling.

Starting point is 00:28:41 And then to do this, I thought it was so cool when they're, when it's just so, like, well, let me tell you, but he's like,

Starting point is 00:28:48 oh, I love to hurry. Yeah. Yeah. I got it said book one and I was like you son of the bitch that was an hour ago he was like he got me and then he asked him that was in the book

Starting point is 00:28:56 and I was like fuck I don't know he's kind of in the book but he's telling Victor his side of the story he's like here's what I've been up to the past year hey bro good to see you a handshake

Starting point is 00:29:08 and I don't believe okay yeah you don't really get that closure of father and son so yeah the stuff they add here I think is so is so much better and

Starting point is 00:29:20 I do wish Elizabeth was more fleshed out Yeah That was like a shortcoming for me Well something we were saying before you came in We felt like the stuff The scene itself with the father and son Forgive me was good but it felt like From him chasing

Starting point is 00:29:35 Yeah it was a little too quickly The death should have been twice as long Because I was like and he's dead Like it was like the movie took its time I was super ponderous That was like oh shit two and a half hours Yeah And then let's go, don't rush.

Starting point is 00:29:50 So that would be my only note is like, give the third act about five to ten more minutes in the second half. Yeah. And I'd be perfect. It's one of those things where, yeah, it's like there's a lot of really great stuff in the script. But the script as a well-rounded piece could be a little bit better. And it seems like a movie that wants to be three hours instead of two and a half, even though I know some people's complaint is that you could cut stuff out of this. No, I was thoroughly invested. I didn't even know the time of past.

Starting point is 00:30:16 on this. There's not 10 minutes committed to Elizabeth writing you know five pages in the fire burned and while it burned I burned too and the burning of the fire the brightness and the warmth of the burn

Starting point is 00:30:30 I remember fire yeah oh yeah there's like a solid page and a half of the creature talking about like here's what fire is that oh my God yeah and I get it it's good

Starting point is 00:30:41 I didn't make it mean it's a session I just ripped in this book because I'm not At the time, it's like, it's considered one of the greatest books on. The book sucks, Doug. I got all the slams Mary Shelley for a whole hour. He's dedicated to, I think, the Norwegian or something. Yeah, the sailors.

Starting point is 00:31:00 He's dedicated to his perspective, and he's writing letters to his sister and he's going to, and then it goes on the ship, and then Victor comes in and stuff. He's like, this guy understands me. I love this dude. Hey, I found my new best friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And learning about Mary Shelley's life really shine the light to me that Guillermo Deutoro was taking even inspiration from, because she has the most effed off.

Starting point is 00:31:26 Yeah, her girl was saying, awful. Oh, whoa. The amount of children she lost. Oh, my God. A husband who died early. And you can see that he incorporated a lot of her personal experiences, too. So I think, Guillermo de Toro, this is the ultimate culmination of all of his. work because all of his work is inspired by Frankenstein the movie and Frankenstein

Starting point is 00:31:48 the book so it naturally fits it doesn't feel like a deconstruction it's not like getting Zach Snyder to do like Superman movie it is him doing the culmination film he's always wanted to do it it's and it's better than you know the passion projects that I think sometimes Scorsese sets out to do like the gangs of New York where you're like this is the one but it doesn't feel like the culmination of all his films this feels like the culmination of all of del Toro's work well and it has that thing too where it's like so much of his work is influenced by and borrows from Frankenstein. So in a way, one of my trepidations going in was like, this is the perfect choice. Maybe it's a too perfect choice. You know, maybe this isn't going to feel

Starting point is 00:32:25 fresher like he's really having to stretch his legs. But I really do feel like he levels up and he brings all of his passion to this. And you can really tell how much care and how much he wanted to, yeah, like pay homage and do justice to this story, but truly make it his own and to really, you know, find the harmony between his style and this source material and it's yeah it's one of the most striking of his recent phase for sure i think it was some of your favorite it was like a favorite scene of yours did you pinpoint like was it was some people say they felt emotionally distant watching this no fascinating i was i was completely hooked from beginning to end you know it was it was great from from start to finish honestly there's so many good scenes um i like the scene at

Starting point is 00:33:11 self of them culminating together by the one that's coming to my mind right now is when Frankenstein finally does confront Victor and he's like being so condescending towards him. I thought that scene was really good because you finally get the two of them together. The creature confronting Victor yeah but also

Starting point is 00:33:27 they don't. It's called it it's Frankenstein's monster. Frank A. It's his name. No, but also the scene where he's finally seeing the old man for the first time and the learning to read while he's in the shadows and the development of that arc between him learning to read to actually speaking and all of the like Eureka moments that you're seeing

Starting point is 00:33:46 through Jacob Alorti's performance I think is highlight for me like that middle act is so special. Yeah. And then the language between Victor and the creation in that first comeback scene, the bride scene, the wedding, some of those lines of dialogue are so cutting and genius. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:00 John Gio, a favorite scene? Oh, God. Not a long time ago. So what keeps coming back to your, what pops into your mind when you think about this? Like what scenes come up in your mind? I mean, so much.

Starting point is 00:34:11 much but I think really one of the most beautiful and gripping scenes and the most one of the things you're wondering about the most is like what's cool about this is he finds a way to bridge the gap between you know the Frankenstein movie from the 30s and the full on book and so when he's igniting the lab and like he's about to really bring the creature to life like that was so beautiful and striking and the colors and the vivid quality of everything just how wet it all is and how much you can feel the elements and you've got this huge just pit in the middle of the floor as

Starting point is 00:34:45 like a centerpiece for the movie that's I've been my mind has been kind of living there since I saw it yeah I mean there but there's so many great moments in characters and stuff and too like all the wide angle lenses that just lets you feel like you're in every room and able to observe

Starting point is 00:35:00 and kind of meticulously try and log every detail like it's just so sumptuous but yeah the dad part you're reminding me of the dad's completely alive throughout the whole book and they I really don't recall the dad being like this fucking douchebag now all we're talking about Victor's dad yeah oh wow yeah so have it the dad like that's how Elizabeth comes in

Starting point is 00:35:23 the dad marries someone new and the daughter is Elizabeth and so that she's not like Elizabeth's not blood related to Victor but that's how they started like an early relationship if I recall correctly it took me a long time to get through this work yeah talking about the dude from Game of Thrones, are you talking about Christop Waltz? The dude from Game of Thrones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, so, yeah,

Starting point is 00:35:43 but anyway, so I think even including that of him, having this psychological angle of repeating the sins of his father. Yeah. Like, those scenes where he's like warming the creature and whipping him like how his dad did.

Starting point is 00:35:58 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man, this is such, I was over the moon about this because I thought it was such an improvement over something that was completely adapting the book yeah yeah and it was wild and how striking it was when uh the creature was afraid of him was like why would i hurt you i created you only for scenes later for him to be blowing up the lab and i'm like wow well and two another that whole scene in the gallery when he's doing he's showing his you know

Starting point is 00:36:24 experiment to the guys up top that first lures christoph waltz to you know want to uh fund him and stuff like that like that animatronic and all that was so cool and such a great yeah like weird science like old timey scientific monster movie scene and the and the whole stretch where the monsters with the old man like I love the expansion upon that and I think this is the first thing I saw I've this is the first performance I have seen of Jacob Allortes and he really wow he leapt off the screen and it's one of those things where it's like yeah it's like I'm aware of him and I've seen him in interviews

Starting point is 00:37:00 and trailers for things but yeah like this was a transcendent performance and two, it is that, you know, I, earlier we mentioned, he's not like, oh, hideous necessarily. He's kind of ethereal and unsettling, but sort of this Adonis thing or like a, you know, the modern Prometheus or whatever. Yeah, I said during our reaction that he reminded me of the engineer from Prometheus. Totally, yeah, and just his evolution, like the amount he was able to convey before having speech when only having Victor as his sole mode of speech. And then as he begins to actually, you know, learn to fully express that.

Starting point is 00:37:35 the range of emotions through words and otherwise it's just so gripping, so wonderful. I think he's good casting because they stick, it wasn't about stitching together like a bunch of corpses. Like they were trying to craft the perfect human. Mm-hmm. Not just, you know, not a Boris Karloff thing.

Starting point is 00:37:49 He's got to look at the flat top. It's a long video for you guys. We're just all excited to talking about Frankenstein. I'll say before we get closer wrapping it out. But I love that it's a small moment between Frankenstein and Victor was though when he was like telling him to say another word. before he you know blows up the lap and he says Elizabeth and that even though he technically

Starting point is 00:38:09 did what he wanted he was still angry at the creature because he felt jealous of him because he was getting the attention that he perceived that he wasn't getting from her so just like oh well extra fuck you because that's the only word you can say and then it bit him in the ass because he lost his leg because he tried to go back I think the writing in this is something that I'll like remember quotes of when I read it I need to like see it and I think that's the big highlight for me is like that the scene of the mad scientist scene that was the first one of the first him, I was like, these lines of dialogue are crazy. Oh, dude.

Starting point is 00:38:37 You felt the passion. You felt the genius. You felt all that stuff. But it was also like a commentary on what it means to be alive. Yeah. Which is the Frankenstein story. Well, and it's a beautiful. It's a beautiful. Mary Shelley's like credited on the script.

Starting point is 00:38:48 So it's a great, I think, intersection of like stuff is lifted wholesale from the book, but also Guillermo has enough poetry in his writing, sensibility that he can bridge the gaps with everything he's creating and adding to it. This is the exact thing I want to see a modernized take of. Like, I get, actually, Greg, where I'm really good point. I get that deconstructionist is very popular when something's been around a long time. But I think that sometimes

Starting point is 00:39:10 costs the original. And I keep thinking like when you think about Frankenstein we think about the green monster with bolts in his neck because that's been a hundred and fifty years of that. But if, you know, this was adapted today, the people that'd be like, you've ruined Frankenstein. So it's interesting to finally

Starting point is 00:39:26 after 200 years get the book. Yeah. Even in a sense of anything. Well, and you also find out who has any idea of the book. versus the movies yeah you know so i i imagine for some people who only have that frame of reference from the 30s or you know yeah what is all this stuff with the ship captain what is yeah like it's it's definitely an interesting transition i loved it uh my number three or four the year yeah it's truly tremendous uh well that is our very full review with cameos you got you got half

Starting point is 00:39:56 the rejects and you swarm to the studio to make sure you know how much we love frankenstein uh please let us know in the comments below what your experience was please leave a like on this video please subscribe if you're not already you got to see what four out of the eight of us talk like so subscribe to this page there's a lot of rejects thank you to the patrons thank you to prepper thank you to everyone who enjoyed this experience with us and thank you to Guillermo for the summation of your work in one beautiful bit of art and I look forward to what you do next but it's gonna be hard to top this this absolute majesty so thank you to everyone involved in this and we'll

Starting point is 00:40:28 see you for the next one bye out Thank you.

The Reel Rejects - FRANKENSTEIN (2025) IS A GOTHIC TOUR DE FORCE! MOVIE REVIEW

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