Frankenstein

Overall, Guillermo Del Toro's long-awaited "Frankenstein" adaptation is a solid, engaging take on Mary Shelley's classic. Decent, but imperfect.

Tonally, I felt Del Toro flipped back and forth from campy to serious far too often for me to get a grasp on the feelings the film wanted to convey. This is not Del Toro at his best -- an auteur in control like his deserving Oscar-winning work from the past. "The Shape of Water" was excellent and seemed to know exactly what it was doing from moment to moment. It's almost like the filmmaker was too in love with the source material to make the perfect 2025 film adaptation he sought for so many years to bring to the screen.

Aside from the tonal shifts, two things continuously took me out of the moment throughout this film (I saw this in a good old-fashioned movie theater, not at home on Netflix, so I was very much trying my best to stay in the moment):

• Generally atrocious CGI throughout. Especially with non-human character work like the wolves that play a pivotal role in the film's second act. This added to the cheesy tonal shifts, and to me, often felt unintentional and lazy for such a big-budget labor of love for Del Toro. It's as though Del Toro didn't know how to shoot things on the set to give his artists the right material to then create the digital characters that needed to be added in post.

• A literally constantly moving camera. This can work for many films, and other filmmakers, including Del Toro, have made a camera that never stays in one place, engaging, adding something to the story they are telling. Not detracting from it. In Frankenstein, there were several moments where I really did not understand why our view was zipping this way or that. It's distracting, unnecessary, and not acceptable for a film adapting source material from this period that is trying to be sensitive, a bit creepy, and earnest. "Whoa, why are we moving again!?"

Frankenstein is a fine, but imperfect, genre film. I am candidly shocked it has gotten as much awards season attention as it has. It is a worthy attempt at adapting a classic, but entirely over-told story. But it is not revelatory. Worth a watch for big fans of the filmmaker or the source material. For anyone on the fence or who hasn't really liked Del Toro's work in the past, you can probably spend your time elsewhere. - 6/10