Citizen Charlie
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  • 2018 Films
    • 4 Stars >
      • The Death of Stalin
      • Isle of Dogs
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      • The Endless
      • Hostiles
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      • Ready Player One
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      • Annihilation
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      • Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
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      • The Commuter
      • Fifty Shades Freed
      • Maze Runner: The Death Cure
  • Cinema Clash Podcast
  • 2017 Films
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      • Blade Runner 2049
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  • 2016 Films
    • 4 Stars >
      • Captain Fantastic
      • Hell or High Water
      • I Am Not Your Negro
      • Jackie
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      • La La Land
      • A Monster Calls
      • Paterson
      • Silence
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      • Cameraperson
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      • Embrace of the Serpent
      • Finding Dory
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      • Moonlight
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      • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
    • 3 Stars >
      • Allied
      • Arrival
      • Author: The JT LeRoy Story
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      • The Edge of Seventeen
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      • Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
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      • A Monster with a Thousand Heads
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      • War Dogs
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    • 2 Stars >
      • Alice Through the Looking Glass
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      • Bad Santa 2
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      • How to Be Single
      • The Huntsman: Winter's War
      • Ip Man 3
      • Zoolander 2
    • 1 Star >
      • Gods of Egypt
      • Ice Age: Collision Course
      • My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
      • Now You See Me 2
      • Ratchet & Clank
      • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
    • 0.5 Stars >
      • Ben-Hur
      • Norm of the North
      • Ride Along 2
  • 2015 Films
    • 4 Stars >
      • The Big Short
      • Ex Machina
      • Jafar Panahi's Taxi
      • Steve Jobs
      • The Tribe
      • While We're Young
      • Youth
    • 3.5 Stars >
      • Best of Enemies
      • Bridge of Spies
      • Brooklyn
      • Clouds of Sils Maria
      • Concussion
      • The End of the Tour
      • The Hateful Eight
      • Inside Out
      • It Follows
      • Mad Max: Fury Road
      • The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
      • The Martian
      • Mistress America
      • The Revenant
      • Room
      • Shaun the Sheep Movie
      • Sisters
      • Spotlight
      • Star Wars: The Force Awakens
      • Straight Outta Compton
      • Truth
    • 3 Stars >
      • The Age of Adaline
      • Avengers: Age of Ultron
      • Black Mass
      • Carol
      • The Cut
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      • Fresh Dressed
      • The Good Dinosaur
      • Grandma
      • James White
      • Janis: Little Girl Blue
      • Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet
      • McFarland, USA
      • Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
      • Merchants of Doubt
      • MERU
      • Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
      • Mustang
      • Pan
      • The Peanuts Movie
      • Pitch Perfect 2
      • Pixels
      • San Andreas
      • The Second Mother
      • Son of Saul
      • Spectre
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      • We Are Your Friends
      • Woman in Gold
    • 2.5 Stars >
      • American Ultra
      • Anomalisa
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      • The Assassin
      • The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
      • Boulevard
      • Crimson Peak
      • The Danish Girl
      • Far from the Madding Crowd
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      • Furious 7
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      • Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor
      • In the Heart of the Sea
      • Jurassic World
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      • Listen to Me Marlon
      • Macbeth
      • The New Rijksmuseum
      • No Escape
      • Spy
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      • A Walk in the Woods
      • The Water Diviner
      • The Wolfpack
    • 2 Stars >
      • The 33
      • Aloft
      • Black Sea
      • Do I Sound Gay?
      • Fifty Shades of Grey
      • Focus
      • Freeheld
      • Get Hard
      • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
      • Joy
      • Minions
      • Mississippi Grind
      • The Night Before
      • The Salvation
      • The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
      • Seventh Son
      • Terminator Genisys
      • Tomorrowland
      • True Story
    • 1.5 Stars >
      • Chappie
      • Desert Dancer
      • Hot Tub Time Machine 2
      • The Divergent Series: Insurgent
      • Jupiter Ascending
      • Maggie
      • Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
      • Run All Night
      • Ted 2
      • Vacation
    • 1 Star >
      • The Lazarus Effect
      • Magic Mike XXL
      • The Transporter Refueled
    • 0.5 Stars >
      • The Gallows
  • 2014 Films
    • 4 Stars >
      • Calvary
      • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
      • Inherent Vice
      • The LEGO Movie
      • Life Itself
      • A Most Violent Year
      • Mr. Turner
      • The Theory of Everything
    • 3.5 Stars >
      • American Sniper
      • Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
      • The Boxtrolls
      • Boyhood
      • The Equalizer
      • Fury
      • Gone Girl
      • Guardians of the Galaxy
      • The Imitation Game
      • Like Father, Like Son
      • Mommy
      • Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
      • Particle Fever
      • Selma
      • Top Five
      • Whiplash
    • 3 Stars >
      • 22 Jump Street
      • Alive Inside
      • Beside Still Waters
      • The Book of Life
      • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
      • The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: THEM
      • Draft Day
      • Edge of Tomorrow
      • Get on Up
      • Godzilla
      • The Grand Budapest Hotel
      • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
      • I Am Ali
      • The Judge
      • Kill the Messenger
      • Locke
      • Love Is Strange
      • Nas: Time Is Illmatic
      • Night Moves
      • The November Man
      • The One I Love
      • The Overnighters
      • The Raid 2
      • Rosewater
      • Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
      • St. Vincent
      • Still Alice
      • Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
      • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
      • Two Days, One Night
      • Unbroken
      • Under the Skin
      • Wild
      • X-Men: Days of Future Past
    • 2.5 Stars >
      • 3 Days to Kill
      • About Last Night
      • Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
      • Art and Craft
      • As Above, So Below
      • Begin Again
      • Blood Ties
      • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
      • Divergent
      • The Expendables 3
      • Fading Gigolo
      • Foxcatcher
      • The Giver
      • The Grand Seduction
      • Horns
      • Horrible Bosses 2
      • The Hundred-Foot Journey
      • Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
      • Jersey Boys
      • Listen Up Philip
      • Magic in the Moonlight
      • The Maze Runner
      • Men, Women & Children
      • A Million Ways to Die in the West
      • The Monuments Men
      • Mr. Peabody & Sherman
      • Muppets Most Wanted
      • Need for Speed
      • Non-Stop
      • Point and Shoot
      • RoboCop
      • Tracks
      • Transcendence
      • Veronica Mars
      • Winter's Tale
    • 2 Stars >
      • 300: Rise of an Empire
      • Alan Partridge
      • The Amazing Spider-Man 2
      • The Art of the Steal
      • Big Hero 6
      • Blended
      • Exodus: Gods and Kings
      • The French Minister
      • Hellion
      • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
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      • John Wick
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      • Neighbors
      • Noah
      • The Nut Job
      • Oculus
      • Rio 2
      • That Awkward Moment
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      • Wish I Was Here
    • 1.5 Stars >
      • Big Eyes
      • The Fault in Our Stars
      • I, Frankenstein
      • Pompeii
      • Transformers: Age of Extinction
    • 1 Star >
      • Brick Mansions
      • The Identical
      • Ride Along
      • Son of God
      • Tusk
      • Vampire Academy
    • 0.5 Stars >
      • Left Behind
      • The Legend of Hercules
      • Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
    • Zero Stars >
      • A Haunted House 2
  • 2013 Films
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      • Frances Ha
      • The Gatekeepers
      • Gravity
      • Her
      • Lone Survivor
      • Much Ado About Nothing
      • Stoker
      • We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks
    • 3.5 Stars >
      • All Is Lost
      • August: Osage County
      • Before Midnight
      • The Bling Ring
      • Captain Phillips
      • Fruitvale Station
      • God Loves Uganda
      • The Great Beauty
      • Inside Llewyn Davis
      • The Patience Stone
      • The Wolf of Wall Street
      • You're Next
    • 3 Stars >
      • Ain't Them Bodies Saints
      • American Hustle
      • The Company You Keep
      • Dead Man Down
      • Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay
      • Don Jon
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      • Thanks for Sharing
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      • Tim's Vermeer
      • Upside Down
      • Warm Bodies
      • World War Z
      • The World's End
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      • Beyond the Hills
      • The Book Thief
      • Carrie
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      • Fast & Furious 6
      • Gloria
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      • In a World...
      • Love Is All You Need
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      • Nebraska
      • Oldboy
      • Olympus Has Fallen
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      • Trance
    • 2 Stars >
      • Byzantium
      • The Counselor
      • Disconnect
      • G.I. Joe: Retaliation
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    • 1.5 Stars >
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      • Girl Most Likely
      • Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
      • The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
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    • 1 Star >
      • The Hangover Part III
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  • Misc...
    • 2016 Middleburg Film Festival
    • 2017 Middleburg Film Festival
  • Review Index
  • About Me

I, Frankenstein

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Directed by: Stuart Beattie
Written by: Stuart Beattie, Kevin Grevioux
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto, Bill Nighy, Jai Courtney, Socratis Otto, Aden Young, Caitlin Stasey, Mahesh Jadu, Steve Mouzakis, Nicholas Bell, Kevin Grevioux
Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi - 93 min

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On the monster scale, Frankenstein’s monster falls short of Dracula who is usually ripe material for a decent film but is a bit more compelling than The Mummy who is little more than a moaning zombie.  Previous movies have faithfully shown Mary Shelley’s monster arise from the dead, attempt to understand itself, and inevitably collapse due to misunderstandings and persecution.  More recently, we’ve seen the monster tap dance with Gene Wilder onstage courtesy of Mel Brooks and morph into a reanimated dog in Tim Burton’s 2012 children’s version, Frankenweenie. 

Now we get Frankenstein’s monster, the action hero, a vigilante refusing to take sides in the never-ending war between heaven and hell.  Incorporating a few elements from Shelley’s original 1818 tale, our monster (Aaron Eckhart), is brought to life by mad scientist Victor Frankenstein (Aden Young) and then quickly montages to present day.  Along the way, the monster is attacked by demons from hell that want to capture him.  Saved by heavenly gargoyles, who name him Adam, he learns about the war between the gargoyles, protectors of humans and sort of angels from heaven, and the legions of demons cast out of heaven that want to take over the world.

Call him Adam, the monster, or just Frankenstein, the film never quite makes up its mind on that, our loner is not one to take sides; he only looks out for yours truly.  Trudging around the world, slaying demons every now and again, and perfecting an omnipresent sneer, Adam searches for something, be it comfort, companionship, or merely solitude, neither he nor the audience really knows why he chooses to just walk the Earth. 

Choosing to return to the city that hosts both the gargoyle garrison and the demon squad from hell, Adam stirs up a couple bloody battles yet steadfastly grumbles, “This is not my war!”  We have no idea what city this is by the way where it always seems to be midnight.  The gargoyle castle resembles Notre Dame but the one line uttered by one of the very few civilians we see is spoken with an American accent. 

I, Frankenstein, a ridiculous and silly title, is dark, gothic, and wants to remind you of the Underworld franchise, its elder brother.  The Underworld series sports vampires, werewolves, a whole bunch of fetish leather, and Bill Nighy as the bad guy.  I, Frankenstein sports flying and morphing angels/gargoyles, demons disguised as humans who burn their flesh off when they get mad showing horns or whatever, blunt axes and staffs for bludgeoning, and Bill Nighy as the bad guy.

The similarities are there because the same production company fronts these movies and they share the same writer.  The Underworld series has the edge though.  Vampires are just more interesting than Frankenstein, or whatever the hell his name is.  Plus, the flying gargoyles just look creepy.  We can only hope, for all our sakes, that I, Frankenstein is a one-off movie and does not come with the infinite sequels the Underworld franchise relentlessly spawns off every other year or so.       
   


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