By David Slifer

Mary Shelley’s “The Modern Prometheus” has had new life breathed into it with Guillermo Del Toro’s new film, “Frankenstein.” The film starred Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as The Creature, Mia Goth as Elizabeth and Christoph Waltz as Harlander.  

Frankenstein (2025) follows the story of Victor Frankenstein in the first half of the film. Victor, at a young age, was studying to be a doctor. When he lost his mother, his obsession with stopping death consumed his every waking moment, leading him to create The Creature when he was older. The second half of the film follows The Creature’s story as he talks about growing, learning and seeing the world after Victor abandoned him. This already is a big difference from the novel as the feel of getting both sides of the story is already established. 

Del Toro, best known for directing the “Hellboy” duology, “Pacific Rim” and “Blade 2,” has stated in many interviews that making his version of Frankenstein was a dream of his. The way he wrote the script and adapted Shelley’s book into what was filmed respects and imprints the elements of the book, but also leaving room for Del Toro to put his twists and choices into his version of the story. This movie does not follow the book exactly, but some of the choices and changes that were made do not hurt the story in any way. 

Many of the previous adaptations of this book have either not aged well, or not as definitive as this one has and will become. Many people might point out that the original 1931 film with the same name is the best as it is the original, but personally age beats nostalgia as many aspects of that film have not held up very well and neither have the changes from the novel they made. 

Victor was amazingly portrayed by Oscar Isaac. This character is one that you feel bad for in the beginning, but by the time he is creating the Creature you start to not care for him. He is more of the monster because of how he treats his creation. Isaac at the beginning shows us that this character is broken. He is at first driven by a loss, but we can see as the story progresses he is driven by power. Isaac does great at portraying this character because he is not trying to make him likeable, he wants you to see the madness of Victor and who he has become.  

Jacob Elordi as The Creature is unrecognizable. This character’s look is already different from how we usually picture this character. The design was made by Mike Hill with Del Toro wanting him to look like a soldier from the Crimean War. Elordi performs so well as the Creature. When the character is reanimated he performs as if he is a baby being born because that is basically what he is. Every movement he makes when he first comes alive feels as if he is doing it for the first time. In the second half of the film, we see the Creature’s side of the story and how he lived in hiding from the family with the blind man and secretly helped them. With how he is portrayed, Elordi perfectly shows how the Creature is experiencing the world for the first time, but also showing the sadness he has as he learns more about the world hating him for who and what he is. Elordi perfectly showed that balance and it worked very well with how he and Del Toro wanted the character to be. 

Mia Goth as Elizabeth should not be overlooked. Elizabeth is not shown a lot throughout the film, but her presence is known in every scene she is in. When it comes to the creature, she is the only one who truly sees who he is. In this version of the story, she is engaged to Victor’s brother William, which adds tension to her relationship with Victor, with her really not caring for Victor at all near the end of the film. Goth shows the caring side of Elizabeth. It is why the creature cares for her and why she is one of the only people who didn’t see him as a monster, but as someone wanting to understand what they were. 

This is a story we might be getting more adaptations of, but for many people Del Toro has made the definitive version. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been around for more than 200 years and is still very well known and read by our society today. Del Toro brought more life into it with his amazing interpretation. Everyone who helped make this movie what it is made a magnificent masterpiece.