Frankenstein (2004 - Hallmark Miniseries) - Kevin Connor

Frankenstein (2004 - Hallmark Miniseries)
Director: Kevin Connor
Writers: Mary Shelley (Novel), Mark Kruger (Teleplay)
Starring: Luke Goss, Alec Newman, Julie Delpy, Nicole Lewis, Monika Hilmerová, Donald Sutherland, William Hurt

Over the past couple months I have watched a whole lot of Frankenstein films. The Frankenstein Hallmark Miniseries (2004) is the last one on my list for my Frankenstein blog-a-thon and is probably the one to most closely follows the story told in Mary Shelley's novel. It seems that great care was taken to adapt the novel as faithfully as possible. However, as we've learned with most Frankenstein movies before this, following the story from the book does not always make the best movie.

This is definitely not a bad version of the story but honestly it isn't anything special either. The acting, directing, set design and writing are all passable but there isn't anything that makes them stand out above any other Frankenstein film. I enjoyed it while I was watching it but I really have no desire to ever revisit the film.

While the film isn't really bad, the one thing that kind of makes it hard to enjoy is the long running time. This was originally aired as a television miniseries and after awhile it just starts to get kind of dull. Towards the end of the film I found that even though most of the acting and the story were passable, they were only passable for so long. There wasn't really enough here to carry a movie of over 200 minutes.

There isn't really a whole lot to complain about in the film but there also isn't really much to praise either. It is one of the films that sits right in the middle; It isn't bad, it isn't good... it just is. Because of that this is probably going to be a pretty short review. I will say that for a TV movie it handles most things better the 1992 version starring Randy Quaid. However Randy Quaid made a much better monster than Luke Goss.

While I found the acting from Luke Goss to be just fine in the film I didn't much care of this portrayal of the creature. I understand that in this version of the film they were trying show that the creature is not really a monster but is gentle and kind. I think they went to far with this though. One of the problems was that they didn't make the creature at all monstrous looking. This is a problem when people are supposed to be shunning the creature because of how different and ugly he looks. The creature just looks far too normal for it to be believable when people start running away from him for no other reason than his appearance.

"Oh no! Run a away! Its a tall guy with blotchy skin and long hair!"

The creature also seems to become articulate must faster in this version of the story than in any other. His transition from a creature with no idea of who he is or where he came from to an intelligent creature isn't really fleshed out enough in my opinion. This is kind of disappointing because of how long the film is. It seems they could have taken a lot more time to flesh out this part of the story.

When it comes down it this is a okay version of the story but there isn't really much to it. I am not sorry I sat down to watch it but I don't see myself ever sitting down to watch it again. In the end most of the film is just rather forgettable and that could probably be one of the other reasons that this review is running so short. If the movie just isn't that memorable it is going to be hard to find any to really write about.

Rating: 5/10