Gods and Monsters

To refine my often nebulous prose and make its conclusion more explicit, I return to that most dubious critical tactic: giving grades. Gods and Monsters gets a solid 90.

Brendan Fraser can act, which surprised me. Ian McKellan can really act, which did not surprise me. But seeing a second movie metalepse the human abstract into Frankenstein in the water with a kid? I was positively shocked. After his bewildering monster moment in Spirit of the Beehive, I sort of expected Frankenstein to vaporize once again into the mists of murky comic booking and assorted nerd paraphernalia. Well, he's back, and he's done it again.

This movie is so well acted and written that I really shouldn't muck it up any further by confusedly ruminating on the differences between the child-befriending Frankenstein in Franco's Spain and the garbage-dispelling Frankenstein in Eisenhower's Hollywood. I should probably watch something by James Whale instead.