Victor Frankenstein

Oh, the horror! What in hell were the makers of this monstrosity thinking? They’ve looked at Mary Shelley’s science fiction masterpiece (written when she was 19 in 1818) and thought: Hmm, something’s missing here. Oh yes, it’s the big-action, hyperactive, over-the-topness-ness of Robert Downey Jr’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies.

The film is told from the point of view of Frankenstein’s assistant Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), a hunchback raised in the circus. The most interesting thing about the character is his hair, which goes from fingers-in-the-socket fright-wig to Anna Wintour bob after he’s busted out of the carnival by cocky medical student Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy). Making Igor his righthand man, Victor’s playing-God project starts badly when he brings to life a psychotic rampaging monkey-monster stitched together from pieces filched from zoos.

Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy mostly keep ‘Victor Frankenstein’ watchable, but the dialogue is a horror show. (Radders is lumbered with a ‘little did I know I was about to meet the man who would change my life’ narration). And you might need a thunderclap to keep you awake in the yawn-iest bits.