Thanks for the memories!

Nice effects though.

Boring

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

An intense, must-see thrilling performance from both Cumberbatch and Miller. The dialogues filled with static chemistry, a beautiful and perfect mix between beauty and horror, a destabilized yet animated stage that shows all facets of life and death. A hypnotizing and cutting-edge play, a real work of art that is absolutely not to be missed.

Be warned: I am an English teacher who loves this book and both of the lead actors. Continue at your own risk.I had the extraordinary privilege recently of finally seeing the Nick Dear production of Frankenstein, a live theater production directed by Danny Boyle in 2011.For those who have been living under a rock, this special production is actually very closely based on the original novel by Mary Shelley and is remarkable in that the two leading men, Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller, alternated the two lead roles on every performance. This was a tribute to their acting skills and a nod to the fact that the main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, are very much character foils for each other. Due to "an unprecedented audience demand" National Theater Live and Fathom (the producing companies) decided to do a film encore for Halloween week 2014 in Regal theaters across the US. Both performances were available.The film opened with some behind the scenes commentary that was really interesting, but I'm not going into detail on that right now because, let's face it, if you're reading this, you want to see my reaction to the performance itself, not just me fangirling over the actors...so moving on. It starts the same way the description for the play starts, a circular embryonic sac with a figure inside moving slightly. As the music gets increasingly dramatic, so do the movements of the actor inside the sac. Eventually a hand appears and with some dramatic lighting a nearly naked Benedict Cumberbatch emerged and flopped onto the ground. What followed were at least ten minutes (it seemed like) of him stretching, spasming, and struggling on the floor. He is covered in realistic looking bloody scars, is making pitiful noises and looks as repulsive as that particular man is capable of looking. When I first see him, my instinct was "eww" but after a few minutes of watching him struggle to control his limbs and gasp with the effort to stand, I found myself whispering, "You can do it, come on" and sincerely meaning it. That's acting, ladies and gentlemen.Victor (Miller) comes in, is visibly repulsed by what is writhing on the floor and reaching for him in supplication, throws a robe at his creation, and leaves. For those who are a bit unfamiliar with the text, basically, the play just jumped into the inciting incident and skipped all of the boring prologue and extraneous frame story. We then slightly divert again from the original story because the play follows the Creature's story instead of Victor's. This makes a lot of sense since Victor pretty much collapses in the book and does nothing useful at all until he sees the Creature again anyway.Cumberbatch provided an inspiring performance as the Creature. We feel his pain as he is abused, experiences the first beauties of nature, goes through friendship, education, betrayal, and the beginnings of revenge. His quickly developing character is clearly showcased and completely believable, unlike most movie adaptations where the Creature seems to almost wake up super intelligent automatically or to wake up stupid and never progress. The story line follows that of Shelley's book and gives the audience a clear picture of his complex and thoroughly developed character.The conversation and confrontation between Victor and the Creature was enough to give me chills. I have nothing more to say on the subject.I particularly appreciated how they approached the Bride scene. A lot more detail in how the Creature feels about himself, doubt about how his bride might work out, and his desperation for a companion. More brilliant acting there. A special shout out should also go to Miller's performance here--you really get the mad-scientist vibe as he seems to quite literally wear himself to the bone in just a few scenes.They chose a brave interpretation of the Creature/Elizabeth scene in the bedroom. Since that section of the book is told through Victor's perspective who is not actually in the room, it's always been a big question what happened in there. I LOVED what they went with. The Creature introduces himself to Elizabeth and slowly gets her comfortable to the idea of what he is (also, in this version, Victor has confessed to Elizabeth what he did. Definitely not in the book but since it led to this great scene, I don't mind so much) and explains what Victor did to him. Elizabeth shows him pity and sympathy and promises to take his side and to talk to Victor about his responsibilities and immoral choices. She tries to get to know him better and he explains what he has learned from humanity and from Victor about breaking promises...and then he breaks one of his own in his quest for revenge for the loss of his bride. Here's the brave part: before the Creature kills Elizabeth, he rapes her and Victor walks in at that moment. I believe this is totally plausible even if it wasn't in what I remember of the book.The ending once again cut out the unnecessary frame story with the ship's captain.--I also watched the other version which was brilliant, but I preferred Cumberbatch as Creature with Miller as the mad scientist. Cumberbatch as Frankenstein seemed to have quite a bit of his Sherlock persona slipping into it.In conclusion. Excellent book, excellent performances, and I really can't wait to teach it again next semester. Especially if I can show either/both of these while doing so...I think I'd walk over broken glass to do that.

As the countdown to Halloween started to begin,I decided to take a look at the listings of a local cinema for one-off screenings of Horror titles.Originally planning to watch The Exorcist, (which has been sitting on my shelf for years,waiting to get watched on DVD!) for the first time,I suddenly noticed that a screening was going to be held for Danny Boyle's filmed on stage adaptation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.Since having found Boyle's 2013 movie Trance to be a fantastic Neo-Noir,I decided that it would be a good time to see Boyle bring the monster (or as it is named here "creature") to life.The plot:Delighted with being the first ever person to bring someone back from the dead, (thanks to robbing body parts and a corpse from a grave yard) scientist Victor Frankenstein is horrified by the appearance of his creature, (who Victor decides not to name) which leads to Frankenstein throwing his creation into the wilderness,in the hope that it will rot away and fade from his memory.Discovering a survival instinct,the creature picks itself up from the ground,and begins to search for his creator.Attempting to learn human skills,and to also make friends,the creature finds himself being beaten up by the local residence,due to him looking like "a monster".Running into a local blind man,the creature is shocked to find someone who does not judge him on his appearance.Getting taught to read and write,the creature's only friendship is destroyed,when the blind man's family pay him a visit,and kick the creature out for looking like a beast.With now having the full skills to talk,read ,write and lie,the creature goes in search of Victor Frankenstein,in the hope that his creator will build for him a woman.View on the film:Avoiding the tradition of using wide panning shots that show the audience at a concert/show,director Danny Boyle and cinematography Kevin French, (who both reunited for the 2012 Olympics opening) instead place the viewer intimately close to the stage,which along with allowing the actors performances to pull the audience into the tale,also allows Boyle and French to slowly unravel Frankenstein's industrial wasteland across the screen.Backed by the superb Industrial hum from Underworld,Boyle and French cover the film in metallic bronze to show the decaying post- industrial revolution world that the creature rises from,with "fresh" colours and objects (such as green grass),being burnt away across the screen.Contrasting the metallic colours,Boyle also shows an excellent skill in casting a Gothic Horror shadow across the screen,with black becoming a dominating set colour,as Victor Frankenstein,the creature,and those nearest to them descend into hell. Along with the darkening colours,Boyle also shows an unflinching eye for Horror,with Boyle using excellent stilted camera moves to push the audience face first into Franenstein and his creature's deadly outbursts of violence,and betrayal.Taking much longer to reach the screen/stage than originally expected, (Boyle and the writer originally planned to bring Victor Frankenstein alive in the 90's)the screenplay by Nick Dear shows no sign of rust gathering up on Frankenstein's mesmerising creation.Using the first 30 minutes to display the creature gradually "building" his own personality,Dear places the "voice" and troubled psychological aspect of the creature right at the centre of the adaptation,with Dear smartly showing Frankenstein and the towns people's interactions from the outcast point of view of the creature.Whilst the screenplay does show that Frankenstein and the towns people turn the creature into "the monster" that they fear,due to being focused on the permanently damaged exterior and not the welcoming, and repairable interior of the creature.Despite showing that Victor Frankenstein and the towns people are the cause of the creatures transformation into a monster,Dear also shows that he is unafraid to show the creature in a horrifically violent light,with Dear's delicate building up of Victor and the towns folk Gothic melodrama being burnt to the ground,as the creature strikes at the very heart of what Frankenstein holds dear.Playing the role for the second,and final time (both actors would switch between playing Frankenstein and the creature every other day) Benedict Cumberbatch gives an unexpectedly subtle,vulnerable performance,with the opening of the film solely focusing on the creature rising from the dead,allowing Cumberbatch to place the viewer deep inside the skin of the character,thanks to Cuberbatch slowly showing the creature transform from being speechless and native,to using human skills such as lying to his deadly advantage.Contrasting Cumberbatch's quiet,subtle performance,Johnny Lee Miller gives a delightfully wild and wicked performance as Victor Frankenstein,as Miller shows that the only drive Frankenstein has in life is to satisfy his own ego,with Victor ignoring any ethical or psychological "flaws" in his mad desire,until it is too late,and a monster rises from the ashes of a creature.

First of all the experience of "almost" being there was really unique... the sound in the cinema was up nice and loud so you really FELT the sound like you would in the theatre.... and what a brilliant way for thousands of people to enjoy the performances of the National Theatre....Okay so now on to the play itself... WOW!!! The set design and staging were wonderful, innovative, with minimalist hints of all the locales... Danny Boyle's direction was inspired and energetic...but the ACTING, well really something to behold...The premise here is an actor's dream.. the actors switch nightly in playing the roles of Victor and the Creature. This is truly inspired, especially since the characters are each a side of the other. Before the performance there was a short behind-the-scenes film, and Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch talked about how they approached the roles... but seeing is believing.. The performance I saw was with Cumberbatch at the Creature and Miller as Victor Frankenstein.. both were very good, but the show belongs to the Creature... and Cumberbatch was INCREDIBLE! the sheer physical demands of the performance had me tired just watching!! The play really focuses on the Creature's growth from stumbling, grunting "thing" to a fully-formed thinking being. "Frankenstein" is one of my favorite novels and I think I have seen just about every film adaptation, and at least one other stage version. Highly recommended!!!