Frankenstein Unbound - 1990

No updates for almost a month, and then a double whammy?  What the fuck kinda unprofessional blog is this?  Enough self indulgence.  This is the last movie directed by Roger Corman as of now, 2016, and he's 90 years old this year so we just might not get another if you get my drift.  So 4 years after I was born, Roger Corman directed his last movie, and it was a bizarre alternate story of Frankenstein.  A sci fi fantasy reworking of Frankenstein, and a movie which I can actually say was, if nothing else, pretty interesting.

This movie made me think a bit, mostly about the Frankenstein franchise, and also about one of my own ideas I have for a sequel to Predator.  I think it's interesting when people take classic storylines, and then they write about them and reinterpret them in a different vein.  Frankenstein, as we all know is the classic monster come to life film, the book paints the monster in a sympathetic way.  Alone, abandoned, Frankenstein lashes out almost accidentally at first, and things go from there.  It's been a long time since I read the book.

In the movie, John Hurt travels back in time accidentally from the year 2036 to the 1800's when Mary Shelley wrote the book.  In the 1800's, John Hurt meets a scientist while he's trying to figure out where and when he is.  After an initial talk, he then asks the man's name.  The man replies, casually, Frankenstein.  Raul Julia, of Overdrawn at the Memory Bank fame, plays Frankenstein.  John Hurt follows Frankenstein after situating himself a bit, and soon enough runs into Frankenstein's monster.

I'm sitting here writing this, and I get to the end of that paragraph, and my mind goes.  "What happened after that....?"  Hm.  I watched this movie on Friday I guess, today is Monday, and yet I literally don't remember at all what happened in this movie.  To be honest, the plot is not really a strong point to this movie.  I know things happened, I just question how many of them were important, and how many of them were interesting.

I wanted to like this movie, and spoiler warning, I did like this movie, but it wasn't exactly that entertaining.  Primarily the idea is good.  A time traveler discovering that Frankenstein is real, and following him around, and witnessing all this.  Ah!  For some reason that made me remember.  Frankenstein wanted a mate, so a lot of the movie was the good doctor Franky going about to make the monster a bride.  He decided to bring back one of the girls he loved instead though.  Yeah.  Okay.

As a last feature, I guess it'll do.  It doesn't exactly feel "classic" in any way, and I think a completely average rating is coming up, but it was still a fun thing to watch.  It made me think about the Frankenstein franchise.  You know, there's a story that basically was a dud.  I mean sure it's classic, the movies are always remade, and there are plenty of sequels to the first set of movies.  But it's not exactly a goldmine and/or idea mine in terms or what else to do with the characters.  This is the only re-imaging reinterpretation I have seen that's kept anything original about the story and built on it. However, credit shouldn't go to Corman on that front and rather to the author of the book upon which this movie is based.

Like I said, it serves it's purpose, but I doubt this movie would ever be called a classic, and if it wasn't Corman's last movie, I doubt anyone would ever watch it again.