Frankenstein

Guillermo Del Toro's "Frankenstein" is a breathtaking coup, an exhilarating riposte to the conventional wisdom about dream projects.

Frankenstein is brought to life in glorious, Gothic fashion by Guillermo del Toro's painstaking artistry and Mike Hill's elegant creature design. A big film with a huge beating heart.

Del Toro, who has always humanised monsters and misfits in his work, blends that empathy with his trademark visual grandeur. Frankenstein is both spectacular and moving, fusing Gothic horror with emotional depth. With Frankenstein, del Toro infuses beauty into horror, crafting a world that is as majestic as it is dreadful.

Del Toro has written and directed a bombastic but watchable new version of Mary Shelley's great novel and makes of it a stately melodrama... pictures whose luxurious beauty underscores the film's reverence for the source material and for itself, but which for me impedes the energy of horror.

One of del Toro's finest, this is epic-scale storytelling of uncommon beauty, feeling and artistry. While Netflix is giving this visual feast just a three-week theatrical run ahead of its streaming debut, it begs to be experienced on the big screen.

What should have been the perfect pairing of artist and material proves visually ravishing, but can’t measure up to the impossibly high expectations del Toro’s fans have for the project.