Victor Frankenstein

That line from the film pretty much sums up the blasphemous nature of this film.

“Victor Frankenstein” opens with narration by Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) pondering his life as a hunchback clown in a circus. We see a trapeze artist perform; she falls and is critically injured. Enter Frankenstein (James McAvoy), with his quick diagnosis and the hunchback’s quick action, her life is saved. Intrigued by Igor’s intellect, Frankenstein frees the hunchback, corrects his deformity and gives him the name Igor. Frankenstein makes Igor his partner and lets him in on his life’s work, creating life from non-life.

The acting is average to good. Radcliffe and McAvoy are strong leads and convey their parts well. The supporting cast it just that, supporting—no stand outs.

Now to the plot, it’s well written and easy to follow. Some things were not fully explained, which actually kept my attention, waiting for answers.

Now to the objectionable content, the entire film is a secular humanistic and anti-God tirade, masquerading behind the theme of scientific discovery. Frankenstein is portrayed as a humanistic atheist, God-hating man, who believes anyone who holds any faith or believes in God is a primitive being, holding humanity back from progress. Sound familiar? There is a detective in the film who is shown holding a cross and speaks of his wife as being with the Lord after her death. He is mocked and ridiculed for his faith in Christ. Even though he is portrayed as a man who is against God, Frankenstein also has a God complex. He is quoted saying, “we will make a man in our own image,” openly blaspheming the Word of God. The Frankenstein character is also shown as a man with father issues and guilt over the death of a family member, which fuels his shaking his fist at God.

There are also violent action sequences, a scene where a man is maimed, and scenes dead body parts. There is a love scene where Igor is shirtless and deeply kissing the trapeze artist.

Now on to the most important aspect that needs to be addressed, the biblical aspect. There’s a line in the film where Frankenstein says “God, if there is a God, made us weak, not strong and destined to death, and that’s not good enough.” This shows a true lack of understanding of the Gospel. While it is true that man is fallen, because of sin, and the wages of sin is death, that’s not where the story ends. It comes to the cross, because God loves us so much He sent His Son to die on the cross that we may never die, but have eternal life.

Frankenstein reduces life to random chemical processes, and that’s exactly the origin that the Evolutionary theory gives suggests—that there is no Creator, no purpose, just blind chance. It comes down to a worldview issue. You either believe the Bible is true from the very first verse, or you believe in millions of years of random chance producing all the life in all its complexity. We as Christians need to engage the culture on this issue; it is foundational to a lot of the woes we face in this fallen world. Virtually every societal and political issue is rooted in the origins debate, and we need to equip ourselves to answer the question of origins.

I cannot recommend this film. It does not offer any uplifting Biblical truths. It does, however, challenge the Christian to understand the Creation/Evolution debate, and why it’s so important.

Violence (and grossness): Extreme / Profanity: Moderate—“My G*d” (1), “Oh G*d” (1), “Oh my G*d” (1), “By G*d” (2), “Where in G*d’s name” (1), “damn” (4), “hell” (1), s-words (2), “bloody” / Sex/Nudity: Moderate—talk about sperm and human female fertilization, cleavage, kissing, shirtless males

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