YMMV / Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

• Broken Base: The decision to have Victor revive Elizabeth as the Bride. Those who wanted this to be a Truer to the Text adaptation call foul on something that does not happen in the book at all — and there are fan edits removing that sequence. However, others think this is a great added touch, acting as an even better Heel–Face Door-Slam for Victor — not to mention Elizabeth choosing to die rather than stay in the power of either the being who murdered her or the man who forcibly brought her back to life gives the character a bit more agency.
• Ham and Cheese: Everyone is really overdoing it. Even De Niro's performance, appropriately subdued in a world where everybody else, including the movie's soundtrack itself, hams it up, gives us the line: "I will have REVEENGE! Frankensteiin!!". But averted by John Cleese of all people.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The scene where the patient who later provides the body for the creature kills Professor Waldman while refusing to take a vaccination during a plague in the city feels much harsher after the anti-vaccine culture that sprung up during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Heartwarming Moments: Captain Walton, even after everything Victor has told him, begging the Creature to come with him and his crew when the ice breaks, the first bit of true compassion that the Creature has received.
• Jerkass Woobie: Mrs. Moritz is a horrible nag, treating Justine horribly throughout the whole film. Her Heel Realization comes however when an angry mob hangs her daughter in the street. She's crying hysterically and trying to pull her down, all while the mob is still throwing things at the body.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Creature is the creation of Victor Frankenstein who, having been mistreated by everyone, seeks revenge on his creator for giving him a life he didn't want. Killing Victor's brother William and framing Justine for the act in order to get to him, the creature asks him to build him a companion. When Victor & his wife Elizabeth leave to try and get away, the creature tracks them down while evading the police and murders Elizabeth. When Victor reanimates her, the creature manages to win her over to his side before she kills herself after realizing what's happened to her. After Victor dies, the creature mourns him before lighting a fire, killing himself as well as burning Victor's body.
• Narm: The Birth Scene. It's supposed to be scary, but the sight of Victor struggling to pick up the Creature in placenta and constantly slipping is absolutely hilarious.
• Narm Charm: From the abrupt tonal shifts to the campy dialogue, the movie invites a lot more laughs than the creator probably intended. That said, it does have genuinely unsettling moments because of the histrionic nature of the medium.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: There are two games based on the movie, a SNES\Genesis platformer that offers confusing and at times abusingly hard gameplay in a maze-like level layout, and a Sega CD one that adds adventure and fighting elements without any improvement.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Robert De Niro, who is typically typecast in gangster/cop flicks, plays The Creature, which raised a lot of eyebrows at the time. However, a great chunk of movie-goers consider him to be the best thing about this film, if not even the only good thing.
  • John Cleese in a completely serious role as Professor Waldman was a touch jarring, though he, too, is considered surprisingly brilliant in such a part.
• Squick:
  • The Creature's "birth" — a shirtless Kenneth Branagh and a nude Robert De Niro... rolling around on the floor... in embryonic fluid. Speaking of which, there's the manner in which Victor got said fluid, which involved paying midwifes to give him the amniotic fluids of women who have just gone into labor...
  • Victor's waltz with dead and revived Elizabeth who not only has grotesque stitches, but also parts of skin from her head burned off, showing parts of her bloody skull.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Many complaints were directed at the Creature now having the ability to talk. Said complainers were unaware that the Creature did in fact learn how to talk in the book, and would monologue for chapters pondering its existence.
  • A lot of viewers weren't happy that Frankenstein took inspiration from his mentor Dr. Waldman's experiments in creating life, rather than coming up with the concept all by himself.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously:
  • Robert De Niro of course, despite people being shocked at him of all people playing The Creature. He studied stroke victims so he could get a sense of The Creature's developing speech patterns.
  • Helena Bonham Carter is a close second, turning in a very layered performance as Elizabeth; especially the climax, where she, as the revived 'Bride', rejects both Frankenstein and the Creature and chooses to commit suicide, all without saying a word.
• Ugly Cute:
  • The revived Elizabeth, played by a young Helena Bonham Carter. Short fluffy hair, one very sad eye, and a trembling lower lip. Aww, sweetie.
  • The Creature, who's given enough sympathetic human qualities to be endearing, and Robert De Niro's features are still quite pleasing underneath the make-up.
• The Woobie: This version really amps up how horribly Justine is treated by her mother, and yet she's one of the kindest characters in the movie. Just look at the scene where she's out searching for Willy. And even worse than the book, where she falsely confesses to the murder and gets executed, the townspeople break into the jail before the trial can even happen and hang her in the street while she's screaming in terror!
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Creature wasn't intrinsically evil and initially tried to befriend and help people. He only became a ruthless killer after being rejected by his creator and by society. Lampshaded when he tells Dr. Frankenstein that if he had just one friend or loving companion in his life he would never hurt anybody.

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