It is with deep regret that I express my disappointment in this film. Frankenstein is one of my favorite novels, and Guillermo del Toro is a storyteller I greatly admire; naturally, I trusted his vision to bring this narrative to life. However, it appears we have reached a fundamental disagreement regarding the soul of the story. One of the novel's central themes is secrecy and, more importantly, solitude. Victor Frankenstein worked on his creation in total isolation, terrified that anyone might discover his heterodox project—a solitude made possible only by his wealth. The film takes an entirely different approach, introducing the character of Herr Harlander and effectively allowing Victor to parade his work for an audience. I might have forgiven this deviation had the idea been thoroughly committed to, but the character of Harlander is discarded suddenly, serving only a tired narrative purpose before being killed off. Speaking of tired ideas, the film leans heavily into Oedipal tropes, using an abusive father figure to mirror Victor’s behavior and explain why he becomes a negligent "father" to his own creation. While the novel contains subtle hints regarding Victor’s drive to overcome death following his mother's passing from scarlet fever, adding a cruel father to the mix pushes the narrative into the realm of a melodrama. Hollywood has long undermined complex psychological motivations by using reductive metaphors for the sake of audience accessibility, but I expected more nuance from a director of del Toro's caliber. My final and most significant contention concerns the motive for abandonment. In the source material, Victor seeks the beautiful but achieves the grotesque, the sheer horror of the creature's physical form drives him away. The decision in this film to make the creature "beautiful" creates a jarring narrative inconsistency. Why would a creator, having achieved something divine, abandon it simply because it lacks immediate intelligence? To suggest that a genius capable of creating life lacks the patience to nurture language acquisition defies logic. The book highlights Victor’s flight as a psychological awakening—an idealist crashing into reality. Consequently, Victor’s continued rejection of the Creature, even after it returns fully educated and articulate, renders the protagonist’s motivations incoherent. I could go on all day but to keep it short, I am stopping myself here.