New Blu Ray release

My absolute favorite film / mini-series version of Frankenstein is getting a new Blu Ray release. Until now the only Blu Ray version was from Spain and was a very early Blu Ray from 2004.

I hope the picture quality is good. I don't want to get my hopes up. There was a 10th Anniversary two disc DVD edition from the UK just two years ago and the picture quality on that one was awful. Dark, grainy, and the contrast was too high in certain scenes. In example, one scene where The Creature is supposed to be weeping in a pile of straw all you can see are his teeth, that's how bad that transfer was.

To date this version is the most faithful to the original Frankenstein novel. I just ordered it myself so I will let you know if the picture quality is any good or if it's as bad as the two disc UK Anniversary edition.

http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Mini--Blu-ray-William-Hurt/dp/B01991ZKYG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1455644345&sr=8-2&keywords=Luke+goss+Frankenstein

Edit:

I just tested my Blu Ray of the Hallmark mini-series of Frankenstein starring Luke Goss as The creature. This release of it was through Mill Creek (who also released a new Blu Ray of 10th Kingdom) and the picture quality is perfect.

Unlike the Kaleidoscope 10th Anniversary UK DVD of this version of Frankenstein this is not overly dark. On this Blu Ray the lighting is right and the contrast is just right. The version released from Kaleidoscope a few years ago had horrible high contrast and some scenes were so dark all I could see were the actor's teeth.

Mill Creek however did this movie justice. The picture is clean and crystal clear. The lighting is good and crisp and the audio is fantastic. The sound is improved. I can actually hear the specific words as Walton's crew men are muttering about mutiny.

I am very happy with the Blu Ray of Frankenstein from Mill Creek.

For a very long time I was on a quest to find a faithful film adaptation of Frankenstein that followed the plot and physical appearance, mentality, personality and articulation of the creature from the novel. A friend suggested I check out the 2004 version of Frankenstein starring Luke Goss as the creature. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to find that it would be Hallmark that finally made a version of Frankenstein that actually followed the novel.

The film from 1994 actually called "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" was not as faithful as the title would imply. It had the creature bald with a distorted eye and speaking like a stroke victim. It also had Elizabeth's heart torn out of her chest and then brought back in the style of the Frankenstein creature.

For years after that I had searched for a version of Frankenstein that had a creature portrayed the way he is described in the novel.

First let us begin with the popular idea of the Frankenstein monster. Everyone imagines the creature as a simple minded, green skinned creature with a flat topped head, and bolts in his neck.

I don't understand the popularity of the "simple minded" Frankenstein creature. I know it was popularized over eighty years ago now thanks to Boris Karloff but think about it. In the actual novel the creature figured out how to dress himself (and that he'd need clothes!) in a matter of moments after his "birth". He learned to read and write (or remembered it) in a matter of months. That's equatable to an eleven-month-old baby with an adult reading level. He could read, write, was as articulate as his creator, if not even more so. He even had a favorite work of literature (Paradise lost). That's not a simple minded creature. That's a super genius in the making. Even Karloff's version wasn't as simple as pop culture would have you think. He was literally only a few days old in that film. He was learning to speak in Bride of Frankenstein. Unfortunately he was never shown as articulate and cunning as his literary counter-part until recently.

I'd like to see more intelligent incarnations of the Frankenstein creature but not pretentious (as he was pretentious in the film Van Helsing). For good intelligent incarnations of the creature check out the 2004 Hallmark version of Frankenstein staring Luke Goss, Ultrasylvania (web comic / graphic novel), the TV series Penny Dreadful, the graphic novel Frankenstein: Alive! Alive! by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson, and perhaps to a lesser extent (because he still moves and talks like a stroke victim) the Robert de Niro version.

Not only did this version (The Hallmark version from 2004 starring Luke Goss as the creature) have the creature physically look like, talk like, and move like the literary version of the creature but it also restored one of the novel's secondary morals. Everyone remembers that Frankenstein teaches you not to tamper with nature but Victor's biggest offense was never creating this being but that he abandoned him. Parental responsibility is a bigger theme in the novel than the dangers of dabbling with what you don't understand. The Creature was neer pure science anyway. Victor also studied metaphysics, magick, and alchemy. Also The Creature was benign until the world mistreated him, to pretend Victor's sin was the creation of this life diminishes his parental accountability and the accountability of those that mistreated The Creature. Also many people forget that the novel had The Creature learn (a bit too late) that revenge was not the answer and that revenge would bring him no peace. In my opinion this was in important a message, more so than the over hyped 1931 movie message of not tampering with nature. So why do so many film versions leave this aspect of the story out all together? Why are only the inaccurate or incomplete versions remembered? It's not fair that this version of Frankenstein is almost entirely obscure in comparison.

This version captures the sympathetic traits of both Victor and his Creature as well as the morals of parental responsibility and the futility of revenge.

Here's where I am going to get a little nitpicky. It's a very good adaptation. The biggest changes deal with Victor's mother's death (in the novel she dies before he sees lightning strike a tree, not after). Also later in the film another body (after Elizabeth's death) is blamed on the creature in a village but it could be that someone died by coincidence that The Creature (happening to be there) got blamed for it. Oh, and The Creature's eyes. They're blue in this and yellow in the book (the TV series Penny Dreadful gets this detail right). And Victor's father lives but seems to be going crazy in this mini-series / film. In the novel he died. But these are petty details. This version is probably the most faithful I've seen. And The Creature is VERY accurate.

The creature is the best thing about this film. If you want to see the creature the way Mary Shelley intended him to be, watch this version of Frankenstein. Admittedly there are a few dull parts and some parts that felt unnecessary as filler and dragged on a bit but this was the most faithful adaptation of the book and is unfortunately highly under-rated. Luke Goss is simply the best portrayal of the creature I have ever seen though Rory Kinnear as The Creature in Penny Dreadful does come in at a close second.