Comparing Frankenstein And Branagh's Frankenstein

Sir Kenneth Branagh is a well-renowned actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, with some of his better-known works being various adaptations of Shakespearean plays. He is also known for his role as Gilderoy Lockheart in the second installation of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and as the director of Thor, released in 2011. Movie adaptations are usually a hit or miss. Most often, they are a miss in some shape or form for the audience. That is the case for his movie, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, which Branagh directed, as well as starred in. Though this movie adaptation followed the storyline of Mary Shelly’s novel better than many others, there were multiple factors that kept it from being a perfect rendition. …show more content…
The first major plot change shows up within seconds of the movie’s beginning. Walton comes across Frankenstein in the arctic circle when his ship gets trapped the ice, and Frankenstein, in that moment, is very panicked as the monster is apparently right behind him. In Shelly’s novel, Walton picks Frankenstein up off the ice and nurses him back to health while listening to his story over the course of a few weeks. It is not until Frankenstein dies that the monster shows up. It is quite obvious this plot change was to adapt the story to a cinematic audience, as there was not a true “hook” in Shelly’s novel, but it changes the audience’s perspective of the monster. One of the fantastic things about Shelly’s classic is that there is no clear “bad guy.” Depending on the opinions of the reader, the villain could be the monster for the murders he committed, or it could be Frankenstein for creating the monster, and then his treatment towards it. Opening with the monster pursuing Frankenstein, takes away the chance for the audience to sympathize with him since he’s very obviously depicted as the evil character to oppose