Sometimes I rewatch movies to see if they are as bad as I remembered. Blade: Trinity gave me a pleasant surprise recently – sometimes bad is rather fun! – but this… meh.

It tries hard, which is perhaps the problem. Branagh’s Shakespearean touch is evident: it’s bleak and humourless, and just not as well done as it seems to think it is.

The fun to be had, for me, was trying to guess the actors’ motives. Robert De Niro, as the monster, I suspect was going for that interesting-evil-deformed, possibly Oscar-nod?, role. Branagh is so obviously there to show off his buffed-up hairy chest LOL! Only Helena Bonham Carter seems entirely suited to her role, but then she’s well used to dark and depressing roles like the ill-fated Victor Frankenstein’s love interest.

Filed into a depressingly large category: could-have-been-excellent, big spectacle, big budget, comes across just a bit overblown.