“I, Frankenstein” could have been a great movie, or at least a very good movie. But one thing held it back – the premise of the movie is hard to swallow. It is not surprising to learn that I, Frankenstein was based on a graphic novel.  Its similarities to other films such as Underworld and Constantine are striking, and its storyline smacks of something one might read in a comic book.

What is this hard-to-swallow premise, you might ask? Well, simply put, archangels, at war with gargoyles, apparently appoint demons over the fate of humanity, and those demons have decided that Frankenstein’s creation would make a wonderful template for an army of soulless gargoyle slayers. It isn’t, perhaps, the most ridiculous premise for a story one could ever encounter, but it is close.

However, if you can get past the premise, which might take some work, and can manage to ignore the bloodless combat and a few other tropes of modern cinema, this is actually a pretty good movie. The writing, while uncreative, was solid. The characters were believable and well acted for the most part.

The thing that really got me, though, was that this ended up not really being a story about the demons, or the gargoyles, or even how Frankenstein’s creature kills all the bad guys and saves the day. No, this story is actually about the personal growth and self-discovery of his creature; much in the same vein of the original Frankenstein story, the creature is hunted, persecuted and used by everyone, even his ostensible allies.

For an Australian-American film, I, Frankenstein is very much a product of modern American cinema. It’s a good movie, not a great one, and far limited by the outlandish premise.