 If you're sick of all the cookie cutter movies coming out lately, Lisa Frankenstein might be just what the doctor ordered. This is a new film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Zelda Williams. Robin Williams' daughter. Haha, nepotism. No, but she's actually really good at this. Let's talk about the film. Before I grab my shovel and dig into the spoiler-free review, make sure to subscribe to the channel, Adam Does Movies, because I post tons of movie content each and every week. I'd hate for you to miss a single thing. Also hit that notification bell so these videos show up in your feed. I started this movie complimenting Zelda Williams directing here, and I stand by it. It looks beautiful. I love the wonderful color use. The palette's fantastic. Really nice grading on this thing. The darks look nice. The brights are punchy without being obnoxious. And there's some good camera shots throughout. Nice angles, creative uses of the lens. That said, this is a dark comedy. And I felt like it didn't flow very well at all. I felt like this movie was going for something that the script wasn't. There is a disconnect, and it feels long and a bit tedious to get through at only an hour and 40-some minutes. It's a very good, tight pace for a comedy, but somehow it still feels like a slog all the same. It starts out fine, and I really like the lead protagonist here, which is something I don't say about this actress often. Catherine Newton is the main protagonist here. She plays Lisa, and this actress so far has not done anything to win my good graces, previously showing up in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantum Shittia. She does a horrible job in that movie, and it looks like she's laughing through every single scene. Possibly not her fault. It could just be bad direction, or maybe she thought she was in... Well, you know what? To be fair, she thought she was in a terrible movie where she didn't have to try very hard, and that's exactly what that film was. The other time I saw her was in Detective Pikachu. I'm not a big fan of that film, but she felt really out of place, like she was in an anime instead of a more serious film like they were going for. That aside, this is a movie that works very well to her strengths. She's quirky, she's bizarre, she's off the wall. She has a great look for this throwback 80s look and feel that they're going for. I thought she was fantastic in this movie, and hard to kind of read the character. That said, again, there's caveats on everything with this. I didn't hate this movie, but I really didn't like it all the same. I'm just kind of sitting there watching it going, man, there was a better movie in here somewhere if the director and the writer were more lined up. The movie feels so sluggish. It feels so dead, which is ironic because it's about a reanimated corpse. I'm not going to get any spoilers. I will just say I knew nothing going into this film. It's called Lisa Frankenstein. I assumed that she was the character that was dead and she was going to have to go to school and do all that stuff, but no, that's not what's happening here at all. That might have been more of an enjoyable, fun film than what we got. I do think that some of the character arcs, and this goes back to Catherine Newton, come out of nowhere. There isn't like a slow buildup to anything or really a reveal that makes sense. Just like on the turn of a dime, people start making choices that seem wildly different than what I thought previously about that character. I didn't actually even hate that part because Catherine Newton is very likable as this character. So taking this plot from a bird's eye view, not giving anything away, Lisa's at a new school with her new family. Father still the same, but a new mom, a new sister, Taffy, great name. And I like this actress in the role. Actually, Lisa's family's great. That whole dynamic is really wonderful. I wish we even had more time with them. And a special tip of the fictitious hat to Carla Gugino, who continues to put in great work every time I see her. Not only is she a beauty to behold, but she gives different wide ranging performances every time. Here she's playing a Karen-esque mom who really is, she's out for Lisa. And some of the dialogue they share is very witty. It's very on point. This is a strength of Diablo Cody for sure. She's very good at the banter. And there is some good banter here, good one-liners, good little scenarios that take place. But overall, I just felt like this was a dark comedy that didn't push the dark aspects enough. And it wasn't a comedy that was that laugh out loud funny. It just kind of meanders in the mundane, not really going in one way or the other. There were chances taken with some of the, you know, the ideas following a protagonist who's maybe not your squeaky clean cookie cutter that could have worked had they pursued them further. As it stands though, it's a pretty looking movie that on occasion will do something a little off the wall that I enjoy. And I do think this has been thrown out a lot. Cult Classic comes to mind. This is going to be a movie that people really latch on to and they're going to dress up as this character and over time it's going to be considered another Jennifer's body. I'm not so sure about that, but I could also see it happening all the same. It just didn't do it for me in that sense of it. What it is to me is like a warm bodies sort of thing where I think about it, it was a fine little film and I move on kind of an indie movie that doesn't get the Edward Scissorhands love that it deserves or the Jennifer's body or anything in that kind of vein. Lastly, there's the nostalgia piece to it. It's always fun going back to the 80s, hearing that music, seeing some of the references to like a sports illustrated phone and whatnot. It doesn't go overboard with it, but on occasion you're kind of like, yeah, yeah, I get it. Nostalgia, it's fun, but there's not really anything more to be said in this scene. It's just look at this thing from then. Isn't that a fun callback? Music is great though. And yet at the same time, and this is the big problem I have with the movie, nothing is very punchy. Nothing's getting you excited for the next scene. It's all just kind of going through the motions. Ironically, this is about a dead person being reanimated coming back to life and the movie kind of feels like it needed that as well. All right, those are my thoughts on Lisa Frankenstein. Not horrible, just not anything too great either. Maybe you loved it. Maybe you absolutely hated it. You probably didn't see it, but let me know, leave a comment below. Please like the video and subscribe if you haven't. Like I said, I'm doing this all the time. I would love to have you stick around and hopefully we'll catch you next time. Take care.