Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This seems to be a part one of a made for TV movie series. A 200 year old scientist is creating a stronger race of humans that appear to have little personality or acting ability. Two detectives are assigned the task of solving these murders with New Orleans as the backdrop. During an autopsy it is discovered one of the victims was one of these super beings.The "why" the monster kills was not really explained, nor do we know how many of these Frankensteins are really out there. The scenes were mostly dark. Monster make-up was light. No nudity or bad language. One sexual scene.The film moves a bit slow as it builds up to important action scenes that never fizzle. If you got into the X-Files stuff, this movie might interest you.

Frankenstein (2004)This was made for TV on the USA network and had fine production values.A twist on the classic Frankenstein story. This one takes place in modern-day New Orleans where a detective investigates a series of murders.But the 'Frankenstein monster' is an intelligent 200 year old looking for his "maker" (a Victor Helios, also 200 years old, keeping himself alive with genetic experiments) who is creating synthetic humans from stolen body parts to eventually replace mankind.It had a bit of an unusual ending and I see it was originally designed to be the pilot of a series... which explains the ending. Turns out it was based on the book "Frankenstein: the Prodical Son" by Dean Koontz and Kevin Anderson. Which I now want to read. Two Thumbs Up from me. I enjoyed it!I can't reveal any spoilers but there were twists in the characters as well as a massive rewrite of the plot. And all I'll say is... role-reversal.

Let me get this straight to begin with: FRANKENSTEIN is a horrible reinterpretation of the classic Mary Shelley novel, which attempts to modernise the story in a pre-flooding New Orleans. Everything about this production screams cliché: there's a murky, depressing visual style that constantly uses David Fincher's SE7EN as its source material (isn't that so late '90s?) and a storyline that ends up going absolutely nowhere. The reason? This was the ill-conceived pilot of a television series that was never made, so don't go in expecting any kind of plot resolution or tying up of loose ends.The tired story sees a couple of lame detectives (Parker Posey and Adam Goldberg, possibly the most uninteresting cops I've seen in any movie) going after a killer leaving a string of bizarre deaths in his wake. Along the way, they come across Vincent Perez as a strangely scarred and hooded figure, and there are no prizes for guessing who he's supposed to be. There's also some pointless stuff involving ruthless scientist Victor Helios, played by Thomas Kretschmann. He's Frankenstein, but despite taking up a great deal of screen time he never actually gets involved in the main storyline.Yeah, the film really is that muddled and disjointed: the detectives never catch up with Frankenstein, and we never even learn how he's still alive in the modern day. Talk about a con. Instead, the thrust of the plot eventually turns out to involve Michael Madsen, playing a fellow detective with a few secrets of his own. But there's really nothing to keep you watching: no interesting set-pieces, no special effects to speak of, no drama, no tension, not one bit of suspense. Director Marcus Nispel's work feels adrift and aimless outside of his preferred genre (remakes), and Dean Koontz wisely took his name off the thing. You can hardly blame him.

This is one hell of a movie. The suspense, the eeriness and the overall darkness of this film are enough in themselves to encourage a fan or horror / fantasy to buy / rent it. Add to that the amazing acting from (at least to me) all but one unknown actor and it just keeps getting better.It doesn't rely on biog budget special F/X and to be honest I thing they would have ruined it.If it were not for the very end of the film I would never have guessed it was a pilot movie for a series (that looks as though it will never get made). I have yet to read the Deam Koontz book upon which this is based and by all accounts I am glad I hadn't.The ending is so open that I beg someone, anyone to make at least sequel if not the mini series...........