Gargoyles and demons wage centuries-old war over who claim rights to the world and who’s trapped in the middle of it all? Frankenstein’s Monster, played by Aaron Eckhart (“The Dark Knight” & “The Rum Diary”) who gives a new vigilante twist to the classic character created by Mary Shelley in the early 19th century.

Frankenstein has received plenty of treatments over the years since the book’s first publication. It’s been staged as plays, transformed into graphic novels and adapted for hundreds of films, but no film approaches the idea quite like this one and I wish I could say that it was enjoyable, but in reality “I, Frankenstein” was predictable, hammy, and overloaded with flashy special effects.

The one detail I liked about this film is that Aaron Eckhart’s character is named Adam, and for those who might not know, when Mary Shelley wrote the story she felt that creature was more than just a mindless monster so she gave him the name Adam, though he is never referred to by name in the book. Eckhart does as a fine a job as he can, but fails to shine in a movie that’s really just lackluster to begin with.

It’s like finding a gold coin only to peel away the surface to find that it’s chocolate underneath. But, who wouldn’t be happy with chocolate? Well, in the case of “I, Frankenstein,” when you bite into the tasty milk chocolate you find that it’s just wax.

Bill Nighy (“Pirates of the Caribbean” & “About Time”) plays Prince Naberius, leader of the demons and villain of our story. Now, if I were going to cast anyone as a ancient evil super villain, you better believe that actor is going to have European accent of some kind, and Bill Nighy plays a good bad guy, but if only he could have a better vehicle than this. I imagine he got this role because of his involvement with the “Underworld” franchise which was produced by the same company that produced “I, Frankenstein.”

“I, Frankenstein,” I’m sorry to say, just doesn’t hold up for me and it’s unfortunate because with a pretty good cast of talented actors and utilizing one of the most iconic monsters of motion picture history, “I, Frankenstein” had a lot of potential that just went wasted.

If I had to give it a rating, I couldn’t give it more than 1.5 stars. Going into the movie, I expected to be able to give it a much higher rating of at least 3.5 stars.

Sorry Frankie!