I started watching Frankenstein’s Army without any big expectations beyond being mildly entertained by a monster movie. Just the concept of Soviet soldiers pushing into Germany at the end of the second world war and encountering creatures created with the help of the research of doctor Frankenstein ought to be enough on its own to drag any movie to at least the level of mildly interesting. I was sadly mistaken.
To start with the movie is hugely hindered by using the found footage format. It breaks the suspension of disbelief beyond all redemption when the character who is supposed to document the small group of soldiers’ advance into Germany runs around with the camera and uses it in ways that would not be possible for decades. Had they used more period appropriate methods, it could have made for a very interesting movie. Instead the format serves to exaggerate all the other flaws.
Other flaws? There are a fair few. Starting with every character that has any personality being an asshole. And not in an interesting way. That does mesh well with the soldiers being the most undisciplined military unit in the history of warfare. You might very well imagine some commander sending them on a suicide mission just to get rid of them. Unfortunately, that is not the story.
In fact, what little story there is serves only to get the characters in place to be killed by the monsters. Which would be fine, going for atmosphere over plot, except that there is no atmosphere to speak of either. Just dodgy accents that come and go, and characters running around being so unlikable you don’t even perk up when they are inevitably killed. The monster designs are decent, but that is just about the only positive thing I can say for the movie.
Dying Under Alien Stars 