Conner’s Critique’s: The Munsters

When we heard that Rob Zombie was going to be making a Munster’s reboot, we were excited. We heard that it was going to be a movie, and we got even more excited! Then we heard it was going to be a prequel to the original series and we got a little bit worried.

That being said, we began the review with an open mind, and a lot of hope. As always are reviews are broken down into the categories of story, acting, and overall. Let’s jump in!

Story 4/10

The story picks up in Transylvania with the Count and his daughter, Lily, are trying to live a somewhat regular life. Lily is trying to find a person to spend the rest of her life with. As appropriate to the trope of the 60’s genre fathers, the Count is a surly jerk.

The movie follows two plots. The first being that the Count’s son Lester (who is a werewolf) is in debt to a Romani woman, a woman who wants his father’s castle. The second plot deals with a scientist stealing body parts, grave robbing and building what he thinks will be the perfect human. When he accidently gets the wrong brain though, an idiot is born. The scientist’s life is ruined, but Lily has fallen in love. The story continues as Lily and Herman, the Frankenstein-like monster, court and eventually get married.

It’s not a uniquely new story, but it is an interesting take on the characters back stories within the world of the monsters.

Lily is instantly smitten but her father hates Herman, once the story concludes regarding the marriage and power struggle between Herman and the Count, Lester returns and convinces Herman to help him steal the Count’s castle out from under him to help pay his debts. All of this leads to the Munsters finding themselves in the USA as they try to make a new life for themselves. It’s not a uniquely new story, but it is an interesting take on the characters’ back stories within the world of the monsters.

Acting 7/10

Daniel Roebuck who plays the Count has mastered the character, you can’t even tell the difference between him and the old school version of the character played by Al Lewis. While Lily comes out as the typical stereotypical female characters of that generation of television. She doesn’t really stand out though as anything special to really delve deeper into it.

Herman on the other hand, and boy do we have a lot to talk about Herman, is an interesting case. Jeff Daniel Phillips, the person playing Herman, does not do a good job adjusting his voice to better match the character of Herman, as performed by the amazing Fred Gwynne. You could argue that he was trying to make the character his own, but if that was the case, then why did he perfectly master and match the laugh and mannerisms of Gwynne’s prior performance. When he includes a good strong table slap along with the laugh it’s even better.

Overall 5/10

I heard that Rob Zombie wanted to make a black-and-white movie about the characters more fitting with the original TV series. However, when the producers told him no, he decided to make the most over-the-top visually interesting movie instead. He definitely succeeded with that plan. The movie uses almost a neon color scheme. Some scenes even use large spinning hearts in the background and similar styles to help showcase what is going on in the character’s mind. It’s appropriate though, when you consider the source material.

My main issue with this movie though, when I heard Rob Zombie was making a Munster’s movie, I hoped it was going to be more violent, more realistic, and a fresh take on the characters. I didn’t expect to see an almost perfect recreation of the original television show, but a prequel and in color.

It definitely was an interesting idea.

Conner’s Final Thoughts

I don’t know why a lot of series seem to go into this prequel, how did they meet cliche. Frankly I don’t really need to see those types of stories. I would have prefered a continuation of the original story, a reboot from when the series starts, or a future story as the main story, and I would have even preferred a fast forward to the Munster children.

Regardless, if you are interested in watching this movie, you can do so now on Netflix.

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