10 Movie Casting Choices That Should've Worked (But Didn't)
2. Robert De Niro As The Monster – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
There are some actors who are so intertwined with certain roles, it seems unwise, even foolish for anyone else to go near those characters. James Earl Jones as Darth Vader. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Frankenstein was released nearly a century ago, and yet, Boris Karloff's portrayal of The Monster feels like it can't be bettered.
But when it was announced that Robert De Niro would be playing the iconic creature in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it finally seemed like Karloff had his day in the sun. At the time, De Niro's acting career hadn't faltered (this was before Rocky and Bullwinkle), so there was no reason to believe his turn as The Monster would be anything short of magnificent.
Although De Niro tries to get into the body and mind of the creature, there’s nothing about his performance that stands out. Astoundingly, Karloff conveyed more emotion in the 1931 version without uttering a single word. With his subtle movements and micro-expressions, you always got a sense of what this Monster was thinking.
De Niro's Monster, on the other hand, overloads viewers with verbose monologues, and yet he always feels like a stranger.