14 Awesome Performances In Otherwise Awful 2015 Movies

3. James McAvoy - Victor Frankenstein

The Movie: The latest attempt to reinvigorate Frankenstein's story has a couple of ambitious ideas, but is for the most part a messy, inane sci-fi flop, more unintentionally funny than dramatically potent, and insistently making changes to the source material's mythos that nobody asked for or desired. The CGI sucks, several subplots are terrible, and as for Frankenstein's monster itself, he only shows up in the final 10 minutes of the movie and looks, well, s***. The Performance: McAvoy is an absolute force of nature in this movie, completely losing himself in the title character as a vicious, obsessive interpretation of Dr. Frankenstein. He's totally unafraid to roll with the insanity (and sometimes, the idiocy) of the plot, but even when the narrative wavers, he's thoroughly compelling in the part and clearly eager to make this an unforgettable reworking of the classic tale. In a way it is, though sadly McAvoy's strong work here is destined to be buried by the movie's critical panning and financial failure.