Review of Splice

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are a pair of hip scientists splicing genes for a corporation in desperate need of a product to sell.  They've made a breakthrough that could see the end, or at least a treatment, for several serious human diseases.  They want to go further and splice human DNA into their multi-animal gened experiments to see how far they can go.  The company won't allow it, though, so they do it in secret anyway.  What they create is a weird semi-human creature with a stinger in its tail and a couple other surprises up its sleeves.  Brody and Polley become the creature's "parents" as it grows and learns at an incredible rate.  Of course, things start to fall apart...

I liked Splice quite a bit.  My main complaint right off the bat is that Brody and Polley are just a little too cool.  They do both have a certain nerdy quality that gives them some credibility, but from Brody's sci-clever t-shirts to their choice of music to work to, they're just too slick to feel totally real.  Director Vincenzo Natali seems more concerned with making them hip rather than believable as scientists.  But c'est la vie.  I can look past that.

It's a good-looking movie.  The design and photography really help to establish the sleek sci-fi tone.  The farm set later on helps balance the glossy tech of the lab with a slightly unnerving "natural" environment.

Some of the dialogue felt a little clunky, but it's hard to write sci-fi language that sounds both technically correct and natural.  The ideas behind the story are very cool.  Of course, they hearken back to Frankenstein and early Cronenberg in some ways, but Natali has fresh spin on it.  There's one scene nearing the end of the film that's a bit uncomfortable.  In fact, people at the screening I was at starting laughing, I think to make the creep factor a bit easier to take.  Still, the scene makes you wonder what you'd do in the same situation.  The ending falls apart a little, but not because the idea isn't good.  It is.  It's just the plotting that sinks it into the oh-so-familiar monster movie action climax.  When all was said and done, though, I immediately thought that this is a movie like we'd make, complete with the somewhat creepy ending.

Splice is an interesting movie, and nicely presented.  It falls a little short of sci-fi greatness, but at least it's concerned with ideas instead of just blowing shit up.  I found that refreshing.  3 stars.

Number rating: 75