Splice is a 2009 Canadian-French science-fiction thriller film directed by Vincenzo Natali, other-wise known for his work with Cube, Nothing, and Cypher. The film stars Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, and Delphine Chanéac. The film garnered generally positive reviews from critics, however, proved unable to gross its production budget, making it unlikely that this will be followed up by a sequel. While sequels often regress in-comparison to what came before, I still consider that unfortunate, because I would have liked to see more of what they could come up with. Although, I realize that following this up would be difficult from a storyline perspective. Ah, I should probably brief you in on exactly what that storyline is.
Basically, a couple, Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast, are scientists attempting to, ahem, splice together different DNA for the betterment of mankind. Basically, they take the DNA from different animals, and through this, they are allowed to work toward finding medicinal treatment for diseases. Eventually, after making a breakthrough in their work, they desire to move to the next step. What is the next step? Splicing DNA between humans and animals. Clearly, from the cover-picture alone, you can see that is clearly what they do. However, the events that follow are interesting. There’s questions of morality and a blurred image of right from wrong that seems to happen over the course of the film.
I think that the first thing that I want to talk about is the actors. Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley were extremely likable in their roles. I felt as if they had a lot of chemistry with one another. Surprisingly, their relationship ending up being one of the most entertaining aspect of the film. They kept me immersed mostly from start to finish. Delphine Chanéac is praiseworthy in her role as well. She played the role of the genetic creature, and while she doesn’t exactly have the most riveting dialogue, her body-language and child-like wonder were well-portrayed.
The film certainly has an interesting story that has been visited before, but they tackle the premise in a way that keeps it fresh. It’s certainly a disturbing idea. It’s an idea that hits close to home when you start to think of the rapid advances in technology and the fact that this is probably not very far off. The films enjoyable from start to finish, I was entertained. If anything, I would probably say that it was a little unrealistic and awkward with how fast it seemed a certain bond started to develop. A little forced, and there’s another thing that was forced as well. If you’ve seen the movie, I have a feeling that you can probably wager an assumption as to exactly what that is.
Basically, I knew about these scenes already because a friend told me before I decided to buy the DVD. He told me that a lot of critics seemed to have a problem with this happening. I assumed that they were all just getting their panties in a knot over nothing. However, after watching the movie, I have the same problem. Not because it’s “too far,” because I couldn’t care less. Rather, it’s because it really didn’t feel like it should have happened. It happened too fast and without proper buildup. I feel like they should have gone about it differently.
The special-effects looked really interesting. I liked what they did with the splice a lot. They did well. If there is one praise that I am particularly thankful for, it’s that it didn’t end up like Hollow Man. That is, it didn’t go from a science-fiction to a slasher film out of nowhere. It had horror elements, but all the transitions in this film actually feel seamless and well-done. In conclusion, aside from some of the problems that I have mentioned, I really like this movie. I think it was very well-acted, with solid special effects, and the story was ambitious, even if I believe that it didn’t do all of the things that it could have.
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