The dazzling opening credits of “Splice” promise something we rarely see these days – a science fiction film of consequence.
And the film’s first 20 minutes back that up.
The tale of two scientists who create a new life form begins with a heady combination of smart FX and grounded acting.
Slowly, the creature in question starts to mature while the movie itself regresses to an infantile stage of storytelling.
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play Clive and Elsa (cue the “Frankenstein shout-out), romantically entangled scientists developing life-saving proteins out of their hybrid experiments.
The pair do as told by their superiors, but they also leverage their research to create a new life form against company protocols.
The creature comes out looking like the chest-burster from “Alien,” but it quickly grows to become a delicate, female humanoid they call Dren (the word “nerd” in reverse).
As movie monsters go, she’s not so hard on the eyes.
Can the scientists stop bickering long enough to keep their discovery hidden? And what if their discovery doesn’t want to stay cooped up forever?
“Splice” dangles some meaty morality questions during the opening moments about the role scientists play in society, and just what it means in our modern age to “play God.” Audiences may be too dazzled by director Vincenzo Natali’s command of the screen to take heed.
Natali leverages some choice camera angles to heighten the sense of the unknown, and his leads deliver realistic performances to anchor what can be some very contrived situations.
The film starts losing its luster as Dren grows older. Don’t blame the special effects, a neat blend of old-school makeup and CGI which renders a fascinating – and believable – creature given life by actress Delphine Chaneac.
The “Splice” script simply falls apart, and Natali can’t restrain some of its more hackneyed elements. The scientists’ boss-slash-wrangler becomes a cartoon villain, and Elsa’s mood swings erupt out of nowhere and shatter the bond we have with her character.
In an essentially three-character drama, that’s not insignificant.
And then there’s The Moment, the sequence late in the film that transforms the movie into camp, a place it certainly doesn’t belong.
The finale is even worse, a bland battle followed by a “twist” ending you’ll spot a mile away.
“Splice” reminds us – if only for a few fleeting moments – how great the science fiction genre can be.
(Photo: Sarah Polley tries to make nice with the creature her character helped create in “Splice,” a Warner Bros. feature)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Judging by the trailer, “Splice” looks awfully similar to “Species”. Will those wacky scientists ever learn?
To be fair, where would sci-fi movies be without wacky scientists?
Rats. I had big hopes for this one. If the ending is that obvious and quite awhile away from it, I will skip and go see Shrek instead.