Splice (2010)

Mixing together bits of Species, with the films of both David Cronenberg and James Whale, this is Vincenzo Natali's fun little sci-fi thriller variation on the "playing God with science" theme. The story concerns a duo of scientists named Elsa and Clive who splice together strands of DNA from various creatures in order to make hybrids creations that might hopefully prove beneficial to mankind. Everything gets out of hand when their latest experiment has some human DNA spliced in, something not previously tested. The result is a fascinating human/creature hybrid the pair name Dren whom they not only study, but try to treat as if she were their own kid. Despite not being entirely original, there's some really neat ideas and good stuff here, and, espeically with Elsa's character, there's some great character development and psychologicla exploration. Things are good, but I think they could have been better had the time been taking to really fully develop and explore Dren's psyche and what she thinks, feels, etc. Things start off well enough, but do start to decline as the film heads into typical horror territory. Thankfully though, this is just during the final 20 minutes or so. Even then, I think they could have done a lot more with the concept, which would have bumped up the score a bit more.All in all though, this is a fun and thought provoking little sci-fi creature feature. The effects are decent, as is the concept, but in neither case is there a lot of groundbreaking stuff going on. This is pretty competantly made, and never boring though, so that's cool. The acting's not bad, but nothing brilliant. Well, maybe just a little. Deplhine Chaneac is awesome as Dren, and it's cool that they got her to shave her head for the role. Plus, almost all of the performance relies on facial expressions, body language, and mannerisms, and doing this with (but especially without) words can be hard at times, so well done. Sarah Polley is good as Elsa, and Adrien Brody is fine as Clive, but they're both just passable and unfortunately not mroe.So yeah, overall, I do give this a mild recommendation, because it is neat. It's uneven and a slight mess, but thanks to a few WTF moments and some nice in jokes and references, I think there's enough good stuff here to warrant a mild passing grade. Straight B.