3/30/2023 0 Comments Watch splice 2 full movieWhile the scientists learn from Dren’s genetic makeup, she’s learning about sex and resentment and desire. This manifests in laboratory observation that feels like parenting, which then becomes parenting. The mistake of our two scientists is the unspoken belief that they’ve cleaved their impartial selves from their messy humanity, complicated immediately by celebrity status (they’re the rock stars of the gene world). It’s just enough to make the movie work, I think, as an exploration of ethics in science. There is the gradual reveal of a backstory that deepens one character’s motivations, but for the most part, the characters are established in relation to the central creature, Dren, and then we watch them change. Even the title cuts to the heart of it this isn’t Bioshock or even that episode of Batman Beyond, this will be the definitive gene splicing movie (if Jurassic Park is already the definitive dinosaur movie). It doesn’t help that there isn’t much of a “story” in the traditional sense, but a series of set pieces which may then be the aforementioned “affecting” or “silly.” We don’t learn much about the characters, though we probably should – this is simplicity that’s either streamlined or bare. There are genuinely shocking moments, including an attempted drowning of the specimen when it’s nearly indistinguishable from a child, and moments when the weirdness is played just so slightly off-key that it breaks. With the mission statement of “cause discomfort,” it’s bound to ruffle some feathers, and indeed, the film is affecting and silly in turns. Richard Roeper called it one of the worst movies of 2010. I should note that Splice was pretty divisive, and seemed destined for cult status. Before long, it’s wearing a dress and makeup. Two genetic scientists splice human DNA into an experimental creature, effectively giving birth to a new species that develops rapidly into human shape. Splice features no space marines or shootouts and, thankfully, no allegory. For reference, 2010 was around the time of Halo-adjacent allegory District 9 and the also sort of Halo-adjacent allegory Avatar. It’s almost like Splice was ahead of its time, before movies like Ex Machina and Arrival proved that mainstream audiences still cared about ‘70’s-style thoughtful science-fiction in film. I had the same feeling with the relatively recent Upgrade, which felt like a long (and bad) episode of Black Mirror. Watching Splice for the first time in 2022, however, my mental comparisons were influenced by prestige television, specifically anthologies. Contemporary reviews compared it to the works of David Cronenberg, and sensibly so this is a Canadian film coming in during a genre lull for the master of body horror. Starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac
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