imdb-45 (23 May 2012)

Good CGI, horrific dialogue, terrible pacing

This is from the same writer and director of Cube. Decent concept,absurd, wooden terrible dialogue and the inability to string alonganything resembling a natural sequence of events.Adrian Brody is a great actor and his talents are wasted. The"relationship" with him and the girlfriend/wife is stilted, awkward andblows hot and cold on whim. But that's what happens to the charactersbecause, if it didn't, the writers wouldn't know how to get to the nextscene. Events progress so predictably but it's almost as if either noeffort or ability to write a script is present. If you saw Cube, atotal B movie with bad dialogue but a fun premise, this film is higherbudget but suffers from the same fatal flaws.For what could have been an interesting concept turns nothing more intoa plastic, pretentious alien sexploitation film. The creature can doeverything but talk, nobody but the writer knows why. It's just allconvenient. Don't we all just want love an affection.The first third is watchable. The second third becomes ridiculous andlaughable. The last third makes you wonder why anyone bothered to makethis film. Sad. The writer and director should have been limited to anidea man. The film makes George Lucas' script for Wars 1, 2 and 3 lookgenius.

Neil Welch (23 May 2012)

Unrealised potential

I approached Splice with interest and trepidation: on the one hand, theadvance visuals I had seen looked eye-catching, and the two UKnewspaper reviews I had read were both positive but, on the other, Ihad heard fairly damning things from friends with shared tastes.What I found was a fairly standard plot - scientists, messing withthings they shouldn't mess with, create a Frankenstein's monster(genetically rather than surgically), and this creature ends up goingon a rampage.There was much here which I found worthwhile, First of all, the science- essentially a maguffin to facilitate the creation of Dren, the female(and moderately, though not exclusively, human) creature - comes acrossas fairly credible: it sounds, and looks, as if someone had done somehomework before putting pen to paper, and this disguises themaguffin-ness very effectively, and mean that the science and businesselements of the plot which run through the first half of the movie makethis fairly interesting to follow. Secondly, Dren is a stunninglyeffective creation. A mixture of CGI add-ons to actress DelphineChaneac, Dren is both alluringly attractive and profoundly,disturbingly non-human. And, during the centre section of the film,Dren is very close to becoming one of a select group of movie monsterswhich work because they are essentially pitiable: their monster statushas come about through no fault of their own. Further, there aretantalising hints that Dren may well understand this.Then we come to the bits which aren't so good. There was scope toconsider the ethical implications of using human DNA in research, butthis got lost somewhere. There was scope to communicate with Dren, butthis got overlooked in favour of the two scientists behaving likecomplete asses (and Dren's constant chirrupping became a profoundirritant). The sudden appearance of scientist Sarah Polley's remotefarmhouse and barn was lazy scriptwriting - this could easily have beenintroduced in a way where it wasn't so obviously "Let's write a remotebarn in" response to a demand in the story. The scene where Drenseduces scientist Adrien Brody was very nearly the profoundlydisturbing scene it should have been, but never quite made it. Thehang-ups of the Sarah Polley character, and their impact on heractions, were never fully explored. And the final act descent intostandard monster-on-a-rampage mode, complete with unsatisfying and notvery credible plot twist, was a disappointment.That sums up the movie, really. The considerable potential never seemedto be fully developed, and the filmmakers, having put resources into agood set up, appeared to be content to let the whole thing devolve intosomething we've seen many times before.Oh, and I got irritated by the barn - snow is thick on the groundoutside, you can see daylight between the boards making up the barnwalls, and everybody is behaving as if it's summer inside.

Emily Wheeler (22 May 2012)

Worst Movie Ever AKA Best Movie Ever

The reason I saw this movie was because I had seen The Happening andlaughed for 2 hours straight and I wanted to see if Splice could topit. When I saw the rating on IMDb, I assumed that others scored it sohighly for its unintentional humor but reading the reviews it seemslike people either thought it was actually a quality film or weredisappointed because they were expecting a quality film. Both types ofopinion are, of course, valid (tho utterly mystifying to me) but Ithought my viewpoint should be represented as well.There were about 7 other people at the showing I went to, all going inwith the same expectations as I did. I was disappointed with the firsthour of the movie, which I thought was bad without any hilarity, butthe second half more than made up for it. My friend had actually read acomplete summary of the film and thought it was a joke. There are nowords to describe the ridiculousness of it all. The best I can dowithout giving anything away would be to describe it as a combinationof The Graduate, Twilight, and Zombie Strippets. There were moments socringe-inducing that I could not look at the screen. I have no ideawhether Vincenzo Natali meant to make a comedy (satire? RobertRodriguez-style B movie?) but I hope it was an attempt to create aserious discussion of the ethics of genetic manipulation because thatwould make it just that much funnier. That last sentence sounds mean,but honestly, I loved the film and am excited for the inevitablesequel. I'm still not sure if it beat the Happening, however.

(21 May 2012)

some great elements but...

I've never considered myself anywhere near prudish. but the elements ofrape, incest and bestiality left me and a roomful of 200 of my closeststrangers almost nauseated.overall, a watchable and entertaining effort. good characterdevelopment. good casting as well as predictably good performances fromproved lead actors. and mostly good writing aside from the juvenile andheavy handed "im inside you" bit... the whole film could have been far stronger with a bit more attentionto visual style and much less attention to graphic sexuality.we took our teenage daughter, expecting another fun, scary,creature-feature. NOT soft core fetish porn.

(21 May 2012)

one of the worst contemporary movies ever, but deserves some praise for bringing the horrors of gene manipulation to us...

I HATE this movie.Literally. Figuratively. Storyline, photography, dialogue. The female lead actor is horrible. Adrian Brody is quite good, however.IF I SEE ONE MORE ANIMAL "die" on film, whether staged or not, I will join PETA, hunt down the director(s) responsible, and never ever ever see any of their films again. I've seen enough animal death in my life to know it shouldn't be taken as lightly as it is, whether on film or not. The consciousness and intelligence of the helpless children and animals that suffer every day deserve more than that.Its one redeeming quality is that, for the non-brain-dead who may watch it, it alerts us to the horrors of gene manipulation. This is playing God, playing with fire and gasoline, pure and simple. We need to be putting money into PREVENTING cancer and disease, via lowering pollution and living healthy, instead of funding corporation's profit-making and falling for the lies of "we need this science to save people"---DON'T DO IT! DO NOT LET THESE PEOPLE WIN, and DO NOT FALL FOR A LIE.So, if you can get past the movie itself, and into the message, and project what the film is trying to convey---although in the Hollywood ridiculousness of a pretend "Horror" flick---then you may get something out of this. On the other hand, if you're the type that would understand this, then you probably already know all that already, and, thus, the film and story serve virtually no purpose, and it isn't entertaining on any level enough to stand as simple mindnumbing fodder...

lunabc (21 May 2012)

Profanity in Splice

I find it amusing/annoying that in the Parent Guide Advisory sectionfor profanity it states "Some explicit language, nothing too offensive.F**k is said 15 times." I understood the advisory comments were tostate facts and not opinions and beliefs. I do not understand why thatpersonal opinion was not removed from the advisory. I, as a parent andpersonally, find the use the "f" word highly offensive in any contextand the use of the word 15 times extends far beyond the boundaries ofoffense for me. I appreciate the parent guide advisory section as itdoes give a good overview of the content that I wish to expose mychildren as well as myself to. I choose to evaluate the content of amovie based on my own values. All "R" rated movies (although most) arenot laced with profanity and sex, i.e. The Passion of the Christ andThe Wolfman. I will decide for me what is or isn't offensive. So in thewords of Jack Webb- "Just the Facts Please"- no opinions

(17 May 2012)

If only it was as good as the trailer!

This review is from: Splice [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) I'll keep this short and sweet, suffice to say that the trailer for this movie made it look incredible; The reality of the situation, however, is that this movie is ill-conceived, poorly acted, horrendously filmed and overall just a terrible movie experience. With massive potential and an otherwise excellent cast, this movie fails to deliver on every level, despite a high-paced sci-fi thriller trailer. You'll certainly regret gritting your teeth and waiting for the end of the movie in the hopes it will actually deliver - it only gets worse. I put this one in the same bin as ANY movie directed by Uwe Boll, Code 46, and Gigli. Stay clear!

Ann Hornaday (16 May 2012)

A thoroughly repulsive science fiction-horror flick that slicks up its B-movie tawdriness with high-gloss production values and two otherwise classy stars.

baron_genitalstrassen (14 May 2012)

Way too familiar yet somehow fresh

Once the title creature shows up you're instantly going to compare thisthis eco-drama to 'E.T.'.Which is basically right the plot is all verysimilar to 'E.T.'. If not a total clone. What makes it fresh is the wayit opens and how the story comes into play. One would think this moviehas nothing to do with aliens and that this is a tender story about therelationship between a scientist and an experiment gone wrong. But oncethe alien shows up it becomes to predictable and leaves one wonderingjust how this alien is supposed to fit into history and mythology.And I really don't understand why they had to make up a new,non-existing country when they went out of the lab, instead of justcalling it the U.S. or something like that.

(13 May 2012)

Dren

This movie was pretty good. it is not your normal slash them up creature film. i though it had more of a moral to the story than anything else. this movie should actually be under the gener of science fiction than horror. The scary thing about this movie is that could actually happen. I was very impressed by the actors and i'm glad that dren was not a full cgi creature it made it feal more real. well all in all this movie was good.

Phil S (12 May 2012)

Underwhelming & Undecided

'Splice' is a shining example of mediocrity in modern cinema.Completely underwhelming, the film has no memorable moments andultimately can't even justify itself. You want entertainment? Everyplot twist and scary moment is predictable, and I hadn't seen atrailer. You want sci-fi? Nope. You want horror? Nein. You wantromance? Neit. You want moral choices/complications/consequences?Nothing satisfying or fresh. You want engaging drama? No characters ortribulations or actions that aren't shallow. The film didn't know whatit wanted to be, and failed to establish itself as any one thing. Thisisn't to say it was a successful genre bender because it's unique (itisn't), but rather to say 'Splice' is a hodgepodge of elements frommultiple inspirations, none of which are done competently orcompletely. No single facet of the film is fully fleshed out,especially the characters, and especially "Dren." If you want a hollowand jaded experience, then boy is 'Splice' the film for you. Actually,that seems to be the flavor of the year, so good luck findingotherwise.Happy viewing!

sddavis63 (11 May 2012)

Ethical Dilemmas Galore!

Interesting that I chose to watch this just days after I saw a newsreport that a team of Russian and Korean scientists are going to try tore-create a woolly mammoth. To me, that report was ethically troubling,and that report jumped into my head very early on in this movie."Splice" is also chock-full of ethical dilemmas, many of which mirrorthe real-life dilemmas that are front and centre today. To name just afew: abortion, euthanasia, animal research, stem cell research, theprofit motive behind medical research. All of these (and more) play acentral role in the development of this movie. "Splice" is an enjoyableand ethically challenging movie, and it does force you to confrontwithin yourself all of these ethical dilemmas that are around us rightat this very moment.Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are the stars as Clive and Elsa - twoyoung scientists working for a company looking to genetic research todevelop now wonder drugs by "splicing" together the genes of variousanimals. Having "created" a new form of (unrecognizable) life to bemined in this research, Clive and Elsa want to take the experiment onestep further by introducing human DNA into the equation, but thecompany objects - not so much for ethical reasons, but because theyneed to see some financial return on the work that's been done to date.Forbidden by the company to go farther, Clive and Elsa work secretlyand produce a human-like creature, spliced together with a variety ofother creatures, whom they eventually name Dren. With the ethicaldilemmas already front and centre the movie then becomes the story ofthe relationship between the three, and there's great mystery involvedwith that, because we don't know exactly what Dren is or what she'scapable of. Is she an uncontrollable wild animal with a degree of humanintelligence, or is she more human and civilized? The ethical dilemmasworked quite well to keep my attention, and Brody and Polley workedpretty well in their roles. The other characters in the movie werequite secondary and not really of any great importance, except to theextent that they all represented facets of the ethical dilemma.So far, so good, but the movie weakened substantially in the last 20minutes or so. What had been a rather thought-provoking story ended upbeing turned into a not especially interesting monster movie, and allwe basically did for that last stretch was wait to see who (if anyone)was going to survive, and the ending was extremely predictable. Therewere also a handful of plot points that bugged me. I thought thecharacter of Elsa changed much too quickly and easily from Dren'sprotector and mother figure to - well - a cold hearted, abusivescientist, quite frankly. That evolution was far too fast to bebelievable. The scene in which Clive and Dren have sex was troubling ona number of fronts, and really - in the overall context of the movie -served virtually no purpose except to make me (and I suspect many whowatched the movie) think "gross!" I also have to say that, while Iliked Brody and Polley and there's nothing in particular about theirperformances that I can point to that didn't work, for some reason Istill found them less than credible as super-scientists.Still, even though the ending weakened the movie considerably in myopinion, I still enjoyed it, if only because it made an effort to dealwith the hot-button issues we still face in a thought-provoking andentertaining manner. (8/10)

(10 May 2012)

RENT IT IF YOU MUST SEE IT.

After reading all the quite 'lenghtly' review's I thought I was going to love this movie...so I bought it. After I watched it I WISHED I had rented instead.**********SPOILER********From the time Brody has sex w/Dren until the end is the most interesting part of the flick.It was B-O-R-I-N-G...It did not hold my interest. I am curious about thing's of this nature, mixing dna to create new life - as human's may well have been mixed in a 'lab' by some 'alien' life-forms. The origin of the creation of human has not, to my knowledge, been PROVEN yet.This is what drew me to want to view this movie - but I did NOT like!Read all the other full coverage review's..in my opinion nothing worth watching happen's until the end...and even then, it's nothing to get excited nor upset over. It's just another crappy movie.I would recommend renting if you must see!

BlackSheep333 (10 May 2012)

Another great movie getting trashed by fans.

Saw this in theaters and recently bought it on Blu Ray/DVD and its areally cool freaky movie. I think to weird for some... Seriously nowthough what the hell do you expect from a Sci-fi/horror/thriller? Afamily flick? Of course its going to be weird and off the wall. THATSWHATS ITS SUPPOSE TO BE! I think people are to sensitive and take somethings too seriously but its not like you saw the trailer and/or readup about it and thought it was a G rated squeaky clean flick... ITSCI-FI! What more do you uptight snobs want? Its pretty damn cool ifyou ask me. Theater experience 10/10 movie 10/10 Blu ray 8/10 features 6/10EDIT: REPLAY VALUE: 7/10 FINAL SCORE: 8/10

acespaceman (09 May 2012)

I cannot believe I sat through the whole thing without walking out.

I saw this movie just tonight at the "Second Run" Cheap theater for$1.75. I was ROBBED. This is by far the worst movie I'v seen in years.At some point, I'm sure I've seen another movie this bad, but I can'tthink of any at the moment.OK, so let's get to the reasons this movie completely sucked.Obviously, this is supposed to be a Sci-Fi thriller, and Characterdevelopment isn't usually paramount, but The director gives us noreason whatsoever to care about the two main human characters. They'renot really good people, they're not really bad, they're just thereconducting the most ridiculous experiments which end up giving us the"Creature".OK, so the two main characters don't give us anything to care about. Nobig deal, this is a Thriller right? So we can expect some good oldfashioned, edge of your seat, scares right? Wrong. There's nothingremotely scary about this film, aside from the fact that the studiogreenlighted it.OK, so, We don't care about the characters... It's not scary.. Maybeit'll have some higher purpose, with great social commentary, and amessage of ethics that makes us think. NOPE.The whole premise of the movie is beyond stupid, but by the time Brodiehas sex with the Creature, it's completely impossible to take thismovie seriously.I usually have no problem suspending disbelief at the movies... Butc'mon, Throw us a bone here, you want me to believe that two young,successful, highly educated scientists working in a medical/geneticslaboratory, splice one of their own DNA samples with that of.... someother DNA coctail to create a humanoid creature in the broom closet inthe basement, of the Med Lab because... Why? who knows. Who Cares.It grows up into a female freakshow, that not even the lonliest guy Iknow would have sex with, but Brodie decides to do it anyway. Then theCreature changes it's gender, and Rapes the female doctor, knocking herup, and Killing Brodie in the process.Female doctor is pregnant with Freakshow's child, and the movie endswith GREAT possibilities for a FANTASTIC sequel. Somebody slap theDirector.If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that inthis day, and age a movie this bad didn't go straight to DVD.I wasted 2 hours of my life, and $1.75 on this steaming heap of crap.Learn from my mistake, and don't let it happen to you. Stay home, andwatch Seinfeld Reruns, Change the oil in your car, Paint the Garage...anything... just don't waste your time on this movie.

lewiskendell (08 May 2012)

An experiment with mixed results.

"We crossed a line and things got confused."Splice is quite the interesting sci-fi/horror movie. There have beenmany movies about science gone too far, and while this one mightinitially tread somewhat familiar ground, it eventually goes its owndirection - to mixed results. Two scientists specializing in splicing animal genes together to makenew lifeforms, take an unwise and hasty step forward and introducehuman genes into the mix. The result is Dren, an intelligent mix ofanimal and human that draws both paternal and other feelings from thetwo, despite their initial horror at what they had created. Butdangerous changes in their other experiments combined with the violencethat's inherent in Dren's human side, hint at the fact that somethingtruly horrible might result from tampering with nature.The best parts of the movie, to me, were watching the young hybridgrowing up through the recognizable stages of human childhood andadolescence, but mixed with the odd animal behaviors that make theunnatural creature so oddly frightening. When the movie inevitablytakes (a very creeeeeeepy) turn for the worse, is when it started tolose me. Let's just say that the relationships between both scientistsand Dren end up going way to far in different ways, and the tone of themovie subsequently changes. And not for the better, in my opinion.The reason why I described Splice as "interesting" instead of "good",was because of my conflicted feelings. It started off well, but thelatter half undermined the solid start. Cheers to the filmmakers fordoing something different, but different isn't always good. 

John Beifuss (06 May 2012)

The film becomes a discomfiting parody of parenting that delivers both the creepiness and the topicality we want from a great horror movie...

(06 May 2012)

Scary and lively special effects + Only the first 40 minutes are suspenseful

The special effects make Dren, the hybrid creature, look lively and scary. Only the first 40 minutes are suspenseful. After that, the movie becomes insipid, and predictable. What a waste! It has the potential to become a good science fiction.

(02 May 2012)

More like a made-for-TV movie

Though this was released in theatres, it feels very much like a Sci-Fi Channel flick. It just didn't have the power or creativity to hit the big screen and I was disappointed that Adrien Brody would expose himself to such a semi-bomb. It moves much too slow, has the redundancy of several older sci-fi releases, and just doesn't hit the mark. The script is weak, the believability of characters and the creature are suspect, and this one would have been a hit if it were a 1-hour "Outer Limits" or "Twilight Zone" segment. Perhaps the reason it didn't set well with me is that it had no sense of humor...not one moment where I wanted to smile...much too serious for a flimsy and unbelievable storyline. It was billed as being "sexy and scary." I was never scared and the sex scene with Brody grossed me out. This creature had no sex-appeal whatsoever. The ending of the film sums up this review. Two stars.

sirenastara (02 May 2012)

Gross (spoiler)

I was somewhat amused by parts of this movie. It was interesting seeingDren develop. The sex between her and the guy was absolutely grotesque.And, the rape was disgusting. I literally threw up my mouth, thenproceeded to yell "no!" and "eww" at the TV for the entire scene. It'sa decent movie, but not for the weak stomached type of person or theones with virgin eyes. At the ending, I felt as if I could've guessedthe outcome from the beginning. Unstable creature, who keeps dying, andhas a stinger in its tail will become a member of society? Yeah right.The scientists became too attached to a child like being, when theydon't even know how to raise one. They made too many mistakes. Theending left too many questions and leaves viewers with the thought of asequel.