Movie review: Splice
Jun. 4th, 2010 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficShort version: David Hewlett is in this movie. And yes, it turns out that everything would've worked out fine if they'd just listened to Rodney McKay.
Long version:
Okay, so basically, this is a Frankenstein story. Two scientists experimentally splice together human DNA with animal DNA and end up raising the result as a sort of surrogate daughter. This turns out to be a bad idea. The weird part is that it makes the exact same mistake as the original Frankenstein, which is eighty years old!
Okay, history lesson. You're probably familiar with Frankenstein, mad scientist, lightning, mob with torches and pitchforks. Well, the general subtext is that the reason Frankenstein is a monster is solely because of his shitty "parent," Victor Frankenstein, who abandons him at the moment of his "birth." After that, Frankenstein is subjected to hatred and cruelty, which causes him to respond in tragic kind.
It's a good story, but for some reason, the James Whale added a detail that Victor planned on using the brain of a great scientist, but his assistant accidentally gave him the "abnormal" brain of an executed murderer, thus completely fucking up the fine work done by Boris Karloff portraying the Monster as an innocent, naive creature. It also implies that if Victor had just gotten the "right" brain, the whole thing would've been hunky-dory, completely missing Mary Shelley's theme that removing the woman from procreation was an affront to the natural order of things and could only result in disaster (having read some mpreg stories, I have to concur).
So, in summary, "abnormal brain" is a bad idea that wrecks all the goodwill a film has accumulated and then contributes nothing to the finished product. For most of its runtime, Splice avoids this. The creature, named Dren, is simultaneously cuddly, disquieting, and even sexual at times. But it's clear that her problem isn't an abnormal brain, it's shitty parents. I mean, my mom and dad aren't brilliant scientists, but they would know better than to have sex in my bedroom while I slept. Right Mom? Mommy?
To highlight the wrongness of creating such a creature without any thought of its place in the world, we see that Dren has been named, given clothes, and even has toys to play with, but her "parents" still run hot and cold, insisting she's just an experiment. Sarah Polley, looking remarkably and aptly like Katee Sackhoff, at first is so "babies!" that you might think she was written by Gail Simone, but she's unable to stop herself from taking out her own childhood issues on Dren. Less poignantly (and sensically), Adrian Brody, looking like someone broke Peter Parker's nose, kinda wants to tap that. Men, huh?
Of course, this is a creature feature, so it has to end with a monstrous rampage. I don't mind that, it's the genre. But instead of being motivated by her abuse, the rampage is because of... abnormal genes. When a tiny "cousin" of Dren goes nuts and kills its mate because of a protein that made it shift gender, the experienced movie watcher will begin saying "C'mon, don't go there." Then when the scientists direly note that Dren has ten times the protein in her system, they'll say "Really, movie? You're really going there?" Then when Dren turns into a male (because isn't it always a good idea to have a character played by a different actor for the climax, one whom the audience has no emotional investment in at all?) and rapes Sarah Polley... well, how many good movies can you think of where the monster has a sex-change operation and gives the heroine a rape-baby?
Now, there are so many ways they could've done this better. One, they could've at least had a good rampage to make us forgive the clunky way it's brought about. Isn't it a rule that if you create a monster, it will eventually go to an urban area and wreck havoc? But all Dren gets to do is kill two guys with ye olde "yank them off-screen and maybe show them later with some ketchup smeared on their face." C'mon, movie, it's Rodney McKay. He deserves to have his spine ripped out or SOMETHING.
Or they could've had the rampage motivated by characterization, like the rest of the movie. Sarah Polley's character could go off on Dren, who would then accidentally kill her. Adrian Brody would go out for revenge, despite Polley's dying words that it wasn't Dren's fault, and however you ended the rampage, we all woulda learnt something about man's inhumanity to man-beast.
OR! You could've skipped the rampage altogether and just left Splice a thoughtful, artistic sci-fi movie. Really, I don't need a rampage. The Chekov's Gun is that Dren is aging at an accelerated rate, so just have her die of old age (the movie almost does this, but wusses out by having her bust out of her grave like a transvestite Dracula). Then either the scientists, having learned their lesson, mourn her as a daughter, or create a new Dren with the caveat that this time, they'll treat her as nothing but a monster. Tell me you wouldn't get goosebumps if the last shot was of an embryonic second Dren, with Adrian Brody narrating "No more names, no more Barbies, no more attachments. We'll get it right this time. She's just an experiment. It's just an experiment..." Now that would be a horror movie.
Or you could end the movie with a lame sequel hook showcasing how the scientists aren't considering the consequences of their actions and are treating a human being as a subhuman. Since we didn't get that from watching the entire movie. Sigh...
Long version:
Okay, so basically, this is a Frankenstein story. Two scientists experimentally splice together human DNA with animal DNA and end up raising the result as a sort of surrogate daughter. This turns out to be a bad idea. The weird part is that it makes the exact same mistake as the original Frankenstein, which is eighty years old!
Okay, history lesson. You're probably familiar with Frankenstein, mad scientist, lightning, mob with torches and pitchforks. Well, the general subtext is that the reason Frankenstein is a monster is solely because of his shitty "parent," Victor Frankenstein, who abandons him at the moment of his "birth." After that, Frankenstein is subjected to hatred and cruelty, which causes him to respond in tragic kind.
It's a good story, but for some reason, the James Whale added a detail that Victor planned on using the brain of a great scientist, but his assistant accidentally gave him the "abnormal" brain of an executed murderer, thus completely fucking up the fine work done by Boris Karloff portraying the Monster as an innocent, naive creature. It also implies that if Victor had just gotten the "right" brain, the whole thing would've been hunky-dory, completely missing Mary Shelley's theme that removing the woman from procreation was an affront to the natural order of things and could only result in disaster (having read some mpreg stories, I have to concur).
So, in summary, "abnormal brain" is a bad idea that wrecks all the goodwill a film has accumulated and then contributes nothing to the finished product. For most of its runtime, Splice avoids this. The creature, named Dren, is simultaneously cuddly, disquieting, and even sexual at times. But it's clear that her problem isn't an abnormal brain, it's shitty parents. I mean, my mom and dad aren't brilliant scientists, but they would know better than to have sex in my bedroom while I slept. Right Mom? Mommy?
To highlight the wrongness of creating such a creature without any thought of its place in the world, we see that Dren has been named, given clothes, and even has toys to play with, but her "parents" still run hot and cold, insisting she's just an experiment. Sarah Polley, looking remarkably and aptly like Katee Sackhoff, at first is so "babies!" that you might think she was written by Gail Simone, but she's unable to stop herself from taking out her own childhood issues on Dren. Less poignantly (and sensically), Adrian Brody, looking like someone broke Peter Parker's nose, kinda wants to tap that. Men, huh?
Of course, this is a creature feature, so it has to end with a monstrous rampage. I don't mind that, it's the genre. But instead of being motivated by her abuse, the rampage is because of... abnormal genes. When a tiny "cousin" of Dren goes nuts and kills its mate because of a protein that made it shift gender, the experienced movie watcher will begin saying "C'mon, don't go there." Then when the scientists direly note that Dren has ten times the protein in her system, they'll say "Really, movie? You're really going there?" Then when Dren turns into a male (because isn't it always a good idea to have a character played by a different actor for the climax, one whom the audience has no emotional investment in at all?) and rapes Sarah Polley... well, how many good movies can you think of where the monster has a sex-change operation and gives the heroine a rape-baby?
Now, there are so many ways they could've done this better. One, they could've at least had a good rampage to make us forgive the clunky way it's brought about. Isn't it a rule that if you create a monster, it will eventually go to an urban area and wreck havoc? But all Dren gets to do is kill two guys with ye olde "yank them off-screen and maybe show them later with some ketchup smeared on their face." C'mon, movie, it's Rodney McKay. He deserves to have his spine ripped out or SOMETHING.
Or they could've had the rampage motivated by characterization, like the rest of the movie. Sarah Polley's character could go off on Dren, who would then accidentally kill her. Adrian Brody would go out for revenge, despite Polley's dying words that it wasn't Dren's fault, and however you ended the rampage, we all woulda learnt something about man's inhumanity to man-beast.
OR! You could've skipped the rampage altogether and just left Splice a thoughtful, artistic sci-fi movie. Really, I don't need a rampage. The Chekov's Gun is that Dren is aging at an accelerated rate, so just have her die of old age (the movie almost does this, but wusses out by having her bust out of her grave like a transvestite Dracula). Then either the scientists, having learned their lesson, mourn her as a daughter, or create a new Dren with the caveat that this time, they'll treat her as nothing but a monster. Tell me you wouldn't get goosebumps if the last shot was of an embryonic second Dren, with Adrian Brody narrating "No more names, no more Barbies, no more attachments. We'll get it right this time. She's just an experiment. It's just an experiment..." Now that would be a horror movie.
Or you could end the movie with a lame sequel hook showcasing how the scientists aren't considering the consequences of their actions and are treating a human being as a subhuman. Since we didn't get that from watching the entire movie. Sigh...
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-05 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-05 03:58 am (UTC)I just love the entire wisdom and wit all done in this quote! Well-put!
Then either the scientists, having learned their lesson, mourn her as a daughter, or create a new Dren with the caveat that this time, they'll treat her as nothing but a monster. Tell me you wouldn't get goosebumps if the last shot was of an embryonic second Dren, with Adrian Brody narrating "No more names, no more Barbies, no more attachments. We'll get it right this time. She's just an experiment. It's just an experiment..." Now that would be a horror movie.
Why couldn't you have directed this movie? Then, it would so be worth the eight dollar-tickets.
Rod McKay
Date: 2010-06-05 07:03 am (UTC)"An advertising executive, trapped in a tree by a gang of would-be muggers, manipulates them into fighting to save his life."
If you never watched this, you should, it's very, very good.
Extremely low budget. Takes place in one location over the course of one night (90m for us).
Yet it...Is...AWESOME!
All about the characters, the dialogs, but never boring or slow.
I'm not sure but it might be based on a play.
Hewlett doesn't play Clone!McKay in this.