Movie Review of "Splice"

As is usually the case when the Green Bay Packers aren't playing in it, I wasn't overly interested in the Super Bowl this past Sunday and, after the halftime show, let my wife talk me into watching a movie instead. We had a couple films to choose from, but since we had just received the movie "Splice" in the mail from Netflix, we decided to watch that one.

This was a movie my wife has wanted to see since it first hit the movie theater. In fact, when it came out, we thought about seeing it at the theater but never had a chance to. After seeing it Sunday, I'm glad we didn't spend the money on it.

To be fair, the movie does have a somewhat interesting plot. A married pair of scientists (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) decides to create new organism using human DNA. At first, their creation (played by Delphine Chaneac) seems dangerous because it is wild, unstable and has a poisonous tail. But, as it gets older, it takes on human characteristics and, even though it can't speak, shows signs of intelligence. As a result, they stop treating it like an experiment and more like a daughter.

The part I did find interesting about this movie was how it addressed both the benefits and dangers of playing God. Their creation had the capability of curing diseases. But, even though it looked somewhat human, it was still animalistic at times and potentially dangerous, especially since they didn't know everything it was able to do (such as fly and change gender).

Another thing I liked about the movie was how the two scientists changed roles completely. At first, the wife was the one who wanted to create it and keep it while the husband was having second thoughts and wanted to kill it. By the end, it was the exact opposite, with the husband even falling in love with (and having sex with) their creation.

My biggest complaint about this movie (and the reason why I'm glad I didn't see it in the theater), is I mistakenly thought this was going to be a horror movie. But, other than early on, when they first created "Dren," there really wasn't anything scary about it. Even the more intense scenes were somewhat predictable, reducing the overall impact. As a result, even though I didn't hate the movie, I was still somewhat disappointed because it wasn't what I was expecting it to be.

My Grade: 3 stars out of a possible 5.