Man has always been wondering how the human body has worked since the beginning of time, and inevitably followed with how to take control of life itself. In the past 60 years technologies have been invented that have edged us ever closer to those goals. In 1987 the Human Genome Project was created to map the nucleotides in a human haploid genome reference group. In 1997, scientists famously cloned a sheep named Dolly. In 2000, scientists cloned a rhesus monkey. In 2001, a bull was cloned. In 2003, the announcement was made that the Genome was mapped. In 2009, scientists cloned a camel. These days scientists are moving closer and closer to being able to clone, and/or genetically engineer a human. In Splice, we see a film about what just might happen in the case that we do make that final leap into cloning.
Splice stars Adrien Brody (Predators) as Clive Nicoli, Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead) as Elsa Kast, Delphine Chaneac (The Pink Panther) as Dren, and David Hewlett (Stargate: Atlantis) as William Barlow. Splice is the story of two genetic engineers at the top of their field who specialize in DNA work. These two scientists, Elsa and Clive, have created a new enzyme hybrid to find a gene that will help pharmaceutical companies create medicines and vaccines that are easier to synthesize into the body. After they create this hybrid they go to the company that has contracted with their lab to convince them to let them create a human hybrid. The company declines, and they decide to proceed anyways. Due to this Elsa and Clive have to deal with all the potential problems that come with their decision.
The two create “Dren”, who begins to grow and accelerate at an alarming rate. They realize that soon she will be too large to hide in their lab and decide to relocate her to a Elsa’s family farm. Things continue to go badly as Dren develops a new toxic stinger, wings, and the ability to breath underwater (take that Aquaman) and soon the scientists realize that they might be in over their heads.
Side note: If there is any moral to this story, it would be that if you create a human genetic hybrid…maybe you shouldn’t sleep with it. That might be a bad idea and come back and bite you in the ass later. Clive doesn’t take this advice and is seduced by Dren and ends up sleeping with her! Yeah. That happened. Then we find out that Elsa is rather upset at Clive because (here is the kicker) she actually used her own DNA to make Dren! The plot thickens.
The final act of the story pits the scientists against their angry, sex-crazed, and gender changing (plot twist) creation.
Special Features:
“A Director’s Playground: Vincenzo Natali on the Set”: This is a featurette about the making of the film with a focus on the director.
1080p Video
5.1 DTS-HD Audio
Overall:
Splice is an entertaining suspense film that theorizes the road that we are going down with genetic engineering. The guess is an entertaining romp, but falls a little flat. The acting is on par with anything Adrien Brody does, and keeps the viewer watching. It seems that the science is a little flawed. Thee two leads seemed a little careless for the jobs that they are doing, and this impacted the film for me. This film is definitely for a specific audience and might not be for everyone. It is still an enjoyable take on the future and a entertaining cautionary tale about human cloning.
ComicsOnline gives Splice on Blu-ray 3 new proteins out of 5.
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