Splice (2010)
From director Vincenzo Natali (Cypher and the forthcoming Neuromancer) comes a new take on Frankenstein story where Man plays God and creates his own nightmare as a result.
Genetic engineers Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) specialize in splicing DNA from different animals to create incredible new hybrids. Now they want to use human DNA in a hybrid that could revolutionize science and medicine. But when the pharmaceutical company that funds their research forbids it, Clive and Elsa secretly take their boldest experimentation underground—risking their careers by pushing the boundaries of science to serve their own curiosity and ambition.
The result is Dren, an amazing, strangely beautiful creature of uncommon intelligence and an array of unexpected physical developments. At first, Dren exceeds their wildest dreams. But as she grows and learns at an accelerated rate, her existence threatens to become their worst nightmare.
I am quite anxious to see this movie at next weeks press screening and look forward to chatting with Vincenzo Natali about some of the aspects I hope the movie will cover. Certainly the question as whether or not a lab-grown creature such as Dren might posses a soul is something that must be addressed and it will be interesting to see how the ethics of medical and scientific research is addressed here as well. Perhaps you may view this an anti-science movie, ultimately I think it might be a movie which says it’s not the science which leads to bad, but rather it’s the human element and good intentions.
Although of no religious inclination myself, the idea of the soul is something more of a spiritual matter and I have at times considered if life which is created artificially can posses that immortal and timeless spark. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates spoke about the Soul and these conversations are written about in the dialogues by Plato in Phaedo. In it, Socrates puts forward an argument that the soul indeed must exist as everything in nature exists with its direct opposite, giving the example of fire and ice and life and death. If the body is finite and destructible, then so to it must have its direct opposite, something which is immortal and indestructible; the soul. It is of course, just one of the many arguments for its existence.
If Splice can address some of these ideas while maintaining an interesting storyline I will be happy. Given that the film stars Adrian Brody and is directed by Vincenzo Natali, both of whom have never failed to disappoint (Brody as an actor cannot be blamed for King Kong!), I am hopeful.
Splice is released on July 23rd 2010 in the UK by Warner Brothers Pictures.
LINKS:
Official Movie Site
Written and Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Produced by Steve Hoban and Guillermo Del Toro
Starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley and Delphine Chanéac
Music by Cyrille Aufort
Cinematography Tetsuo Nagata
Editing by Michele Conroy
I just have one question rather than a comment. Why is there a need to combine some animal’s DNA with some human’s to create an anomaly like this? It seems like a lab rat experiment. Will they hope to achieve some medical breakthrough by this, is that the point in splice. When I think long and hard I don’t really see a point to this movie at all, it’s just another sci-fi like the FLY that started promising and towards the end went out of control. I;m not surprised to read some message boards with comments like worst movie ever etc. If I have to rate this on what I have seen and heard I won’t give it more than 5 stars out of 10.