SPLICE SHOULD HAVE BEEN CUT

Adrien Brody makes some strange choices when it comes to deciding which movie roles to take on.  He should have passed on this one.  Splice is 111 minutes of garbage.  I am usually able to find some redeeming quality in a movie so as not to over-simplify a bad review with just one word, but "garbage" is being nice.  I am happy, however, that I was not one of the 7 people who saw this in the theater.  I would have asked for my money back.

The premise is a blatant rip-off of Species; a new life-form raised in a lab, becomes intelligent, strong and, well let's face it, sexually mature - so to speak.  Brody and co-star, Sarah Polley are a couple who also happen to be some kind of genetic scientists that spend their days creating said life forms.  There are other scientists who work there too, like Brody's on-screen brother, but they don't really do anything but sit around and listen to bad music.  So, the scientific dynamic-duo are left alone to do whatever they want until their corporate sponsor shows up and actually demands some results from their funding... how unreasonable.

Needless to say, the two go way off task by creating a new hybrid life-form using human DNA...gasp!  Unfortunately, with the two main characters, what you see is what you get.  We don't know anything about them, what their motivations are, what brought them together, etc.  The result, you don't care.  After the premise was set up, I spent the rest of the movie not caring about the characters, the new life form, anything.  The few "surprises" they tried to throw in were so incredibly obvious, you could pick them apart the instant they tried to throw a hint at you, even before really.  Also, toward the end of the movie, Brody and Polley's characters kind of switched places with their attitudes and actions.  This didn't make any sense, and then things just got weird.... and not in a good way.

Finally, after all is said and done, they leave the door open for a sequel.  Don't count on it.  This movie had a budget of $30 million, really cheap for a sci-fi thriller.  It did not make its money back in world-wide release!  Unless the Sy-fy channel picks up a low-budget sequel, as they did with Lake Placid 2 and 3 or Species 3, this franchise should be finished (although if Sy-fy did pick up a sequel it would probably be an improvement over the original... no really).  Also, my apologies to David Hewlett (Stargate Atlantis), who was a supporting actor.  I like his work, generally, but know that sometimes you just need a paycheck.

Bottom line - DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME on this film.  Watch Species again, heck, even parts 2 or 3.  You'll at least be entertained for a couple of hours.