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Quint takes in Vincenzo Natali's sci-fi/horror flick SPLICE starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley! Sundance 2010!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my thoughts on the Guillermo del Toro produced sci-fi/monster movie hybrid SPLICE, directed by Vincenzo Natali who directed CUBE.
I gotta say when the movie started, the sixth of a six movie day, I wasn’t sure if I was going to dig it, but it’s one of those movies that evolves, getting better with each reel. Believe me, at film festivals it’s often the reverse; movies that start out strong and then just take a screaming nosedive becoming a gigantic trainwreck of pretentious boredom.
You can say a lot about Vincenzo’s movie, but a trainwreck of pretentious boredom it is not.
It’s a classic monster tale told through the lens of modern science. Instead of graverobbers our Frankenstein and Igor are a gene-splicing scientist couple played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. Instead of creating new life from cobbled together pieces of dead tissue they create life from cobbled together pieces of DNA, splicing different genomes from different animals.
In their work they had been able create new lifeforms from animal DNA, but legally couldn’t explore the full potential by adding in human DNA.
Naturally they end up fucking with nature to the point that something brand new and potentially deadly is created.
But much like its classic monster predecessors the creature, called Dren, has a soul. It’s not an evil being. Neither are the scientists, but by the end of the movie everybody has crossed a moral line of one type or another, everybody in the film, humans and creatures, have given in to evil urges or behavior.
I found some of the CG work at the beginning of the film to be a little loose if you know what I mean. I love the design of the young Dren, a bipedal rat-fetus of a creature (with creepily human eyes) and the way Natali shoots it, but I feel the worst of the digital work is here. That said if you give the creature enough personality then you get some leeway with the effects and I feel Natali earned that leeway with this creature.
As Dren grows older the human DNA shows through more and more allowing for a mixture of practical and CG to creature the matured creature, a demur and frankly beautiful creature. French actress Delphine Chaneac plays the matured Dren and the only big difference between her as a real life human being and her as Dren are her eyes... slightly bigger and farther apart and her legs, dog-kneed.
This allows for a great mixture of CGI and a human actress. It should also be noted that KNB added a lot to the practicals as well.
All effects talk aside, the movie only works if you buy the relationships, as fucked up and bizarre as they are.
Polley and Brody are fine. I bought them as scientists and as a couple. Bottom line, I’m a big fan of movies that are filled with gray characterization. That’s why I love noir and crime films so much and what I really grabbed on to with this movie. Everybody in this story has the capacity for kindness and cruelty.
By making such a distinct and fascinating creature in Dren Natali gives us something to hold on to, to sympathize with and to, ultimately, be terrified of.
Right now this film doesn’t have US distribution, but from my interview with the director earlier today I think they’re close.
As always, for a real time Sundance update, follow my Twitter feed!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
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but I'm intrigued. Polley has always been a strong actress, and Brody's no worse.
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and also a lot like the Goon looking vampires in that arctic-- shit I forget it's name. Not worth googling. Yeah, yeah, Ben Foster. Sure.....
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ok, it shoud be corrected now
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...is what I thought of when I saw that poster design. C'mon, guys...
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come on, someone, up high!
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Thanks again Quint. Always love reading your thoughts on festival releases.
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I wasn't really clear on that, aside from it not being a pretentious train wreck.
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From what I have read and saw on the internets .. potential here for something good.
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Species the last half dozen or so times it was done?
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This sounds good but i'm afraid i'll have to use my hands to cover the screen whenever he's on. I've never liked Brody as an actor. Can't explain why but whenever he's onscreen i find myself instantly bored.
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Can't wait for it. Hope it's good! The effects remind me of a Playstation Chris Cunningham commercial.
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and so the wait continues...
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train wreck of pretentious boredom"...so true.
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Saw that as the 3 o'clock million dollar movie after school in the mid 70's...
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http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/65/MPW-32966
http://www.shockya.com/news/wp-content/uploads/alien_movie_poster.jpg
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and i just watched CYPHER for the first time last week (right decent), so i'm hoping this will be good, too
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I will always have trouble with Brody after his lip-rape of Halle Berry. While her husband looked on. No class.
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Even the title is in an Alien-like font.
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Where is Natasha!
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We even saw cg shots aeons ago. Has it been sitting on the shelf or just had the world's longest post?
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this creature debut by creature.
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been waiting for this for what seems like an eternity. cube, nothing, cypher especially, and even his segment was my favourite in paris je'teim. Hope this come out soon
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One of the great entrances in screen history: Jean Simmons as Estella in David Lean's Great Expectations. RIP Jean SImmons
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ever since I saw the pics here on AICN. Is David Hewlett in it for a "blink and you miss it" amount of time or does he actually have a decent screen time?
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Jan 23, 2010 10:28:14 PM CST
Jeremy Renner begs Mel Gibson to do one more M4X
by beyondthunderdome2girls1cupbillcosby
http://tinyurl.com/y9qba5w
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Cunningham is awesome. Loved his work forever. Loved the creepy Glaswegian chick you referenced ;-)
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is this movie going to circle every fuckin film festival until the end of time?
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Rat people freak my shit out.
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Just put it on Netflix. What's the problem?
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or direct to video? it'd be a shame if it goes straight to video... it has that vibe though. still, with stars of that caliber.... i should see limited release right?
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That was hard to tell. I know you guys don't like dissing Del Toro... But at the same time, you guys love him and hosted a big showing of concept Photoshop art for the movie a long time ago, so I know this was anticipated. But this is a hard review to decipher. Good or not? Worth it or no? Failure or success?
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On a second read, that was not a very positive review at all. Tis a shame.
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Jan 24, 2010 2:02:27 AM CST
ripoff ripoff betcha this movie sucks more than a 110 pound whit
by corplhicks
Wow, I just can't tell: did they rip of Species:
http://www.movieposter.com/pos ters/archive/main/65/MPW-32966
Or
Alien?:
http://www.shockya.com/news/wp -content/uploads/alien_movie_p oster.jpg -
Origianlly that was supposed to be Natali's follow-up to CUBE!
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...the gene-splice of Tiptoes and Species. No chance of Adrian Brody going full dwarf is there?
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Jan 24, 2010 6:41:06 AM CST
Quint thought Splice sucked... according to his review.
by stereotypical evil archer
Quint, what was wrong? You weren't very clear.
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..or not at all.
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Does it have a sibling named Frell? You dare call me hapuuta?!
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. . . they still can't fix Sarah Polley's teeth?
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"...to creature the matured creature, a demur and frankly beautiful creature."
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they only creatured the mature creature, creaturing the baby creature would be plain sick.
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...Sinead O'Connor circa 1989. Truly horrifying!
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...sundance is no longer for independent filmmakers. Just because it wasn't created by a major studio doesn't make it independent.
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Jan 24, 2010 8:50:13 PM CST
so that's what Billy Corgan has been up to all these years...
by jiblets
anyone with a voice like that has to be a cannibal or a vampire. Or a rat-thing.
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I laughed heartily at your last comment. Well done, sir!
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Looks like equal parts Species and Iceman, with an ample helping of AI peppered throughout. Not that it'd suck. Brody is always good and Polley is too finicky with the roles she chooses.
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i guess it will join the lord in the heavens above
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Jan 25, 2010 2:34:15 AM CST
Adrien Brody has a beer and creatures his wife
by judge dredds fresh undies
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Jan 25, 2010 10:00:16 AM CST
Seems like rip-off of elements of Watchers, as well....
by none_so_blind
At least the original book (esp. the "Outsider" character), not the unbelievably bad movie version and subsequent sequels...
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in a few years these genetic engineering nightmares will be reality. And it won't be pretty.
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from:thestar.com
Speaking of Avatar, Natali’s Splice attracted so much advance attention, it drew a letter from Cameron’s lawyers. They were making cease-and-desist noises because they wrongly assumed that Splice was stealing from Avatar’s plot, even though Natali said he’s been writing it for 10 years.
But fellow Canuck Cameron told his legal beagles to take off, eh?
Said Natali: “James Cameron actually interceded and said, ‘No, no! They’re really not doing anything like we’re doing.’ That spoke well for him.”
James Cameron sues for plagiarism?!?!
Also, weren't they sued by Patricia Piccinini?
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