OH YES.

Point me to the spoiler ending!

One reviewer admires the over-the-topness:

******

The trickiest thing in Splice isn't the creature design and FX but rather the tone. Someone described it to me as in the vein of Re-Animator, and I would agree to an extent. Splice is less obviously jokey than Re-Animator, but it does go large, and it goes large with gusto. I don't know that any of the choices the characters make actually make real world sense, but they all lead to wonderful things, and to an ending that keeps going places I didn't think it would. Natali and his team of co-writers certainly didn't feel the need to every play it safe.

Brody and Polley get the tone, and they go for it. Brody especially embraces it, which is the only way for him to get through some of the third act business when the movie gets extremely weird. Natali isn't just exploring gene splicing through the lens of scifi-horror, he's examining it through the lens of procreation. Natali is interested in how we deal with our offspring, whether naturally born or lab-grown, and how our own upbringing impacts that. A genetically engineered life form won't be the next leap, he's saying, it'll be just the next turn in a cycle of abuse that has gone on for generations.

There are a lot of problems with Splice; for a movie that had been in development for so long the script felt slightly half-baked, and the odd tone of the film means you either go with it right from the start when Adrien Brody looks like he just stepped off stage at a Hong Kong Cavaliers show or you'll be totally lost. If you can get in, the film is exceptionally rewarding with strangeness and cool creatures and a lingering aura of simple madness. Splice is exactly the kind of movie I keep waiting to see: strange, over the top, cool, thoughtful, monster-filled and just plain crazy.

Yeah, I've heard comparisons to early Cronenberg, so I kinda got to see it. But I do understand that is DEFINITELY not everyone's thing. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be either.

Okay, I found some spoilers and that doesn't seem particularly different from general Cronenberginess. In fact, it seems like standard Cronenberg with better CGI instead of latex FX.

Yeah, I can definitely see the Cronenberginess. I generally agree with the reviewer Hec quoted. And the io9 review. I really liked the family aspect, watching Clive and Elsa raise Dren. I thought that made for good sci-fi. The special effects were great.

Like le nubian said, it definitely goes to a fucked-up place and then finds a lower place.

(Still not sure it's as fucked-up as Oldboy, though.)

It's a twisted, disturbing movie. But, though flawed, it's a good one.

I don't think I've seen much Cronenberg, but I have to believe that his movies are better than Splice. So my complaints are two-fold:

a) it went to a several really fucked up places

b) the movie didn't earn it

I appreciate all the deep reading into the movie as cultural critique, but in some ways, I feel like that's trying to do a deep reading of Freddy Got Fingered. I'm not a fan of A Clockwork Orange, but everything in that movie had a point. The shocking moments were deserved.

I wouldn't have been so put out by the layers of the fucked up in the final act if I thought I was watching a decent movie - one where all this stuff felt deserved or warranted. I literally felt like I was watching the performance art parodied in "Spaces" where they might as well have filmed someone standing on stage rubbing himself with sheep.

I can't decide if this is making me want to see Splice more or less.

Heh - ways to guarantee Jess will never see a movie:

1 - compare it to The Cell

2 - compare it to Cronenberg

I think the latter comparison is much more apt. #1 was just to discuss a movie that one could argue had/didn't have much of a story. Content, visually, the two movies are quite different.

Concerning the Cell, am I right in concluding that saving the remaining victim in fact had utterly nothing to do with Jennifer Lopez' psychic foray? I recall the detective pursuing a completely unrelated line of enquiry that led him to the guy's Aquarium of Doooom.