Producer: Guillermo Del Torro. Most of Del Torro's films have been in science fiction. I like the majority of the films he produces. I am pretty sure he produced the Hellboy movies, but I could be wrong.
Director: Vincenzo Natalie, he has had a semi-prolific career so far. His most notable film was the 1997 Canadian psychological thriller Cube, which was actually a really good film.
Budget: $30,000,000
Opening Weekend Revenue: $7,385,2777 (Box Office Mojo)
Total Revenue so far: $13,000,000. Yes I know, kind of disappointing.
Starring: Adrian Brody, Sarah Polley (I loved her in Dawn of the Dead and GO)
Critical Reaction: Mostly positive. I liked what the review said in the Post Gazette© but I threw it away, oh well.
Prognosis: Splice will most likely end up barely recovering its production costs of $30,000,000 and might garner up a few nominations for the Saturn Awards which are presented by the Academy Of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films©. I have already read that there are talks about a sequel so I guess we can call Splice a terminal film.
*Terminal Film- A single film or franchise in which the first or most recent film is basically as good as it gets.
What I thought:
Overall, I did like this film. I have to say that I was a little disappointed at the opening weekend, although it was a pretty slow weekend at the box office, I thought a good scary science fiction film was exactly what America wanted, but I guess I was wrong. Still take a look back at the other science fiction films such as The Relic and Mimic; they did well critically but not commercially. Then take a look at the infamous Species, which was a summer blockbuster and was pretty much panned by critics. Ironically most people are comparing Splice to Species and I would like to remind people that most critics panned Species for a lack of intelligence in the storyline and applauded Splice for maintaining intelligence in the storyline, so get your facts straight before you go creating stereotypes.
Even though I really am not a huge fan of Adrian Brody, I do think that he did a decent job as a "superstar genetic engineer". It was really kind of nostalgic sitting in the movie theatre with my heart pounding and hands sweating wondering which hybrid animal/person was going to change sexes and destroy whatever life form within a ten feet radius. I do think that the story line started to get a little carried away towards the end, but it never really got to where it would be considered tacky. At times the CGIs were certainly a little bit below standard, but even Avatar had it's downfalls. I think that if Splice were released in 3D it definitely would have made more money, in fact I think that's ultimately what kept a lot of people away from this film. Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have both kind of set a new standard and I just think that 2010 was not a good year to release a science fiction film with a budget of $30,000,000 and expect to really make any money. But if you're in the mood for a jump out of your seat kind of scary film with a hint of humor and intellect then go see Splice. I personally believe that out of all of the science fiction films that try to deliver the message about the dangers of bio technology, Splice is one of the few entries I didn't hate, so rock on Vincenzo! I really did enjoy Cube.
Reference:
Box Office Mojo. 14 June 2010. Internet Movie Database, Amazon.com.
[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=splice.htm]
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