Alternative to What: "Splice" (2010)

Scene from Splice
Welcome to Alternative to What: a weekly column that tries to find a great alternative to driving to the multiplexes. Based on releases of that week, the selections will either be thematically related or feature recurring cast and crew. The goal is to help you better understand the diversity of cinema and hopefully find you some favorites while saving a few bucks. At worse, this column will save you money. Expect each installment to come out on Fridays, unless specified. 

THIS WEEK:
Splice (2010)
- Alternative To -
Morgan (2016)

One of the issues that has made sci-fi most curious is the idea of genetic modification. While this is most commonly thought of to be through robots, the idea of forming life from genes has been a concept that has grown throughout the years. One could argue that it started with Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and would evolve into a consumer-friendly tale in Jurassic Park. However, the tale keeps being told, and this weekend's Morgan looks to be another entry into the story of why science shouldn't play around with mankind. It may be doomed to be the conventional story that we've all come to expect, but speaking as Ex-Machina proved to be a surprise hit last year, it isn't without precedent for maybe being better than advertised.
While one could easily go down the line and pick various films that have featured experimentation, I do feel like picking one from the recent past is probably the way to go. To say the least, there hasn't been a film covering this subject that is quite like Splice. Considering that it's during the start of Adrien Brody's B-Movie quality work, it is a story that goes into a bizarre, unapologetic territory in which the audience gets to see top tier scientists who are experts in splicing genes have to deal with their creation as it grows up. What starts off as normal quickly turns into something very shocking and wholly original in a time where sci-fi maybe has a few formulas down pat.
The film is surprisingly erotic and has a lot of elements that aren't featured in your typical film. For starters, the character design is an inspired one that manages to turn a familiar story into something more pleasing to look at. There's insecurity as the creation grows and becomes sentient in a way that is haunting. Splice may be at times too silly to be taken seriously, but it does have enough creative brains to want to attempt to be entertaining. To say the least, it's a film that meets that requirement and becomes hard to forget, if just because of how it approaches the man playing god dilemma. It isn't like Ex-Machina that puts it into a philosophical blender. Instead, it just has fun with its aspects, and the results are probably going to be as fun as Morgan, if not more-so.
This is a recommendation that may not entirely be based on the best of the genre. Then again, Alternative to What thrives on picking sometimes obscure selections to make audiences aware of what's out there. Splice is a film that swings for the fences and produces something memorable. It may be in some ways disposable, but it does prove that there's still some juices in the genetic modification genre of cinema. Nobody will likely forget Brody's intimate reactions with his creation, which is only part of the perks of a movie rated R for nudity and sexuality. It may not be the smartest either, but it may fall on the more entertaining side.
I am unsure how similar this actually is to Morgan. In fact, I don't know a whole lot about the film other than that it wants to be a story about modifying organisms to others' benefit. You can't go wrong picking a variety of older movies that tackle the same subject. It is something that continues to puzzle mankind, especially as science advances to new potentials. Even then, cinema can be one step ahead by making fake science come to life in ways that nobody could imagine. Splice is kind of like that. It's wonderfully absurd fake science in ways that at very least won't leave you bored.

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