What are you doing right now?

[EndOfTheEarth]

Besides posting on here and replying to this thread. Original credit for this goes back to Fate and Nathan on MX.

[EndOfTheEarth]

Finally got my hands on a copy of Splice.

This movie isn't about science. It's about dysfunctional relationships (typical, typical) and parenting (also typical). So far it's portrayed well, but I always find myself annoyed with characters like Elsa; she reminds me of the various representatives of Weyland-Yutoni from the Alien series; unable to see that something is going wrong, even when the shit has been hitting the fan for the past four months.

I'll have more to say at the end of the film.

[nathan_p]

...actually, word.

The fucky Freudian dynamics were probably the best part of the film. Everything else -- spice.

It was really nice to see a film like that where it's the woman who wants to push the boundaries of science, not the man. No idea where that trope came from, but it's annoying as fuck.

I would have liked the film even more if there had been more focus on the how and why of Dren (maybe we'll get more of that in bonus materials at some point, though). The most I could catch was that she had golden eagle and some sort of frog DNA; it would be fantastic to hear some explanation for all of Dren's characteristics.

I did think it was awesomely hilarious that both Dren and Ginger switch sexes -- Jurassic Park injoke? Dren, at least, had frog DNA, which was why the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were able to switch sexes. It also made a nice Chekhov's Gun to watch for.

[EndOfTheEarth]

Having now seen the whole movie, I concur greatly with your Freudian comment.

Overall the movie had a lot of interesting thought on the two above-mentioned topics, but the piece that really bummed me was the extremely small amount of character development... there were all kinds of things the writers could have expanded upon (the top one being the parallel between Elsa's mother to Elsa and Elsa to Dren).
Also, there were aspects about the end that felt really stapled on after all the buildup; the direction that the movie seemed to be taking Dren was towards a more human direction with bits of animal leaking through, but by the time we got to the end, we were looking at a Dren which could have easily been the result of zero progress. Not to mention that Clive's brother and that other Lab guy were practically thrown away with barely a nod, and Clive himself was pretty much thrown away with his only development being his acceptance of Dren, which was oddly done considering that at the very beginning it seemed like Dren mostly had Elsa on her side, but by the end it was the reverse. What we needed was an end that resolved Elsa's character, rather than killing anyone.

These aside, the cinematography was good and the CGI was fluid, not getting in the way of the film. Sadly though, again, these were set off by the wondering plot.

So... 7/10 for presentation and ingenious plot vehicle, no more than that because of the lack of problem resolution.

Regarding the rest of the specifics:
-I can see where you're getting frog from but the flight hardware, retractable wing membranes and such feel more batty than birdy to me...did they have a scene where they were listing the genes used? I know that they were doing it for those rabbit-sized organisms, but I didn't quite catch animal data for Dren.
-Yeah, that was definitely Jurassic Park... but the thing that troubled me was that in Crichton book they gave an explanation; If my memory is correct they only made male dinosaurs, and the females resulted, as it does in some other organisms, to fill in a population gap. This confused me in Splice; there was no imperative for either Ginger or Dren to change gender--the population was equally balanced in both cases.

[nathan_p]

My conclusion was "we need a sequel or a companion novel".

- There was a very brief scene towards the beginning where, if you keep your eyes on the screen and don't blink, you can see some of the DNA going into the recombinant. Frog and golden eagle were the only two I caught. Since you seem to have a copy of the movie, use freeze-frame in the scene where Clive and Elsa are trying to create a viable human-animal hybrid.

- The population was entirely female in Jurassic Park; the frog DNA enabled some of those females to change into males.

That was the only part where the comparison stuck, yeah. I'd like to see that explained.

[EndOfTheEarth]

If you're talking about the x-rays:
-Frog
-Something vaguely dog-like
-Snake
-Toothed fish of some kind

If you're referencing the animals that went into the Ginger-type animal:
-Bird (small, non-predatory)
-Horse
-Fish of some kind.
-Kangaroo
-Lizard
-Something that's either a fungus, something protozoic, or a separate organ.
-Plant (leafy type)

Dren
-Human (you know who).
A whole bunch that pass by really quickly, and all in latin genus-species listing. Some I caught included
-Madagascar fish eagle
-Something with a species name "crassirostris" which could be another kind of bird, but I cant find anything with the matching genus name.
-"fumigatus" and can't read genus name. Could be a fungus.
-Urocyon cinereoargenteus, type of gray fox.
-Wyulda squamicaudata, scaled-tailed possum (explains a lot)
-Salpinctes obsoletus, another kind of bird, a wren actually.
-Xenocopsychus ansorgei, yet another kind of small, non-predatory bird.
Also, the x-rays from the opening credis (frog and snake were exact same x-rays). Also caught a mouse, but it was moving crazy quickly and only on screen for a second.
Then they keep listing
-bufo cognatus, a frog.
-aquila chrysaetos, golden eagle (good catch!)
-diposaurus dorsalis, desert iguana

I'm sure there's more, but either I couldn't translate them because I couldn't find a matching genus, or they passed me too quickly.

If you want to check for yourself:
http://www.wisevid.com/play?v=1tbgfdc9x5fc
Party starts at 10:40.

[nathan_p]

Yep, the list of... yeah, what you said _o_

I might take a look sometime myself, but... nah. Too nice out.

[Megan (Fishy)]

Wait, if it was raining, you would've gotten all wet anyways. So you could've swam in your clothes?

[Megan (Fishy)]

Ahh. I don't mind swimming in my clothes. I get thrown into pools fully clothed more than a person reasonably should, though...

[Devil's Sunrise]

[Lilyflower]

For some strange reason I'm organizing my binder for school. Yeah, I only have 7 or so days left, but I just felt this strange desire to organize something. Does anyone else ever get that, or is that just me?

[nathan_p]

You're still in school?

...unfortunately, yes ._.

Mostly I just keep my computer very well-organized. My desk is a mess.

[Lilyflower]

Yes.

I'm horribly unorganized, which you wouldn't think all that much. Mainly, I'm just lazy.