Topic: So... Splice
I watched Splice this evening because I'd heard it got pretty good reviews and was cool and weird. And it was cool and weird, but mostly kind of meh.
I think it has a great premise but ends up being what I call "writerly". Characters do things because they do them. Things happen because they do. It's not "contrived" exactly because those things aren't implausible dramatic coincidences. They're just... unmotivated. The characters constantly react instead of acting, and there's little build from sequence to sequence, just a barely related string of events. The twist wasn't even a twist.
SPOILERS BELOW
There didn't seem to be a point to the main characters' choice of raising Dren. They didn't really even express any scientific curiosity about her. And there was certainly no sense to be made about Dren's biology. It seemed to be some kind of rabbit-bat-human-scorpion-Zoidberg hybrid.
Also, a pharmaceutical company is in desperate need of money? Tell me another one.