"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."--Albert Einstein
This quotation provides a good sense of what is in store when a brilliant (and mad) scientist experiments with human cloning. Murder is Yang Tzu Ting's graduation project from the National Taiwan University of Arts, and stylistically is akin to a graphic novel-in-motion, with bold outlines and starkly contrasted images. Some of the images also recall Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir (2008).
Thematically, the film deals with some of the same ideas posited in Ridley Scott's Prometheus**--human creation, playing God, what houses the soul--but unpacks these ideas in a more sophisticated manner. The film also has shades of Fight Club (David Fincher,1999) and The Prestige (Christopher Nolan, 2006), while still being utterly unique and captivating all on its own.
**I just saw Scott's Alien "prequel" yesterday, and while I enjoyed the film for the first 90 minutes, especially the eye candy, one could hear my eyes rolling in the last half hour. For those of us who hated the series finale of Lost, I couldn't help blaming Damon Lindenhof for the numerous plot holes, cheap spirituality, and inconsistencies with the Alien mythology (from Scott's own previous film)! Still, the imagery was pretty gorgeous and Giger-esque, and Michael Fassbender played the malevolent android beautifully (while eerily channeling Peter O'Toole). The film was not scary, and Noomi Rapace is no "Ripley," although I honestly do not think she's at fault. I blame you-know-who.
