Split Second is a curious movie in that despite it’s formula – cop faces off against a murderous enemy that turns up every few years to kill – being a fairly standard one that worked particularly well in movies like Predator (1987) yet doesn’t work here.

I think a lot of the problem comes down to a lack of focus (I’d like the blame the writing but I haven’t read Gary Scott Thompson’s story and I have a sneaking suspicion that it didn’t quite make it to the screen intact).

For a start, you have an antagonist that’s a supernatural entity, looking like a cross between an Alien and a shark, but the movie never lays the groundwork for it to exist in the first place (it’s worth mentioning it could have even been done over/prior to the opening credits, like in Darkness Falls (2003). a particularly effective way of getting a lot of exposition and lore out of the way).

As if that weren’t problem enough, the movie takes place in future that’s just as ill-defined, except that London is seemingly being returned to the Thames.

So it should go without saying that Split Second this is a really wet movie. Not Waterworld (1995) levels of wet, but there’s a lot of water about.

As if those weren’t criticisms enough (there’s more, which I saved for the video) the movie is murky and has a color palate composed primarily of various shades of gray.

Though perhaps the greatest problem is that it’s fairly easy to see how it could have been a much better movie, making me wonder if the production were a difficult or troubled one.