From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Species 2 released in 1998.
Starring:
Michael Madsen, Natasha Henstridge, Marg Helgenberger
Directed by:
Peter Medak
Genre:
Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Rating:
Rated R for strong sexuality, sci-fi violence/gore and language
Budget:
$35 million
IMDb Rating:
4.3
My Rating:
7.8
The Synopsis is:
Species 2 is the continuation of the movie Species released in 1995, where aliens give instructions for humans to reconstruct an alien with their dna. In that story the female alien, also known a Sil goes on a killing spree trying to spawn. In the second installment, a mission to mars brings back infected astronauts and one of them, Patrick Ross, strives to create a new breed of aliens on earth.
Enjoyment:
This film is my guilty pleasure for sure. There are so many reviewers who hate this film and think it’s horrible. But I like this film a lot.
I remember seeing the ads for the first movie Species in 1995 but was not interested in it because it seemed like a horror, flick, and that it is.
I wasn’t even aware that there were sequels until one night I stayed up late and this movie caught my attention, that was totally scandalous to me. There were menage-trios, hookers strippers, space travel, spawns, cocoons, alien sex! This film was just crazy, I was like, what the heck am I looking at right now. It was awesome and I loved every minute of it.
I must be slightly off hinged because this is branded as a horror movie, but it didn’t seem very scary to me. But it was certainly weird.
Pacing:
With an 1h 33min, the pacing is just ok. I felt there were moments that could have been shorter and sweeter, and others should have been re-written to keep the plot cohesive.
*WARNING: FROM THIS POINT FORWARD THERE MAY BE SPOILERS!*
Story:
Let's be honest, the idea stemming from even the first Species in 1995 was a very dumb premise of the government creating an alien/human hybrid creature because the aliens sent it to us. What were they hoping to do? Species 2 explains that they took the dna experiment on in good faith since they had sent a solution to fuel source. But it still makes no sense
I can only think that the sales pitch for this movie would have been, what if the aliens from the alien franchise reached earth let's make her a gorgeous woman that no man could refuse. The main thread of the movie is that a gorgeous alien girl wants to mate and kills a whole bunch of people along the way. They simply switched the genders and made the main character more effective as an alien treat.
There is a glaring problem with the script. The dialogue is good sometimes, but it needed someone to ask, why is this bit of information here? Does it affect the final outcome? Does it contradict what we’ve learned so far? Does this create a plot hole?
For instance, Dr. Laura Baker says that Eve has a toxic capsule implanted in her head. Did I miss the scene where Eve removes it, because she does not die when she leaves the complex. There are things like that, which hurt the film.
In the first film there was a romance between Laura and Preston, however, it is never mentioned or visible in the sequel. Being that I saw the second film first, I had no idea there was a relationship and it didn’t hurt the film, but as a part of a series, it doesn’t work.
Can I ask you a question, why do most movies that set up romantic situations end up separating them in the sequel. Is that a sign of the state of how society looks at relationships in the world?
There are story similarities that Aliens die from human viruses and imperfections. War Of The Worlds and Independence Day.
Challenge:
The challenge in this film are the aliens, who invade and destroy worlds. Mars was visited by this alien species approximately 1 billion years ago when Mars was a thriving civilization. The aliens multiplied and drained the planet of all it’s resources.
Three astronauts bring back samples of soil from mars containing the dna of this horrible scourge and it finds the perfect host in Patrick Ross.
Patrick is a dominant male alien creature on a spawning spree. Unfortunately, when he mates he spawns. The spawns grow so fast that they explode from their fragile female hosts. So essentially when Patrick mates he kills.
At first Patrick experiences blackouts and he doesn't remember what happens to him during that time. However, when he finds out he’s been murdering people he commits suicide. When he kills himself, he kills a part of his humanity away and the alien takes control of his body.
It regenerates Patrick’s face and looks into a mirror and you see that his face looks distorted… alien, symbolising his internal shift becoming the alien. He pretty much goes on a mating rampage trying to build a race of hybrids.
When you see him driving down the avenue looking for a mate, it just makes you cringe because, Oh my god, he’s so good looking. Down fall for it girls! Don’t fall for it!
Patrick, can usually get any woman he wants, but he sometimes resort to rape. His desire to populate the world with his offspring is completely terrifying, but also a little funny, and I can’t quite put my finger on why.
The relationship with Patrick and his father, Senator Judson Ross, is really one of control. Senator Ross has been planning Patrick’s career, priming him for Presidency, however, he has no time to listen to Patrick when he tries to confide in him.
Strangely, there is some foreshadowing when he tells patrick seemingly out of nowhere that his career will be in jeopardy if he doesn't keep his stuff in his pants. Stay away from sexual exploits!
Later on in the story, when Patrick’s dad confronts him about being infected with alien DNA, Patrick exhibits that there is some of his humanity left.
He holds his stomach, the moment his father reminds him about his mother and baits him into trusting him once again. He holds his stomach as if he can feel the alien inside rejecting his human emotions.
For the first time the father and son connect in what may have been a lifetime. And it is just then that the alien tentacle explodes from Patrick's stomach and kills his father. The look on Patricks face while this is happening is a look of complete shock and horror. After that his humanity is gone as we see his offspring looking on, signifying that this is his new family now. He has made the ultimate sacrifice to insure their future by killing his human father.
Patrick takes a detour from his mission when he learns about Eve. It is not love, but the possibility of spawning a more perfect offspring.
After seeing all 4 Species I think Patrick causes more damage and had the potential to cause more damage to the planet than any of the Species aliens.
Sil wanted to have a child, Patrick wants to populate earth.
Empathy:
I suppose the humans are the ones we are supposed to feel empathy for but, unfortunately, not.
After the alien from the first Species also known as sil, from from the first movie dies, the government decides to create another sil called EVE, which stands for Extraterrestrial Vulnerability Experiment. Eve has been used for experiments in biowarfare to try to protect the earth from a possible attack from the aliens.
You can tell her apart from her predecessor, by the adorable bob haircut they give her in the film.
Dr. Laura Baker, was in the first film and is in charge of the government testing on Eve. She has a special relationship with her and you get the sense that Eve trusts her.
Eve seems to be different from the original Sil because she seems to understand the human struggle and is agreeing to help them destroy her own species. They explain this by saying that her alien dna has been suppressed in order to keep her docile.
The problem with Eve as a character is her here-nor-there-ness. Whose side is she really on? I don’t have a clue why her alien mind allow her to betray her own kind, knowing that it means her own doom? This is not explained nor acceptable enough for you to like her.
When Patrick, begins his spawning spree, Eve seems to finally have a purpose in the story when we discover that she has a psychic connection to him. It’s a weird coincidence but it could be possible with a highly evolved species.
When she meets Patrick, I think I began like her more because then it seemed she finally had some of her own emotions… namely desire.
There are lots of comedic moments with Dennis Gamble and they were well done… with hints of a little Will Smith here and there. He’s completely likeable and you hope to goodness that he is not infected with the alien DNA.
Just when you begin to wonder why he is tagging along, he makes himself useful. There is a seemingly nonsensical scene where Dennis is trying to play with Eve, but she refuses him. Then it is discovered that it is linked to his DNA, he is healthy, but he is a carrier of sickle cell. Revealing that the Aliens can’t cope with our imperfect genes, a plot point nearly forgotten from the first.
Technical:
The film starts out with a mission to mars and I feel that was well done. It still looks pretty good.
The practical effects are really good and keep this film from feeling too dated. Most of it holds up except the CGI. And for me the thing I appreciated more about this film over the first film in the series was the detail and practical screentime the aliens had. It was really cool to see them finally.
The first Species utilized the art of H.R. Giger for the alien design as you can clearly make the connection to the Alien franchise and this franchise on several levels. Unfortunately, in the first, the final reveal of Sil was a horrible CGI creation that looked awful.
In this film, you get to see the aliens much more and it’s all done practically save for a few CGI tentacles here and there. But I was completely impressed with the practical alien scenes and how cool I thought they looked utilizing Giger’s original design.
More Alien franchise mimicry can be seen in the way that the spawns emerge from their female hosts and the eggs that were found on the Alien planet, with an exaggerated x mark shape opening.
While we are still talking about the special effects, let's talk about the gore in this film. I am not a fan of gore for the sake of it, or showing graphic killings. I wasn’t ok with the gore in the first film, because Sil killed often for little reason. That’s an issue for me. Somehow this gory film doesn't seem as gory to me because of the context.
Technically, there are missteps in creating scenes that had no real purpose in the film, and in one such scenes there is a re-use of alien footage in the walls of the laboratory, 22 minutes into the film.
And lastly, though used very sparingly, the CGI effects were very dated, but not all that bad.
Performances:
I enjoyed all of the performances in this film. Justin Lazard is good here. His character doesn’t call for a whole lot of emotion and that’s fine. I thought it was good.
Michael Madsen reprises his role as Preston, with a oh my god I can’t believe we're doing this again attitude that fit his character.
Natasha Henstridge reprises her role as Eve and she’s pretty good.
Marg Helgenberger reprises her role as Dr. Laura Baker, which was probably her reel for CSI. Because she does play the role with authority and she’s taking it very seriously.
Mykelti Williamson was the light comedy relief we needed for the film.
James Cromwell and Peter Boyle. All good actors.
Best:
For me it was the scene in which Patrick and Eve meet for the first time. Imagine what it would feel like to never have contact with anyone in your same species.
That was a powerful moment, well performed by both actors. All of their connected scenes and scenes together were very good to me.
I just enjoy the intensity they have to want to mate with one another.
Wish List:
I wish the alien DNA was not just black ooze from mars, but more like a tactile creature using the humans as a host as it was done in the movie the Hidden released in 1987. The entire planet could have been infected by this ooze, which leaves so many open questions. That is not a just a plot hole, the Bermuda Triangle of plot holes.
I wish they had shown us the 7 minutes that were blacked out of the memories of the astronauts. Perhaps Laura could have put Denis under some hypnosis to find out. It would have made a cool visual, and help us understand what happens to aliens when they interact with imperfect DNA.
If the aliens need perfect DNA, wouldn’t the choices for infection be extremely low. Most people are a carrier of some form of disease or degeneration or another. This was an unfortunate plot hole left from the first film. As I said before, the entire premise for Species is pretty dumb.
I wish we could have known what happened to the bodies of the two debutante sisters from earlier in the film. Or even seen some reports that they were missing. There was nothing to really give you a sense that Patrick was in danger of being discovered until thirty minutes into the film.
I wish the laboratory death scene was omitted because it doesn’t work in film and leaves too many questions unanswered such as. Is there a third alien in this film within the walls of the laboratory? If the alien blood is so toxic, why wasn’t there widespread contamination? What happened to the other two samples of soil they collected from Mars.
It would have been great to see what Anne Sampas would have turned into, if her mutation was more interesting. She simply has this weird bloody octopus moment but it never really amounts to anything that makes sense in the story continuity. It’s scenes like that, that depreciate this film. It looks cool, but makes no sense. And since perfection is so rare, why not just have Patrick be infected?
I also wish that Dennis spent a little time mourning Anne’s and Patrick’s death. Yet he is the comic relief. The actor plays it off well though. I just wish the deaths of those characters had more impact, especially as he begins to realise that Patrick is no longer his friend, but an Alien monster.
I wish the poster for this film did not have Natasha Henstridge on the cover and put Justin on there so audiences wouldn’t think that the film they were going to see would have more of her in it. She is a supporting actress here.
I wish Eve did not play the deus ex machina in the film. I wish she was true to her alien being by choosing her own species. The humans experimented on her and kept her locked up. She has no reason to want to help humans especially once she turns into the Alien physically.
The Ending:
The climax of the film started out grand, but ended a little lame for me. There was a teaser at the final moments that the story wasn’t over.
Summary:
I really like this film. I think that the first Species was a film geared towards the titillation and fears in men and this time it was geared toward the fears of women.
It would just be awful to die the way some of these women die with their uterus’ exploding. It’s pretty awful but silly because that could never happen. At least let's hope so. It’s totally weird, pretty gory, has lots of unsettling moments, but I somehow actually like it.
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off.
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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