Species II (1998)

reviewed by
David N. Butterworth


SPECIES II
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1998 David N. Butterworth
no stars (out of ****)

You don't need to have seen the original "Species" to appreciate how utterly lousy "Species II" is.

With few exceptions, sequels tend to be worse than the films that spawned them, but the fact that "Species II" is a follow-up isn't the only reason it's so miserable. It's the predictable storyline, the cardboard characters, the banal dialogue, the failed attempts at humor, the revolting special effects, the gratuitous nudity (all female, of course), the bad acting, and the bland direction.

The plot, simply geared at getting the alien species back on planet earth so that it can reak some more havoc, involves three astronauts landing on Mars and inadvertently bringing some alien slime in a soil sample back aboard their shuttle. The slime, well, sort of jumps out at them and the screen turns black. That should have been the end of the movie right there.

Back on terra firma, at least one of the crew is now a carrier of alien DNA and, as you'll remember if you saw the first movie, driven by a strong urge to procreate. On a parallel track, government scientists have cloned a version of Sil from the first film (now called Eve, again "played" by Natasha Henstridge) and are keeping her around for some testing. This, apparently, includes observing Eve's reaction to "The Dukes of Hazzard" tv show, which she appears to enjoy.

Eve's bio-rhythms go off the scale each time one of her kinfolk "mates," which we are forced to witness in gross-out detail, but otherwise there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of reason why Henstridge is in this film, unless it was written into her contract (let's hope it cited one sequel and one sequel only).

Eve finally breaks free of her confines--and her bra--for the finale, but the effects are so messy you can't really see what's going on.

Peter Boyle is totally wasted as an institutionalized scientist who screams "I told 'em not to go!" at the top of his lungs, referring to the Mars mission but more likely aimed at the makers of this piffle. Michael Madsen reprises his role of Press Lennox (so that he can enter high security areas, flash a badge and claim to be Press, maybe?), as does Marg Helgenberger as Dr. Laura Baker, the one subjecting Eve to the tv reruns. They're both unbelievably wooden.

What's a talented filmmaker like Peter Medak ("The Ruling Class," "The Krays," "Let Him Have It") doing directing this tripe, I wonder. It's an unfortunate trend, this: once-talented directors throwing in the towel and lending their names to unchallenging horror flicks like "Species II." Last year Peter Hyams gave us "The Relic"; no thanks necessary there. And the first "Species" was helmed by Roger Donaldson who, although certainly no genius behind the camera, had demonstrated much better judgment with his previous choice of projects.

        Is it just that there are no better offers out there?

"Species II" is worthless. Worse than that, it's also exploitative, offensive, and insulting to the intelligence at every turn. It's not that there isn't anything positive to say about the film. There is. After 92 minutes, it ends.

--
David N. Butterworth
dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu

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