SPECIES II (MGM - 1998) Starring Michael Madsen, Natasha Henstridge, Marg Helgenberger, Mykelti Williamson, George Dzundza, James Cromwell and Justin Lazard Screenplay by Chris Brancato Produced by Frank Mancuso Jr. Directed by Peter Medak Running time: 95 minutes
*1/2 (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: D+
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I was incredulous when I first heard that MGM was planning a sequel to their 1995 science-fiction flick SPECIES. Squandering an intriguing premise, the original film turned out to be a dreadful mess, widely disliked by both audiences and critics alike -- and nonetheless still somehow succeeded in becoming a financial success, raking in over $60 million domestic during the competitive summer season despite a distinct lack of star power in its cast (Ben Kingsley's a splendid actor, but a marquee name he ain't). Miraculously dodging the bullet with the first film, I doubted that they'd dare tempt fate and go for another round.
So here comes SPECIES II, with a new creative team (director Peter Medak and screenwriter Chris Brancato step in for Roger Donaldson and Dennis Feldman, respectively) that fails to improve the series one iota -- like its predecessor, SPECIES II fails to capitalize on a potentially promising kernel and instead runs the gamut from ridiculously silly to unmitigatedly stupid.
The film follows the exploits of a young man, Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard), whose sole focus is on cruising along the streets in order to pick up women, loitering in strip clubs, and generally trying to bed as many different ladies as he possibly can. In other words, Patrick is like a lot of guys; these activities could describe the everyday routines of a huge percentage of men his age, but there's a catch -- he's an astronaut who recently returned from a seemingly successful mission to Mars, and who's now infected with alien DNA. Patrick's overriding compulsion: to mate and sire countless numbers of gooey little alien offspring. And when he becomes aware of Eve (Natasha Henstridge), a half-human, half-alien clone of the monster from the first film being studied in a government lab, Patrick's primary focus turns to her -- "if these two were to mate, the resulting pure strain of offspring would be unstoppable" warns Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger, gamely reprising her role) with admirable conviction.
SPECIES II opens with the Mars mission, and the space scenes are remarkably unconvincing and hokey-looking, even splicing back to dated, grainy footage of actual spacecraft activities -- they really skimped on production values this time around. However, this all looks positively inspired when compared to the first appearance of the evil alien goo which ultimately infests Patrick; watching as it slinks around the command module of the spaceship, any question as to whether or not this is a cheesy B-movie is quickly answered.
Mr. Brancato's original screenplay is filled with outrageous lines which often leaves the audience in stitches. Like the first film (and perhaps in homage to it), there's a real penchant for dialogue which underlines the obvious. Last time around featured the hootworthy line uttered by Forest Whitaker's psychic empath character upon entering a bloodsoaked room -- "Something bad happened here." This time, Laura gets to stand over a fresh, shredded corpse with its entails ripped out and mutter "This is awful." And she's not even empathic!
And when a psychotically horny Patrick accosts a supermarket shopper and drags her kicking and screaming behind the building in a woefully-paced suspense sequence, Eve, who's telepathically linked to her alien/human-hybrid counterpart (whatever), helpfully tells our alien-hunting protagonists, "He's going to rape her."
While SPECIES II is often unintentionally hilarious, at least it occasionally demonstrates a sense of humour of its own. There's an amusing, tongue-in-cheek bit of product placement (which doesn't really make much sense, but I appreciated the sentiment), as well as some supermarket-related hijinx ("He's in Aisle 1!" informs Eve). If the film maintained this sort of light-hearted tone, it would have been much more charming and enjoyable to watch, but, to its detriment, it instead takes its silly plot far too seriously and barrels along to a bloody, effects-ladened anticlimactic conclusion.
Much of the film fails to make a whole lot of sense, and there are such gaping plot holes that it's terribly difficult to contain any suspension of disbelief. The implausibilities are endless: what about the toxic bomb in Eve's brain? Why are the guards armed with guns when they already know firearms are ineffectual? My favourite was the slow-motion sequence in the film where Eve, sporting superhuman strength, is shown tossing aside guards who are attempting to contain her with what look like body blocks. This is the sort of movie which leaves you holding your head in amazed disbelief, incredulous that it's being foisted upon the public.
Returning headlines Michael Madsen (who reprises tough guy Press Lennox) and Ms. Helgenberger do what they can with this goofy screenplay, but there's realistically only so much one can do with this script as a basis. Mykelti Williamson (portraying astronaut Dennis Gamble) churns out an all-too-familiar spin on a generic brash-mouthed character, and fine character actors George Dzundza (playing Colonel Burgess and looking ridiculous in the process) and James Cromwell (Patrick's neglectful father, Senator Ross) are utterly wasted in the film. Mr. Lazard gives his character an appropriately shifty-eyed look, while returning vixen Ms. Henstridge is actually given the opportunity to act in one scene (and acquits herself nicely), but is mostly relegated to reprising her familiar role of parading about in skimpy clothing (or none at all).
Ms. Henstridge recently commented on how some female audiences have expressed appreciation for her character in the first entry of the SPECIES series, claiming that "she's so empowered." A lethal half-alien in heat who dispatches of her sexual partners in grotesque fashion -- now *that's* what I call empowerment.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "Sometimes, I have an overwhelming temptation to grab someone by the throat, head-butt them, leave them bleeding in the corner, saying 'That is my critical response to you.'" - NSFC award-winning director Mike Figgis
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews