Species (1995)
** out of *****
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina, Natasha Henstridge Written by: Dennis Feldman Directed by: Roger Donaldson Running Time: 108 minutes
Species was one of the films I was most looking forward to in the summer of 1995. The summer of 1995 turned out to be very disappointing.
Species is one of the most intriguing, yet poorly written sci-fi idea movies I've ever seen. An advanced alien race contacts Earth. In their first message they send us the formula for a new fuel that will solve many of our energy problems. This lets us know that their intentions are friendly. In the second message, they send the code for a new strand of DNA that will allow us to cross-breed our two species.
Now, my first question would be, why would we want that? Our pesky scientists apparently do want this, and proceed to make a hybrid of the two different species. After deciding to terminate the project based on the alien's nature to want to destroy things, the alien (who is a young girl at this point) decides that it doesn't want to die so it promptly escapes (unseen and untouched from a maximum security compound, mind you). It soon cocoons and evolves into Natasha Henstridge. Now being in the form of a beautiful young woman, it's hormones go crazy and it has the primal instinct to mate. Problem is, it's offspring will evolve quickly, producing more offspring and soon overtaking the human race.
Who would you send on a mission to destroy an alien that, if unstopped, could lead to the destruction of everyone on earth? The army? The air force? No no, you send a government hitman (Madsen), two scientists (Helgenberger, Molina), and a "psychic" (Forest Whitaker). Now Madsen is useful, except for the fact that he uses a handgun to battle the alien (and while his performance is entertaining, never once does he seem to take anything seriously). The other three characters are absolutely worthless. Molina has absolutely NO reason to be there, except to identify the cocoon early in the film. The rest of the time he just tries to get chicks. Helgenberger is just there to provide a love interest for Madsen, and Whitaker... well he plays one of the worst characters of them all. We're told he's a psychic, but he's the lamest psychic I've ever seen. For example, when they discover the cocoon and a bloody mess of goo, he tells them that he feels that something bad happened. Really? Later, they've tracked Henstridge's car which has run out of gas. He examines the car, then informs everyone that "she walked". Really?! You think so?!?! This happens repeatedly.
Also, just as a little aside here, Species starts out with just about the most dull, drab, and ridiculously boring credit sequence I've ever seen. Boy, nothing gets me in the mood for a sci-fi action flick more than five minutes of slow boring credits with absolutely nothing going on behind them.
Most folks who enjoyed Species admit that it's retarded, but they just like the fact that Natasha Henstridge is running around naked for the entire film. And sure, that's good stuff. But you can have an attractive naked girl running around and still have a good script to back it up. And unfortunately, all Species has is the naked girl. [R]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL: http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email: chuckd21@leading.net
© 1995-1998 of The Jacksonville Film Journal. No reviews may be reprinted without permission.
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