SPECIES
A film review by Gharlane of Eddore
Copyright 1995 Gharlane of Eddore
Extinct upon release, but * * * out of * * * *
John Von Neumann, progenitor of the computer age and critically important mathematician on the Manhattan Project, pointed out long ago that there is a great way to explore the cosmos, even without recourse to faster-than light travel. You send out self-replicating robot ships which explore and radio back information. It may take decades, centuries, or millennia, but it can be done with achievable technology, and doesn't require a magical faster-than-light drive.
In the Fifties, British astronomer Fred Hoyle improved on this plan by suggesting that it would be better to radio plans for a complex computer and a program for it; any civilization capable of receiving the transmission could build the computer, which would then engage in a real-time dialog with the aliens, exchanging information and technologies, and hopefully arranging to send back what it had learned.
About thirty-five years ago, the BBC contracted with astronomer/writer Fred Hoyle and writer Frank Elliot to create the scripts for a mini-series called A FOR ANDROMEDA. AFA concerned the reception of a Hoyle transmission, the construction of a huge computer, the computer's analysis of life on Earth, and its creation of an apparently human intermediary to facilitate communication. She was played with ethereally inhuman perfection by the then-unknown Julie Christie. Audience response was so strong that the BBC contracted for a sequel, ANDROMEDA BREAKTHROUGH, which played to equally high ratings.
Dennis Feldman, whose previous credits include THE GOLDEN CHILD, has never been noted for coherent, well-structured movie scripts; they start out great, and then disintegrate into a morass of chase and action, mitigated only by the presence of the obligatory Beautiful Girl. Feldman writes good scenes, but has no idea how to tell a story or write a movie, even with a previous version to use as a model.
Now, in SPECIES, we have a mundane retread of the ANDROMEDA plotline, derailed by a preoccupation with removing the clothes from the leading lady and further ruined by a mediocre attempt to emulate several recent horror films in terms of splatter, gore, and chases.
SPECIES features Ben Kingsley, who is completely wasted in a badly-written portrayal of a feebly amoral scientist. Forest Whitaker and Alfred Molina are also served poorly by the script.
The SPECIES story is relatively simple; we have been radioing information about ourselves and our DNA out into space since 1971, and have been receiving answers for two years. (Note that, in the 1970's, we really didn't know diddly about the human genome structure, and were hardly in a position to radio out a set of blueprints for human beings. Even today, all we can do is give information about DNA and how it works, not a copy of human DNA, because we don't have it analyzed YET.)
The answers we get from the unknown alien source are plans for recreating a member of the alien race, and Doctor Xavier Finch, played by Ben Kingsley, is placed in charge of the attempt. The script begins to go off the deep end at this point, when the result is a beautiful young girl who can shape-shift into any of several ugly alien life forms. The first half of the film has something to offer, as "Sil," the alien girl, struggles with her multi-form existence, changing from Beauty to Lizard to Giant Cockroach and back again, all while trying to understand her own place in the cosmos. She seems oddly knowledgeable about human society, with glaring gaps where her social skills should be. Her instincts are to mate and procreate, and some of the best scenes deal with her attempts in this area. Escaping from her birth laboratory in Utah, Sil is pursued by a team of drafted civilians with orders to find her and kill her. She goes on an eating binge, spins herself a cocoon, and emerges as an adult, played by Natasha Henstridge, who goes a long way toward re-creating the sheerly inhuman beauty Julie Christie achieved in 1960.
The pursuers: Michael Madsen is an assassin/exterminator; Forrest Whitaker is a convenient empath/psychic, just as though the U.S. government actually had such people on call. Neither is able to do much with the writing and directing provided. Whitaker's role seems to be aimed at making Whitaker a male copy of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's "Counselor Cleavage." The other members of the strike team are played by Marg Helgenberger and Alfred Molina.
Kingsley and Whitaker are both consummate professionals, too good to not work to the best of their abilities; but the performances Donaldson elicited from the rest of the cast are disappointing and bland, and it is apparent that the direction was a bit weak.
H.R. Giger's design for the main form of the alien creature is actually a bit boring when we finally get to see it, although previous digital effects were done quite smoothly.
The main fault of SPECIES is lack of originality; it starts out with a wonderful, albeit borrowed, premise, and then doesn't live up to it. All we get are chase scenes and a few nice sex scenes, with a few monsters tossed in. There is no buildup of tension and suspense, no climax worthy of the name; SPECIES is just a sequence of "scare" scenes stuck together.
The movie is carried by its chase and sex scenes, but not rescued by them. On the other hand, as an exercise in Sci-Fi action/ adventure, it certainly beats the ichor out of JUDGE DREDD.
SPECIES earns an extra rating point or two for having Ben Kingsley and Natasha Henstridge on board, but by and large, it's fun only for those of us who really like this sort of thing. My personal rating is three stars, but knock one or two of those off if you don't enjoy pretty unclothed ladies and bloodthirsty alien monsters.
Rating: * * * out of * * * *
MPAA Classification: R (Violence, gore, nudity, sex, language)
Stars: Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina, Marg Helgenberger, Natasha Henstridge Directed by: Roger Donaldson Produced by: Frank Mancuso Jr. and Dennis Feldman Typed by: Dennis Feldman Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak Music: Christopher Young Run Time: 108 minutes Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 from MGM, opens 7 July 1995
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