Cheap Species (DVD) (Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Natasha Henstridge) (Roger Donaldson) Price

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Customer Reviews of Species

Sexy Creature Feature
In this B-grade Sci-fi flick, the government combines alien DNA with human eggs resulting in a female alien/human hybrid dubbed Sil. The alien, played by Natashia Henstridge, has an insatiable urge to procreate. It's basically a big master plan by the aliens who sent the DNA to colonize earth. Sil escapes her captivity and goes on the prowl for unsuspecting men to impregnate her. Meanwhile the government dispatches a handpicked team to find Sil. Led by the sarcastic Michael Masden and the compassionate Marg Hellenberger, the team tracks Sil to Los Angeles. Here the body count rises as the team races to find Sil before she can mate.

The concept is a good one and the acting/dialog is on par with what you would expect from B-grade Sci-fi. Sil's alien persona is based on creatures created by artist H.R. Giger (Giger also created the designs for the creatures in the Aliens movies). Giger's biomechanical aliens often take on sexual overtones, a concept that is carried through in this movie. The movie plays like a X-Files episode at times as Masden and Helenberger take center stage in the hunt for Sil. The computer generated FX in the closing scenes are dated, but effective. The DVD is a budget version from MGM offering very little in the way of extras. The movie is presented in both widescreen and full screen formats. The picture is crisp a clear with excellent detail. Sound is good and presented in Dolby 5.1. Species is a definite asset to the sci-fi buffs DVD library and a must for "creature feature" fans. Helenberger, Masden, and Henstridge returned a couple of years later for the inferior but entertaining sequel Species II.

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even the greatest ideas can become a failiure in wrong hands
Through SETI research, scientists have come up with an alien DNA and instructions on how to combine it with human DNA so the product could adapt to life on Earth. Initially excited, the scientists working on the project soon get scared of their achievement, and want to gas the little girl, while the team leader Fitch (Kingsley) can't hide tears. Unfortunatly, the creature's got different plans... The opening scene's fantastic.

I don't get it? How can someone take such a great idea and turn it into something as messed up? A few monts old girl who looks like a 12-year-old escapes from the laboratory and learns of betrayal and malice. What a potential for a great story! E.T. would have been utterly forgotten was this script written by someone with but a speck of talent! A creature who half belongs to this world is set free in it, an utter tabula rasa, fighting with it's dual personality and trying to get a grip over her existance while pursued by her creator and a specialist team assembled to kill her (a freelance hitman, an empath, a molecular biologist and another guy, I forgot his profession). Can you see the potential? What would it be like if a human was thrown in the world with no knowledge whatsoever? Better yet, an alien - human crossbreed? How does it learn? What are it's instincts? How does it feel, how does it react after being so betrayed by the only creatures she knew? What's it like to have the only person that ever showed sympathy twoard you (Fitch) suddenly turn against you? How do you react to knowledge you can fully communicate to these people around you, since the team has an empath on? What happens when you figure out just WHAT are you? What happens once your people from outta space realise you're not in on their plan, 'cause you can't be, 'cause they didn't teach you anything? And furthermore, the movie has KINGSLEY on crew, and the other actors who aren't bad if they only have something to work with. This could've been GREAT.

But is this pursued? No. Instead, the girl transforms (in a very lame scene, you'll notice if you saw a lot of horror movies)into a sex bomb whose only idea is to procreate and while it tries to do this, it kills everything in it's way and showing a lot of her body while doing so. Whenever the story tries being insightful, it quickly backs away. There's some lame psychological transformation of a trusting child to an omnipotent creature as she realises she's much better (physically) than humans, but it's set in the 356th plan of the story... Pah. It's hardly got any logic in it at all. Fitch, Kingsley's character, is great because it's Kingsley, but everything else just isn't worth it, even tho the actors did GREAT considering what they had to work with - a lame plot, lame subplots and silly dialogues.

A good passtime, I saw worse movies, granted... so if you're in for a good time and some fun with a lot of gore and sex, the movie's OK; but if you want something more, pass on this one.

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Remarkably restrained
Okay, face it. This is not a great movie. It can be enjoyable to watch, and Natasha Henstridge is ... and fun. Having said that, there is no doubt that the plot tends to be silly at times, and there are more than a few holes in the script.
The odd thing about this film is how little "blood and gore" it really shows. So many movies go overboard in that department. And although there are a lot of uncomfortable scenes in the film, without exception they do not linger any longer than absolutely necessary. Lighting, camera angles, and cuts are designed to leave much to the imagination rather than parading body parts until you want to -- well, you get the idea. An awful lot of moviemakers could learn something from this "little" film.
I must admit -- I enjoy this film. (I also admit that I don't always watch the last scene.) But most of all, I have a list of movies that I wish showed the kind of (don't laugh) subtlety in cinematography that this one does. Think about it.
And enjoy the film. It is supposed to be fun. And it is.