Species

Rating:
Summary: Unoriginal
Review: Sure. The plot is. But everything else isn't. The end scene whenever the monster falls into the oily fire is a cheat off of "Terminator 2." The monster segments seem like a cheat of the Alien series.And the list goes on. But the best thing about it is the suspense. It's very action packed, and it moves at a good pace. Worth renting, but not buying.

Rating:
Summary: Its a good movie but lacks the special effects.
Review: It starts out kind of slow but near the end it picks up speed. Although it re-uses some of the same effects from other movies, it still has a "few" parts that keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rating:
Summary: A three-part film: good, okay, and very bad.
Review: "Species" can be divided up into thirds. The first third of the film is original, interesting, and very entertaining. The second third is only so-so, as it gets bogged down and runs adrift in certain areas--still passable though. The third part of the film is a bad joke. It's obvious no one knew how to end this film, so they copied an ending from a few extremely bad B-movies (and didn't even do those justice!!). For a film to start so well, and end up so badly (it becomes high camp, really), is a mystery to me. Between 1 and 10, "Species" gets a very marginal 5, and just on the strength of the first third of the film (I think I'm being extremely generous here, because it turned into a real stinker).

Rating:
Summary: Part one is just as cool as part two
Review: When I told my mothers friend I liked this movie, my mother jumped into the conversation, and said "You just like that movie, because of that nudity." She was right, and I am a fan of Michelle Williams, and I like monster movies.

Rating:
Summary: Henstridge should be shown this clear
Review: Species is a above average movie. It's value is upped by three things. First Gigers art work on this all, second Michael Madsen as a 'assasin', and a alien looking Natasha Henstridge. Forget about Species 2 !

Rating:
Summary: Mating Season Begins
Review: Species is a great science fiction action film. It benefits from an all star cast, a surehanded director, and cool special effects. And oh yeah, it helped launch the beautiful Natasha Henstridge into the stratosphere. What more could anyone ask?

A genetically engineered, shape-shifting creature with extraterrestrial intelligence called Sil (Henstridge) was created by a team of scientists, led by Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley), adopts the form of a beautiful woman to mate with humans and unleash a brood of offspring that will destroy mankind. Charged with stoping her are a team of experts, in various fields, who must put aside differences and work together. Joining Fitchn is bounty hunter Preston Lennox (Michael Madsen), anthropolgist Stephen Arden (future Doc Ock Alfred Molina), empath Dan Smithson (Forest Whitaker), and Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) to round out the team.

Director Roger Donaldson (13 Days, No Way Out, and Dante's Peak) keeps things moving at a nice pace. Dennis Feldman's screenplay, may have a few problems to contend with, but things are so much fun--you really don't need to care all that much. The creature Sil is based on concepts by H.R. Gieger, the man also behind the look of Alien, looks darn good--although I do prefer looking at Sil's perfect human form. The film's true secret weapon though is the cast, who have no trouble selling the premise--even elevating it.

Even though MGM's first edition of Species was a no-frills disc, (save for a Gieger featurette) the special edition has problems too, that count against it. This edition takes basically the same audio-video transfer and adds a pair of audio commentaries to it. The first commentary is with director Roger Donaldson and actors Michael Madsen and Natasha Henstridge; and the second one is with director Donaldson, producer Frank Mancuso, Jr., visual-effects supervisor Richard Edlund, and creature and special makeup-effects creator Steve Johnson. The two tracks are ok, but not as good as I thought they would be. Big Shock There's a five-minute look at "Species III," again starring Ms. Henstridge, basically a promo for the worthless direct to video sci-fi channel sequel. A widescreen theatrical trailer for the original and some additional trailers/ads for various other MGM products tops off the DVD.

The film is a must see for genre fans. I just wish the bonus material were a bit more meaty.

Rating:
Summary: It's Pretty Good
Review: The thing that amazes me about "Species" isn't the story, special effects, or musical score, it's the cast. You'd think that a movie with a fairly average sci-fi plot like this one couldn't muster the A-list actors that it did. However, "Species" comes with a solid cast that includes the wonderful Ben Kingsley(Ghandi), Michael Madsen(Reservoir Dogs), Marg Helgenberger(CSI, China Beach), Alfred Molina(Boogie Nights, Spiderman 2), and Forrest Whittaker(Phenomenon). It also introduces us to the lovely Natasha Henstridge, who is probably the main catalyst for so many men who love this film.

As stated earlier, the storyline is fairly standard. Man gets a message from space containing information on a DNA strand. It's mingled with human DNA and the result is a creature hellbent on destroying mankind by breeding with any man it can get its hands on in order to produce more alien offspring. In a nutshell, it's the end of the world as we know it thanks to a bunch of randy aliens.

The alien is a young child at the beginning of the film(Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek). When the scientist(Kingsley) leading the team responsible for the alien child sees that it is not worth researching anymore, he decides to have her destroyed. But of course, she escapes, hitches a train ride, cocoons herself and rises out of the metamorphisizing goo as Natasha Henstridge minus clothing. She kills a train worker for clothes, then sets out to breed.

Kingsley gathers a group of professionals to help him hunt down the alien, who goes by the name of Sil. Sil manages to stay just one step ahead of the team as they trace her steps from body after body of men and predatory women. The ending is pretty stock, though it does leave a slightly silly window for a sequel(I haven't viewed either of the sequels).

The movie is fun to watch. The story is just interesting enough to keep you intrigued. You know what is going to happen in the end, but you still want to see how the team is going to finally catch up to and destroy Sil. The special effects are pretty good. H.R. Giger had a hand in designing the Sil creature, so expect something similar to the "Alien" creature here. There is plenty of eye-candy, but the nudity seems to work pretty good in this flick. Naturally, Henstridge's character spends a lot of time naked, but not so much that the film comes across as a late-night flick on Showtime or Cinemax. Only one of the nude scenes came across as awkward, and it involved a brief glimpse of Marg Helgenberger while she's having a fling with Madsen's character. The whole sequence seemed unnecessary. You'd have to be an idiot to not understand what was going on between the two.

I'd rent this flick before purchasing it. If you like somewhat cheesey sci-fi, then you'll probably enjoy this flick. If you just want a little titillation, there are plenty of films out there that can satisfy your cravings better than this movie.

Rating:
Summary: How bad
Review: I don't know how to begin my comments, the movie is so bad, the alien looks is a mix of Alien and human, Natasha Henstridge is always one step ahead the group, they always go together every where and... Uh. What's Ben Kingsley doing in this film? Does anybody remember him in Ghandi? The only good thing of the film is Natasha Henstridge.

Rating:
Summary: Super-Sexy And Smarter Than It's Given Credit For
Review: The idea of an alien invasion being carried out by a lone creature looking to mate so as to give birth to a whole new race of its kind has, I believe, been done in a few movies before "Species" but probably not with such effective horror, intelligence, high-caliber performances, realistic special effects and scorching sexiness. Easily one of the best horror/science fiction crosses, with Natasha Henstridge playing the alien Sil in her humanlike form and some colossal effects handling the far more frightening but also impressive alien form. One possible angle on the whole movie that I'm not sure if anybody else got or if I'm just seeing things in a weird way again is - and this isn't a spoiler because the idea isn't explored here or in Species 2, and as far as I know it doesn't come up in the 3rd one (although I haven't yet seen it) - if I remember correctly, the movie in its beginning was quite clear that the transmission where they got the code for the alien DNA to create Sil was an INCOMPLETE transmission, and they had to fill in the gaps on their own. The 'incomplete' bit seems to me to suggest an intriguing possibility that something went wrong in the creation, even that maybe the original senders of the code never meant for the lifeform to be vicious? This would tie right in with how Sil seems to enter a state of some confusion when not in 'Mate-And-Destroy' mode.

Fine cast of performers and characters, scores very high on action, horror, and science fiction meters, with some questions left unanswered for further exploration or thought. And as for the 'sex appeal' element, hinging on Henstridge's turn as Sil? Natasha is beautiful And pretty, stunning, hot and breathtaking (and that's just BEFORE she takes her clothes off, let alone after!!)

A definate keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and tantalilyzing romp
Review: A surprise hit when released in 1995, this cheesy but surprisingly entertaining sci-fi romp introduced the beautiful and statuesque Natasha Henstridge as a human/alien hybrid with a severe urge to mate. She escaped from a labratory which was under the supervision of a man named Xavier (Ben Kingsley) who soon after assembles a team (featuring Michael Madsen, CSI's Marg Helgenberger, Forest Whitaker, and Spider-Man 2's Alfred Molina) to find her as she leaves a path of dead and horny males in her wake. Followed by two lesser sequels, the original Species offers plenty of sci-fi/horror thrills and nudity as well, with Henstridge, as sad as it may sound, in the role she was born to play. The rest of the cast does solid work thanks to the capable direction of Roger Donaldson (The Recruit) and the creature designs by H.R. Giger (the man responsible for the creature design in the original Alien) are nothing short of creepy and superb. All in all, the original Species is a bonafide guilty pleasure, and is much more worth seeing than it's sequels.