Rating: 
Summary: Great Concept, Poorly Executed
Review: The idea of aliens sending DNA to earth, ostensibly as a good will gesture, but actually as a "stealth" attack is a good one. The idea that this DNA would be hybridized with that of humans to create a hybrid species which would colonize earth is also a good one. It is certainly a good idea to have Natasha Hentridge play the alien "breeder". This is exactly the way you would want the creature to look.
Unfortunately, good initial ideas don't always result in a good movie. The script is horrible, the acting stilted, and even the special effects aren't all they should be. One of the biggest problems with the film is the scientists are made far too stupid. Example: One of them says "We made it a female because females are easier to control." Just like the black widow spider! Another example: The Alfred Molina character knows the creature is disguised as a gorgeous blonde. He then meets her and decides to have sex with her, anyway. Ben Kingsley's performance is certainly the low point of his career, although he didn't have much to work with.
And yes, Natasha looks great naked, but that's not enough to carry the movie. In less clumsy hands, this film might have become a classic of science fiction. As it turned out, it is a second rate thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, But Not Up To Its Potential.
Review: The main problem I saw with Species was the uneven plot. At the beginning of the movie, young Sil (played for 15 minutes by Dawson's Creek's Michelle Williams) is set up to be gassed. Sil is an alien life form caught by some secret company that monitors extra terrestrial activity. As the gas spews out, Sil jumps through the glass and escapes. At the beginning, she doesn't understand or realize why she is evil, and that was a potential interesting story arc. In several scenes, she questions the way she is and wants to know why. These parts of the film are thoughtful and rather interesting. Sil grows quickly into an adult alien who is in the body of the super hot Natasha Henstridge. When she feels like it, she morphs into an alien creature designed by none other than Alien's H.R. Giger (though not quite as impressive as that film's monster). After about 45 minutes, Sil's wonder for the way she is goes out the window and she just goes on a killing rampage, going home with horny men and slaughtering them in various ways. The movies still fun from this point, but Sil becomes less interesting as a character and just becomes a monster. The special effects are gooey and well done, the acting is fine (aside from the stupid psychic dude, who's character I hated) and Sil looks great without a shirt on (these scenes are much to short, though). Overall, Species had potential at the beginning to make Sil into the good guy and her hunters into the bad guys, but instead it took the easy way out and made her a bad girl hunted down by good guys. It's like two movies blended together: a well made, compelling one and a silly B-movie. The DVD from MGM is good. It has an aspect ratio of 2:50:1 (or something like that) and it anamorphic for widescreen TVs. It is presented in 5.1 surround and features a trailer. I would have liked a commentary by Natasha Henstridge, but alas, the disc is bare boned.
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: even the greatest ideas can become a failiure in wrong hands
Review: 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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