स्पीशीज़

Is 'Species' a groundbreaking, visionary SF movie? No, of course not. Is it silly, trashy, but FUN b-grade exploitation SF in the tradition of Tobe Hooper's 'Lifeforce'? You bet! It isn't quite as entertaining as 'Lifeforce', the original naked space chick movie, but it's a still pretty good way to waste an hour and a half of your life. Why it gets slammed so much is beyond me. Maybe people just don't have a sense of humour. The opening of the movie is terrific. In a lab we see a cold scientist (Ben Kingsley) overseeing the murder of a young girl (Michelle Williams), imprisoned in a glass case. Only she escapes by showing some super human strength. She is immediately pursued by dozens of soldiers, but manages to elude them. We then learn she is in fact a genetic experiment, a mixing of extraterrestrial and human DNA. Kingsley heads up a task force consisting of Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Marg Helgenberger and Forest Whitaker, each a specialist in a different field. Pretty soon our alien fugitive mutates into a gorgeous blonde (Natasha Henstridge), who spends most of her time topless. Kingsley and company face a race against time, they must capture the horny alien girl before she screws guys to death(?) or something... Who knows. Henstridge is great to look at and the above average cast give it their best shot with the lame dialogue and cliched scenes. Whitaker's empath character quickly irritates with his constant stating the bleedin' obvious, but I always get a kick out of watching Madsen, here in stereotypical tough guy mode. 'Species' is big dumb fun.

Admittedly you would either need to be 50 plus with a good memory, or to be a well-versed student of older sci-fi but in 1961 Miss Julie Christie made her screen debut in the British TV Sci-fi serial A FOR ANDROMEDA. The plot? Signals are received from deep-space seemingly the blue-print for the creation of human life. Scientists of course find the opportunity way too tempting and before you can say "Told you that was a dumb move!" we have a genetically engineered, rather stunning young blonde walking around the lab, causing all sorts of political and scientific unrest.....sound familiar?

Yep, SPECIES was a total conceptual rip-off and to my knowledge, either no-one has ever noticed the fact OR has failed to put such view into print. Certainly not a solitary film critic worldwide that I read at the time was aware of the fact! That said, SPECIES wasn't a total flopperoo although Ben Kingsley looked majorly uncomfortable, if not stunned for the greater part of the flick, as the head science honcho really wanting his creation (the delectable and statuesque Miss Henstridge) dead on sight....a task he bequeathes to Mr Madsen who always enjoys work of this sort!

Never really scales the heights. Neither a major gore-fest or a jaw-dropping ALIEN-wannabe. It labors on beneath its own mediocrity and when it finally finishes, about the only emotion left to the viewer is.."Hmmmmm, OK, now I've seen SPECIES....what's for dinner?" Compared to its sequel however, it remains a rare masterpiece!

Species is like a meeting between an amateur low budget film, and a big budget horror movie. On the one hand; the film has a great cast and is professionally produced, but on the other - the special effects wouldn't have looked out of place in an eighties film, and the plot concentrates mostly on its sleazy and often silly by-products. That being said, however, the movie is lots of fun; and overall I wouldn't hesitate to call it one of the best horror films of the nineties. The film takes obvious influence from a range of similar films, such as Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce and Jack Sholder's 'The Hidden', but it brings all of it's elements together well and somehow manages to feel fresh and inventive. The plot is pure hokum, but it works well; as alien-human crossover 'Sil' escapes from a testing lab with a team of professionals, comprising a psychic, an action hero, a woman etc, on her tail. Sil's ultimate goal is to reproduce, and to complete that aim she must find a man. So basically, what we have here is a sexy, horny, naked chick being chased around before she can have sex with someone. Sounds good to me...

I'm not quite sure how director Roger Donaldson managed it, but he's managed to get quite a few names to appear in his film; and most of them do well with their roles. Despite the fact that she probably isn't really, Natasha Henstridge looks clean and pure in the lead role; and this both ensures that she looks the part, and the film is great in that it carries off the juxtaposition of having a sweet-looking virginal woman act like a prostitute. Ben Kingsley is the biggest cast surprise, as the former Ghandi actor looks slightly out of place in a B-movie like this. Michael Madsen is absolutely great in his typecast action hero role and the cast is completed by a memorable performance from Alfred Molina, and a rather annoying one from Forest Whitaker. Marg Helgenberger fails to make much of an impression as Madsen's love interest. The two plots that run concurrently are played out well, and climax nicely. The special effects are key in a film like this, and even though they're cheap throughout - they do look fairly realistic. It's not until we get to the end and the director decides to spoil it with some abysmal CGI that the effects become a problem. But even so, Species takes its plot well and isn't too serious, and I've got to rate this as a really fun flick overall.

For thirty years, powerful telescopes have been scanning the space searching from signal of alien civilization. In 1974, the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) team sends a message to the space with the human DNA, map of our solar system and other information. In return, they receive two messages: the first one, with a catalyst for methane; the second, a detailed alien DNA together with instructions to join it with human DNA. The result of the experiment is the deadly creature Sil. When Dr. Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley), who is leading the research, decides to terminate the experiment, the girl Sil (Michelle Williams) escapes to Los Angeles. Dr. Fitch joins the mercenary Preston Lennox (Michael Madsen); the anthropologist Dr. Stephen Arden (Alfred Molina); the scientist Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger); and the empathic Dan Smithson (Forest Whitaker) to chase Sil (Natasha Henstridge). Sooner they discover that the predator Sil has grown-up and became a beautiful woman, trying to copulate to generate an offspring.

"Species" is one of the best sci-fis of the 90's. Full of action, sexy and with a great cast, this film introduces the stunning Natasha Henstridge, one of the most gorgeous and sexy actresses of Hollywood ever. Her debut could not be better, and together with the cult Michael Madsen, they make this pleasant movie work. The story recalls those B-movies from the 50's, but spiced with erotic and very sexy scenes. I have just watched this movie for the fourth time, and I do not get tired to this attractive story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Experiência" ("The Experience")

Not all movies have to be intense and hard to figure out. Sometimes they can just be fun, and this one is.

You have to suspend disbelief on a few technical scientific things, such as sending a message from SETI into outer space, remember that radio waves travel at the speed of light, and the nearest star to use is 4.3 light years away. So at BEST it would take 8 years to send/receive a message, but most stars in our galaxy are 50,000 light years away or so, so the message to one of those would take 100,000 years to send/receive.

Then we can't create DNA of a human, how are we going to create the DNA of an Alien species from scratch given just the data about it? But don't worry about those details, just have fun with it, watch the pretty little half-alien girl kill with much gore.. And the team of experts they send to catch the now fully-grown woman/alien is kind of fun too. Very cliché characters, but still fun.

I like the deep, hard-to-understand movies as well, but this one kept me entertained all the way through. Not the greatest movie ever made but not boring either. A fun B-movie type science fiction/horror movie, but with good actors.

I'm giving it an 8, which to me means, "liked it", whereas a 6 to me would mean "it was OK". It was more than OK so I give it an 8.