Species: The Awakening

Compared to "Species: The Awakening", the third instalment looks like "Gone With The Wind"!

Why did I bother to watch right to the end? A glutton for punishment, clearly.

Mercifully, this is the fourth and final chapter of the Species saga. And it was a slog, with a barely-coherent plot, barely-watchable acting and a stench of super-low budget about the whole thing.

Gone is the fun and horror of the great first film and the good second one. Gone, too, are Natasha Henstridge, Marg Helgenberger and Michael Madsen. In their place are poor, poor facsimiles.

As another reviewer mentioned, there isn't even much in the way of gratuitous - aka largely unnecessary, but there anyway - sexy and nudity that you expect from made-for-TV spin-offs of big screen movies with plenty of nudity and sex.

The stunning Helena Mattsson is about the only good thing about this movie. Except the end credits.

Just saw the entire Species collection over two days, and i was very disappointed over the fourth in the line.

After watching the first 15 minutes i sat the player to double time, and i sure didn't regret it. This movie doesn't have anything to offer, beside nude chicks and brainless "horror". Compared to the three other species movies, this is fare worst. If you have seen the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn" you sure don't need to see this one.

Lets all hope the line will end here.

blah. blah.

blah.

Species: The Awakening feels like a shadow of what the franchise once promised. While the original Species had its share of flaws, it at least offered an intriguing mix of sci-fi and horror. This fourth installment, unfortunately, lacks the creativity and tension that made the first film memorable.

The plot tries to introduce a new angle with a professor discovering her alien origins, but it quickly devolves into a predictable series of events. The story struggles to sustain interest, and the characters are thinly developed, leaving little room for emotional investment.

The special effects and makeup work, while passable for a straight-to-DVD release, can't compensate for the weak script and uninspired direction. The horror elements feel forced, and the sci-fi aspect, which could have been fascinating, is barely explored.

While the film deserves some credit for attempting to expand the Species lore, it's clear that the franchise has run out of steam by this point. Even the action sequences, which could have added some excitement, feel half-hearted and unoriginal.

Unless you're a die-hard fan of the Species series, this entry offers little to recommend. It's a lackluster effort that fails to recapture the intrigue and excitement of its predecessors. A missed opportunity to close the series on a high note.

If you're gonna watch schlock, make sure it's got a hottie or two and a large tub of goo. CGI is remedial but better than the Alien franchises 3rd and 4th installments. Plot obviously rehashed wherein the protagonist isn't aware of the bug under her rug so to speak but acting all around is decent.

The only way for Miranda to go on, is to do what sexy bugs from space do, and that is invade what we got and snatch it like most aliens are want to do.

The film has a new take on chest bursting, that is if you consider Miranda's heaving bosom taught and riddled with curdling blue veins.

Ironically most of the aliens are found in Mexico where they get off on what they call "harvesting." Tentacles and boobs gone wild.

Like her lab daddy says halfway through, "I'm truly sorry." Nuff said.

And so we reach the fourth, and final part of a series that never deserved a first sequel, let alone three of them. The slim storyline was told in its entirely in the first movie, and the next three have just been poorly thought-out remakes, redos or continuations of the same situations. This one follows straight-to-video B-movie territory from beginning to end, bringing everything down to its lowest common denominator. There's a misguided but decent scientist hero – Ben Cross, looking embarrassed to be here, a pretty young and nubile actress, Helena Mattsson, whose acting skills are extremely limited, some monster suits and some very bad CGI effects.

The storyline kind of meanders from place to place without ever progressing. There's some experimental stuff in a laboratory, more scenes of the alien women on the prowl searching for a mate, and other aliens besides who kill people with their long CGI tongues. The script is very poor and the performances poorer, and there's no decent action or gore to speak of. Just nudity, and even that gets boring after a while, so I really do hope this is the last we'll see of the Species films