Rating (1 to 10) : 3
Summary: An eclectic group tracks down an escaped experiment, a half-human and half-alien looking to reproduce.
This is one of those sci-fi monster movies that usually
comes out in the summer. I usually give
these types of movies an average rating (5) but I downgrade Species because
of two reasons:
(a) for the talent that the cast had, the movie was marked by bad acting.
(b) there was nothing new or imaginative; where's the 'gimmick'?
Species is about a research center, headed by Dr. Fitch (Ben Kingsley, Itzhak Stern in “Schindler’s List”). They contacted aliens and the aliens sent back detailed information on how to combine their genetic information with human DNA. The scientists do so and create a half-human, half-alien creature who looks like a beautiful girl. But when the scientists decide to kill all the test creatures for safety reasons, "Sil", a half-alien girl whom Dr. Fitch has an attachment to, escapes. Dr. Fitch sheds tears as the research team is about to terminate her but this little side story is not even touched upon or developed later on.
The hunt is on and a team of four, including two promising actors, Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde in "Reservoir Dogs") and Forrest Whitaker (Big Harold in "Platoon") are after Sil. Madsen is the professional hit man, great in action. Whitaker is the empathy, whose talents don’t seem to be used very often. There is also a Dr. Baker, a female scientist, and another team member, Dr. Arden. They, along with Dr. Fitch, follow the trail of Sil.
Sil makes it to LA and has by now, grown to appear like a mature woman. She wants to reproduce and is looking for an appropriate (human) male. She kills a couple of human males. You then realize that she is morphing into an alien (really, an alien that looks like the ones from "Aliens" -- more on this later). And she gets impregnated. She realizes that the team is after her and stages a fake death of herself, using a victim as a stand-in to throw the pursuing team off the track.
Then she starts stalking the team as they are staying in a hotel and kills Dr. Arden. But the team chases her to a sewer and a "suspenseful" scene (sic) goes on. Dr. Fitch is killed and we find out that she has given birth. Unlike its mother, this alien can transmogrify to an alien immediately, even though it's only 1/4th alien - it's mother didn't transform to an alien until fully mature. This inconsistency somehow missed the scriptwriters.
Yes, in the end, the alien and baby are killed (gee what a surprise). And not only that, but you see a rat eat a piece of flesh of the alien and become somewhat alien-like -- to leave open the possibility of a sequel.
All in all, a bad movie. I expected the scriptwriters and the design artists to have enough creativity to make the alien look different but instead, their resulting alien costume exhibits their talent for imitation rather than originality. The alien looks just like the ones from "Aliens"!!! The plot was so predictable. And what happened to Kingsley to be cast in a turkey like this after starring in great movies like "Gandhi" and "Schindler's List"? Madsen is about the only actor who plays in type but that is because these are his movies, where he makes smart-aleck comments and is in action shots.