Review of Species (1995) by Tuneison — 12 Aug 2018

I happened to recall hearing about a year ago, when I first watch "Under the Skin", there existed a movie from the 90s that it took the concept from. Fast forward to now and, I hear that the film in question was "Species".

From a purely conceptual level, Species has a great premece. A woman who goes around seducing and killing people. That's about were the good in the writing ends. Every character is completely flat and definied by what they do in the story. Main character, knows where the alein is, love intreset, exposition and, death fodder. If you've seen species, you know exactly who each character is based on that description. Also the alein who is evil.

The acting is actually pretty decent overall. Nothing crazy great or crazy bad, just some solid performances that keep this movie above rock bottom. For how barren the material the actors are working with, they end up doing a decent job. So, in that sense, the acting is impressive I guess.

The special effects and make up, when they are done practiacally, end up looking pretty great. At least up until the film's climax when everything devolves into mid 90s cgi. I guess they might've looked good for the time but, they've aged poorly. However, the practical effects in the brief dream sequences look very good. It's definietly reminicent of Alein but, go figure since HR Giger designed the alein in this movie, so no shock there.

The camera work and cinematography is the millionth thing in this movie that falls into the category of "Just alright". "Just alright" ends up being the word I'd describe most of this film with. Very little of it is done in a way that is special. However, the reason to watch this movie is because it's really funny bad. So, I honestly reccomend watching this if you are a fan of Under the Skin because you can see how it improved and evolved on this concept.