Review of Species (1995) by G. Brandon H — 31 May 2013

"Species" is little more than an excuse to have some topless scenes with Natasha Henstridge and a couple of alien special effects. The whole movie feels like a giant tease and is often lazily plotted. Forest Whitaker as "Dan Smithson" plays a man who has psychic powers that allow him to sense other's feelings and sense where people (or in this case where a half-human, half-alien hybrid) have gone. At first, this character is interesting, you wonder if perhaps they'll have him sympathize with the creature when you realize that the scientists asked to track down the escaped "Sil" make a good point: It's never had any human contact and was raised in a glass cage so it's never experienced love or even friendship. Wouldn't you think that he would be able to somehow reach out to the creature and understand why it's running around confused and scared? Well actually he isn't because his character isn't given these psychic abilities to add drama to the film, they're given to him so he can point our heroes in the right direction whenever they lose track of "Sil". There's not a lot of detective work in the movie, people just "know" where their target is heading so they follow her around, always coming into the area a few minutes too late.

The reason the movie feels like a big tease is because it often simply repeats itself. The creature is on the run, finds a man to mate with, Natasha Henstridge takes off some or all of her clothes, something interrupts them and she kills someone. The team tracking her down arrive just as she's leaving, they determine that she hasn't had time to copulate yet and the cycle repeats itself. You might call this "Pregnancy Scare, the Movie". The plot, as mentioned is very silly and full of plot holes. Would you believe, for example that the government gets a whopping 4 people to track down the super secretive alien/human hybrid? Yes, there's reason for secrecy but once the creature has murdered someone, wouldn't you at least inform the police and give them a bogus story about her? Just tell them there's a woman on the run who's murdered at least one person and she needs to be caught. She's extremely dangerous so once you find her, call the team so they can help you out. You might argue that the movie gives a reason why the police aren't informed: the team tracking "Sil" aren't able to get a clear picture of her fully-formed, woman state but these reason are incredibly contrived and don't make sense under a bit of scrutiny. At first, the team is able to find some security tape footage, but the angle is bad so you're not able to see the woman's face. Ok, sure but what about the clerk at the counter? isn't he able to give them a description of the woman and help the police put together a sketch? How stupid does the director think the audience is when later in the film, "Sil" meets an attractive, kind man who takes her to his house after rescuing her and then takes her picture on a polaroid camera, only for it to turn out blurry. It's a polaroid camera! that means you get to see the picture nearly immediately! Wouldn't the guy take another picture and tell her to stand still? Then again, this is the same character that gets confused when the same woman, now naked starts kissing him in the hot tub.

Aside from their logical blunders, the main human characters are actually decently fleshed out and fun to follow. You can actually see the relationship between "Dr. Laura Baker", "Preston", "Dr. Arden" and "Dan Smithson" develop and the actors have some good charisma between them so the scenes where we see the team on their own are entertaining to watch. The character of "Sil" is also fun to watch, even if often it's because Natasha Henstridge is beautiful and you get to see a lot of her. When "Sil" is in full "alien" mode the design by H.R. Giger is interesting to see, even if some of the design choices are quite puzzling (was there really a reason for the creature to have tentacles coming out of her nipples? well, maybe it's an irony thing).

The climax of the film feels incredibly forced and has the semi-competent characters making incredibly stupid decisions only so they can be put in some additional danger. This is where we get some truly abysmal dialogue as well ("She was half us, half something else, I wonder which was the predatory half?" "The dead half"). There's a couple of one-liners here that will have you slapping your forehead in frustration, or maybe just laughing hysterically. The film is just a silly science fiction film that feels reminiscent of many other, better titles. It isn't all bad but there are so many silly or stupid parts in it that "Species" works better as a movie you can just turn off your brain and laugh at from time to time than as a story with any genuine thrills or scares (though they do mix up the cheap jump scares a little bit this time, they throw a squirrel at Marg Helgenberger instead of the usual cat to startle you). It's cheap titilation with some alien mumbo jumbo thrown in. Not all bad, but definitely not one of the great entries in the genre and quite often "so bad it's good". (Dvd, May 31, 2013).