Subject: Review: Species II (1998)

From: "David N. Butterworth" <[email-masked]>
Date: 26 Apr 1998 17:44:31 GMT

SPECIES II
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1998 David N. Butterworth

no stars (out of ****)

	You don't need to have seen the original "Species" to appreciate
how utterly lousy "Species II" is.

	With few exceptions, sequels tend to be worse than the films that
spawned them, but the fact that "Species II" is a follow-up isn't the only
reason it's so miserable.  It's the predictable storyline, the cardboard
characters, the banal dialogue, the failed attempts at humor, the revolting
special effects, the gratuitous nudity (all female, of course), the bad
acting, and the bland direction.

	The plot, simply geared at getting the alien species back on planet
earth so that it can reak some more havoc, involves three astronauts
landing on Mars and inadvertently bringing some alien slime in a soil
sample back aboard their shuttle.  The slime, well, sort of jumps out at
them and the screen turns black.  That should have been the end of the
movie right there.

	Back on terra firma, at least one of the crew is now a carrier of
alien DNA and, as you'll remember if you saw the first movie, driven by a
strong urge to procreate.  On a parallel track, government scientists have
cloned a version of Sil from the first film (now called Eve, again "played"
by Natasha Henstridge) and are keeping her around for some testing.  This,
apparently, includes observing Eve's reaction to "The Dukes of Hazzard" tv
show, which she appears to enjoy.

	Eve's bio-rhythms go off the scale each time one of her kinfolk
"mates," which we are forced to witness in gross-out detail, but otherwise
there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of reason why Henstridge is in this
film, unless it was written into her contract (let's hope it cited one
sequel and one sequel only).

	Eve finally breaks free of her confines--and her bra--for the
finale, but the effects are so messy you can't really see what's going on.

	Peter Boyle is totally wasted as an institutionalized scientist who
screams "I told 'em not to go!" at the top of his lungs, referring to the
Mars mission but more likely aimed at the makers of this piffle.  Michael
Madsen reprises his role of Press Lennox (so that he can enter high
security areas, flash a badge and claim to be Press, maybe?), as does Marg
Helgenberger as Dr. Laura Baker, the one subjecting Eve to the tv reruns.
They're both unbelievably wooden.

	What's a talented filmmaker like Peter Medak ("The Ruling Class,"
"The Krays," "Let Him Have It") doing directing this tripe, I wonder.  It's
an unfortunate trend, this: once-talented directors throwing in the towel
and lending their names to unchallenging horror flicks like "Species II."
Last year Peter Hyams gave us "The Relic"; no thanks necessary there.  And
the first "Species" was helmed by Roger Donaldson who, although certainly
no genius behind the camera, had demonstrated much better judgment with his
previous choice of projects.

	Is it just that there are no better offers out there?

	"Species II" is worthless.  Worse than that, it's also
exploitative, offensive, and insulting to the intelligence at every turn.
It's not that there isn't anything positive to say about the film.  There
is.  After 92 minutes, it ends.

--
David N. Butterworth
[email-masked]