Subject: Review: Species II (1998)

From: Craig Roush <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Apr 1998 16:01:46 GMT

SPECIES II

Release Date: April 10, 1998
Starring: Justin Lazard, Natasha Henstridge, Marg Helgenberger, Michael
Madsen, Mykelti Williamson, James Cromwell
Directed by: Peter Medak
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
MPAA Rating: R (strong sexuality, sci-fi violence/gore, language)
URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1998/species2.htm 

Hollywood is increasingly feeling the need to produce big-budget films
that contain gratuitous sex and violence. The second such film in less
than a month (after WILD THINGS), SPECIES II has given movie goers
another reason to fear studio-produced films. In movies such as this,
there is no such thing as depth, no one has an alterior motive,
duplicity is unlikely, and dynamism is impossible. Every single element
is laid out for the viewer to see, and anything approaching complexity
is hammered home; everyone in the audience is forced to watch the movie
on the level of the lowest common denominator. 

This might be expected from Director Peter Medak, who is a veteran
director from the hit television series HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS.
Confined to a span of forty-two minutes, it's no wonder a film that runs
ninety-five minutes in length is hard for him to design. There's not
much to expect from the screenwriting department, either, because the
only other major feature that Chris Brancato has penned was 1997's
Laurence Fishburne starrer, HOODLUM. So the only thing left to turn to
is, in this order: sex, special effects, and violence. 

Justin Lazard plays Patrick Ross, an astronaut who is the first man to
walk on Mars. After some melodramatic screentime, he becomes infected
with alien DNA that renders him in a precarious condition: any woman he
has sex with will grotesquely perish moments after intercourse. This
becomes a problem for the increasingly sexually active Ross, who
receives no help from his father (James Cromwell). Only Dr. Laura Baker
(Marg Helgenberger) and a team of scientists, who've recreated a
friendly version Sil (the female alien from the original SPECIES) - now
named Eve - know how to stop him. So they call in Press Lenox (Michael
Madsen, who reprises the role) to hunt down Ross. Unfortunately, there's
a telekinetic bond between Eve and Ross, and their peaking levels of
estrogen and testosterone, respectively, give them a strong desire to
mate. 

The movie might actually have a chance of thrilling the audience if
there wasn't so much gratuitous sex. The theme of the movie distracts
the audience's attention from what's going on: rather thangetting scared
by any of the several tense scenes, the focus is on how long it will be
until somebody takes their clothes off. Thus there is no reason to
comment on the acting, for nobody save Mykelti Williamson has any degree
of emotion. Cromwell's decreased screen time means he can't lend the
gravity here that he did in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, and as the movie
progresses towards the end, everything loses any degree of seriousness.
This is another movie that's saved only by special effects and the
merest murmurings of a plot; definitely missable by anyone's standards.

FINAL AWARD FOR "SPECIES II": 1.5 stars - a below average movie.

-- 
Craig Roush
[email-masked]
--
Kinnopio's Movie Reviews
http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio