SPECIES (1995)
a review by Evan Landon
Y'know, in all honesty, there is not a single year that goes by that I do not watch Species or at least am reminded of it in some way since it came out in 1995. Granted, it does take a lot from other movies before it, so it is not breaking any new ground here; however, it does have a certain flair and passion that pushes it into the upper echelon of most sci-fi horror movies around that time.
Being in middle school when this film came out, I did not see it until it was released on VHS and I was very much into it at my adolescent stage for some very important reasons; the most important ones I am sure you can guess. But I would be remiss not to tell you that the plot is the main reason that I can only describe as this: scientists are given alien DNA to fuck around with and they find out it is an alien embryo that grows at an accelerated rate that's only function is to spawn which will lead to the demise of the human race. A motley crew of savvy, motivated personnel including:
~ Michael Madsen plays mercenary “Preston Lennox”, who coming off his meteoric rise to fame with Free Willy & Reservoir Dogs serves in a rare role as this story's main protagonist. He also gets laid in this one. Is Mr. Blonde hot? I honestly don't know. You tell me in the comments.
~ Sir Ben Kingsley slums it up with us in this grotesque, b-movie style popcorn flick as the scientific creator of “Sil”, obviously not playing a role even resembling Ghandi.
~ Natasha Henstridge makes her film debut as the before mentioned “Sil” who desperately has an allergic reaction to clothes, so she just doesn't wear any.
~ Forest Whitaker does his best “psychic, but not a psychic” impression as an “empath” (is that what an empath does? I think they might have got that part wrong) that still baffles me every time I see it.
~ Alfred Molina and Marg Helgenberger round out the cast as two scientists of whatever I can't remember, but are very much apart of the team, even though I don't know why. Whatever. Molina did win an award for reading the novelization of this flick though, so that's something.
The genius plot behind this sexy, blood soaked masterpiece is one Dennis Feldman who had the idea when he read an article by Arthur C. Clarke about how insurmountable the odds are that any alien craft locating or visiting Earth. Instead, he penned a police procedural that followed scientists that were able to wetwork information sent to build the species themselves, noting that it would be impossible to tell what maleficent beings would answer our space transmissions as to where we are to make contact.
Well, chaos most definitely ensues, from beginning to end, and there is plenty of almost sex scenes that somehow end up with some pretty gnarly kills. I applaud the lead up to the CGI end (that did NOT age well, at all) that used mostly prosthetics based off of more artwork by Swiss artist H.R. Giger (who had designed the Xenomorphs from the Alien). To keep the creature Sil version from blowing up the budget, they just kept former model-turned-actor Henstridge naked for most of the run time and you can't be mad at that.
Like I said, I grew up on this movie, so whenever I catch it, I watch it with no question. I was not the only one who loved it though, as it pulled in $113.3 million against a $35 million budget making it not just a hit, but worthy of not one, not two, but three sequels which I have seen. Maybe I should review those next. Hmmm...
3.5 out of 5