Species II |
  • USA • 1998 • 93m •   • Directed by: Peter Medak. • Starring: Michael Madsen, Natasha Henstridge, Marg Helgenberger, Mykelti Williamson, George Dzundza, James Cromwell, Justin Lazard, Myriam Cyr, Sarah Wynter, Baxter Harris, Scott Morgan, Nancy La Scala, Raquel Gardner. • Music by: Ed Shearmur.      Having just returned from a mission to Mars, Commander Ross isn't exactly himself. He's slowly becoming a terrifying alien entity with a one-track mind - to procreate with human women! When countless women suffer gruesome deaths after bearing half-alien offspring, scientist Laura Baker and hired assassin Press Lennox use Eve, a more tempered alien clone, to find Ross and his virulent brood. But they underestimate Eve's maternal drive, and before long she escapes with Ross in order to create a more pure and unstoppable race that could spell doom for mankind. As time is running out, the ultimate battle of human brain over alien brain takes place in a chilling climax that puts Darwin's theory to the ultimate test...and only the strongest species will survive.
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Review:
I can certainly recognize stupidity at any level when I see it in the movies, and there is plenty of it in Species II, but it takes a lot more than this movie has for me to describe it as the worst movie I've ever seen or a total waste of celluloid or some other such nonsense. It is certainly not, for example, a "grade Z exploitation flick, ripe for the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 treatment."
In a massive lapse of cognitive function, scientists, including Dr. Baker from the 1st movie, have decided to make a clone of Sil, this time named Eve, to study her more extensively than they had the chance last time. They somehow made her more docile and controllable (although still female), and she cooperates with them, suffering through the tests and tortures that she has to endure for them to demonstrate things like her remarkable ability to heal. After one such session, Dr. Baker walks Eve back to her glass holding cell, and Eve tiredly asks Dr. Baker something like, "Why do you do this to me?"
Eve spends her time reading and learning to drive by watching Dukes of Hazzard, her favorite show, when she's not being poked and prodded by people in white coats. The only thing that the scientists seem to remember about Sil from the last movie is her unstoppable sex drive, so men are not allowed anywhere inside the area where she is kept, at least until the end when Dennis Gamble (Mykelti Williamson), one of the men on the mission to Mars casually walks in, walks right up to the glass and tries to flirt with her. Good thing she was unimpressed by his genetic code, otherwise they may have had a serious security breach on their hands.
While scientists were busy studying Eve for some kind of weakness that they could use should another, ah, outbreak occur, other scientists are busy successfully completing the first manned mission to Mars. On the way back, there is a lapse of communication for seven minutes, I think, and the next thing you know one of the scientists has been infected with alien DNA, much like the stuff running through Eve's veins. Evidently the smart aliens (in this series, the ones in space, off-screen, sending intelligent radio signals to earth) have intercepted the Mars mission and sent a scout back to earth for another shot at those pesky humans. But fear not, it's not long before the slimy monster aliens take over the colonization efforts.
Given the feeble plot, it's not hard to see why Species II focuses entirely on the sexual aspect of the alien species. Natasha Henstridge is not most, but ALL of the draw that this movie has, so they have to pander to who they know is in the theaters. And judging from what happens during the movie, most of the people in theaters are adolescent boys who really shouldn't be watching this movie. Okay that was a guess, but while Natasha gets topless for about three seconds, there is still extensive nudity and group sex in the movie, most of which results in bloody birth scenes stolen from the Alien movies, as he steadily compiles a growing herd of offspring.
Dennis Gamble, the token black guy and comic relief, has no purpose but to constantly complain that he can never get any booty, until scientists inform him that because he's a carrier of sickle cell anemia, his blood can be used as a weapon against the alien. In the movie's defense, there is a great scene where Patrick Ross, who was infected in space, finally reaches Eve, with whom his hormones have been communicating since he got back to earth, and they have an intense love scene from opposite sides of thick glass. Interesting in that it is a shining moment of skillful acting in an otherwise dreary slog of drivel.
Also, I have to admit that I was impressed with the head regeneration scene, but only in the way that I was impressed with many of the special effects in Hollow Man. It was a fascinating thing to watch, despite all the while being very obviously a special effect. If you absolutely loved the first film (and I mean LOVED it), then you may enjoy this one slightly as well. But in the Species series even more than normal, if you didn't like the original you'll hate the sequel. And in some cases, hating this sequel doesn't even require a lukewarm opinion of the original.
Review by Michael DeZubiria from the Internet Movie Database.
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