Species (1995)

SPECIES (1995)

Species is a classic example of sci-fi creature feature meets, well, soft-core porn. There are a surprising amount of familiar faces in what is basically a ‘B’ monster movie, and there are other aspects of Species that makes it a worthwhile view. While things do start very promisingly, a crappy climax -as flaccid as a dudes penis after he has seen Sil in her Alien state- ruins the fun science-fiction trash before it. I'd consider Species somewhat of an Americanised mish-mash of similar Japanese movies that take things MUCH further, especially where tentacles end up going if you know what I mean. So let the inane boob jokes and captions begin!

Aliens have sent scientists instructions on how to combine human and alien DNA. The American government decided to give it a go, creating Sil; a deceptively beautiful hybrid who matures at a rapid rate. After a failed plan to kill her- they decided a few months too late that maaaaybe it wasn’t such a good idea- she escapes, matures and looks for a mate in Los Angeles. A group of experts is gathered to find and kill Sil (although none wear yellow jumpsuits and swing around katanas, sadly) before she procreates and spreads her alien spawn. And that’s pretty much it! It’s basically a recipe for some goofy sci-fi fun, that kinda-sorta works in the end product.

"wow, her boobs are AMAZING"- Michael Madsen as Preston Lennox.

 The strongest aspect of Species surprisingly enough isn’t Natasha Henstridge’s breasts, but H.R Giger’s design of her in alien form. Giger is the man responsible for the now iconic creature from Alien; that thing with a head that you swear looks like a penis and the egg-carrier for which appears to have a vagina for a mouth. Human genitalia seems to have been integrated in all of his design work, and he DEFINITELY got a chance to, uh, play with that more in Species. The practical effects work on Sil’s alien form really is great to look at (in more ways than one). We get a ‘cocoon’ that has Sil emerge from an oh-so-symbolic giant vagina-like opening, and tentacles that shoot from her tah-tah’s have a titillating silliness that really was a ‘what the fuck?!” moment followed by a cascade laughter. Oh Giger, you horny bastard! The gore effects are pretty good too.

It's best not to reject a women who can choke you with her jumblies.

 I was kept interested in the movie until about the hour mark, with Sil’s boobs- preferably without tentacles- conveniently popping up whenever interest was lost. You can't help but laugh when Sil tries to seduce someone by saying “I want a baby” and her being surprised by their less than keen reaction. As expected in this type of movie, the acting is really all over the place. The characters are underdeveloped and do really, REALLY incredibly stupid things (pretty sure impregnating an alien hybrid counts as one of those). However you shouldn’t be looking for these things in a movie about a horny alien women looking for some action. As someone who watches a lot of these movies, I just take it as part of the package and have fun with it. Michael Madsen delivers every single one of his lines with his characteristic half-asleep, disinterested trademark (kind of like the Lana Del Rey of the acting world), and it really does provide some hilarious snippets. The movie keeps up this goofy sci-fi charm until an hour in, where things start to feel a bit drawn and out.

From left to right,  Dan Smithson (Forest Whitaker),  Stephen Arden (Alfred Molina), Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) and Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley).

 A problem the film had from the beginning was the character of a psychic to help them catch Sill, played by the now well-established Forest Whitaker. This character feels wildly out of place, just plain odd and unnecessary. The climax falls to pieces, and not much about it is right. Setting it in a bland underground sewer-cave was a bad decision. Instead of sticking with the practical alien-Sil, we get a frankly TERRIBLE looking CGI one running around. Its pretty damn clear this movie didn’t have the budget for its mid 1990’s time that was needed for computer animation to look halfway decent, let alone have a humanoid alien running around (seeing as whole people are notoriously hard to animate convincingly). I would have much preferred that they minimised this completely and we got more of the practical effects; they look SO much better. We didn’t see enough of them and those tentacle-tah-tah’s for my liking. The climax isn’t really a climax at all, and there is no suspense to speak of. The whole last half hour feels rushed and ultimately unsatisfying, which detracts from the film a lot.

"You rika when I rick my titty-tentacle honey? Dey no call it Tie-land for naffing;)"

If your new to these kinds of films, I suppose Species isn’t a bad way to start. It’s basically soft-core kinky porn with a titty-tentacled alien women created by the government looking for some sexy good time. The sequels, well, surprise, surprise, didn’t fair so well. Species 2 did provide much, much more sex and more gore, and most importantly, more tentacle boobs!

 3/5

 Recommended classification: 15+ for strong bloody science-fiction violence, sex scene, nudity, coarse language and sexual references

Species' trailer: