I remember watching the first Species movie when it first came out, and I remember being somewhat let down by it. I reluctantly picked up Species II years after it was first released. I was expecting something bad, but I was really surprised by what I watched. This movie was INSANE. It reminded me of one of those exploitive category III Hong Kong movies like Robotrix, but with a much bigger budget. You can bet I was pumped up to see Species III after that. But while I thought its production values were acceptable for a straight-to-video movie, and that it had a number of gory and naked women moments, I thought it was somewhat talky, somewhat slow, and overlong (it ran close to two hours!) It didn’t get me pumped up to see the next entry, Species – The Awakening, when it was first released, and I only decided to see it recently when I was able to rent it for just a buck. Read and see if I wanted my money back afterwards.
Keith Bailey is the proprietor of The Unknown Movies Page.
#1 by Blake on December 10th, 2009
I watched most of Species II and hated it; never watched any of the others. I do remember listening to Siskel bash the first one for having too much nudity or something, and then Ebert coming back and saying that’s why he watched it (or something to that effect).
#2 by Carl on December 10th, 2009
You were saying this in some sort of character, right? Because otherwise I’d have to point out that, um, most of that is false and the rest is silly.
#3 by The Rev. D.D. on December 11th, 2009
I have only seen the first one. In a strange quirk of fate, it’s the only movie I paid to see in the theater twice (not by choice–my friends and I went, and then a girl I really dug wanted to go see it the next weekend, and, well…) It was all right for what it was (a showcase for some gory effects and Natasha Henstridge’s body) but I never found myself interested in any of the sequels.
This review has changed my opinion of that. I don’t care about parts III and IV, but damned if I’m not curious about II now.
In a completely unrelated note, I understand Ms. Kingsley’s homeland is under threat from a giant iceberg that may very well break into a swarm of smaller icebergs to attack the mainland. It’s like the advent of Legion all over again, albeit with frozen water rather than alien buggies.
Is this why she’s been so quiet lately? Have the authorities asked for her help to combat this menace approaching their shores?
Or, perhaps, is the answer more sinister?
I know where my money is, but I won’t have proof until the icebergs make landfall and we find out if there are radio-controlled zombies inside them.
#4 by MatthewF on December 13th, 2009
I believe that the filmakers thirst for originality can be seen by this list of how many other films are called the awakening
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=the+awakening