Rating of
1.5/4
Mating Season Begins...
ZJW - wrote on 01/24/08
O God - where to start with this one... There are of course worse movies than Species 2 but it's very likely most of them didn't feature so many far-fetched and obscure ideas as this film does. That isn’t to say this movie is entirely bad… it can certainly be enjoyable but in all reality it is a very bad movie. The film starts off with three astronauts returning from Mars. While aboard the shuttle they are infected by an alien organism that stowed aboard and somehow or another transforms them into human/alien hybrids with a need to reproduce. It would seem the government has also inexplicably cloned Sil in the form of Eve, played once again by Natasha Henstridge. Also returning for this sequel are Mike Madsen and Marg Helgenberger.
The scientific part of the film makes far less sense than the first film and nothing is really explained at any point. As previously mentioned, the film begins two of the astronauts are inexplicably transformed into human/alien hybrids. I guess that isn’t entirely unfeasible as it is science fiction. This though is just the first of head-scratching scenarios the film has to offer. Why the government has decided to continue experimentation and clone Sil also seems to be unclear and certainly unwise. The story is quite weak and rather incoherent on the whole.
There are vague attempts at explaining the origins of the “Species” in question but they are of very little consequence to the events going on. Peter Boyle tells us that a cancerous race came to Mars long ago and wiped out their vast civilization. Through the entire scene the camera rotates around him, either in an attempt to make the viewer so dizzy they are unable to focus on the poorly constructed back-story or a sad attempt at increasing the scenes tension.
The acting is very over the top and as a result is also quite poor. I do hope the aim was for the general to come off as completely ridiculous because he certainly does. Mike Madsen in particular shows very little effort, as it would seem he clearly knew how bad the film really was. It should be noted that on Mike Madsen’s website the only thing he had to say about Species 2 was “Big Mistake”. The star characters manage to continuously show off how foolish they are and it makes you question why something as important as tracking an alien life form is left to people so incompetent. The film is often unintentionally funny although that actually helps make it more enjoyable. It’s quite hard not to laugh or simply be in shock at how bad some supposedly dramatic scenes come off.
There is very little redeeming about this film, although it has a nice pace to it. The first film wasn't great but at least it was fun and had a solid cast with a decent story. This film has neither and just seems to go nowhere at all. The result is one complicated and incoherent mess that makes little sense at all. The film also is more violent than it’s predecessor. It’s mildly entertaining, with an emphasis on the mild, but certainly not good by any definition of the word.
