Customer Reviews

Species III (Unrated Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This movie is far from great, and feels, and looks exactly like a TV movie. The movie was made for Sci-Fi and looks it, but is still somewhat more interesting then the other dreck I've seen coming out of that channel. If you are going to watch Species 3, get the R rated or Unrated cuts. Don't bother with the TV version. The parts of this movie that are interesting are the extreme violence, and the almost non-stop nudity and sex. I'm not joking. The second Sara, the new alien, matures she is naked for a good twenty minutes. The story itself is entertaining, and the cast is good, although it does seem that everyone really would rather be doing something else, with the exception of Robin Dunne as the lead male, the guy who played his roommate, and Sunny Mabre and the girl who played Amelia. So basically, the younger twenty-something cast did well, while the older actors seemed to phone it in.

The effects are decent, with some great gore moments, and the creatures, while cheesy as can be, fit in with the film very well. The action is a little hokey, but over all, it works.

I saw the R-rated cut, and while all the violence was intact, there is about one minute more of nudity in the unrated cut. How there could be more, I have no idea, because the Sara and Amelia's breasts are on display for a good portion of the films running time. If you want a cheesy, but entertaining B-grade Sci Fi flick, there are worse things you can get, although I would suggest getting the first movie instead. But if you've already seen Species 1 and 2, check out part 3. I do think they would have been better off doing a TV series than this movie, but either way, I have a feeling that if this does alright we will probably end up with a Species 4.

I watched the first "Species" flick only recently and I enjoyed it rather well. I gave it a strong three stars for its entertainment value. While I've missed "Species II," I did manage to watch this unrated version of "Species III" and I must say that it is a pretty good flick considering it went straight to DVD.

It is one of the best SciFi channel pictures I've seen in awhile. Although the story is a little unbalanced, what with a scientist hoping to create a pure alien breed that would almost definitely destroy humanity, you actually pull for the lead characters in this flick. Sunny Mabrey does an excellent job as Sara, the offspring of Eve who has achieved a near-perfect genetic build to survive on Earth. Robert Knepper is good as the slightly mad scientist who hopes to create a perfect being. The young man who assists him and eventually becomes the focus of the film is convincingly hesistant in helping Knepper.

The film plods along for the first half hour or so, but once Sara breaks from her cocoon and the half-breeds start seeking her out, things pick up. One alien in particular, Amelia, gets pretty nasty in her hunt for Sara. A male half-breed also does a number on Knepper, the grad student, and Sara.

Much like the original "Species," this sequel has plenty of nudity and sex to appease the appetites of viewers, but it isn't the focal point of the film.

The special effects are very good, especially considering that SciFi channel had a hand in this production. The aliens might be people in rubber suits for the most part, but that only adds to the realism of the creatures. In fact, the only real glaring failure in this flick is when the CGI kicks in. CGI looks fake, no matter what people think. Just check out flicks like the latest "Star Wars" episode or "Blade II" if you don't believe me. I have no real problem with CGI effects, but I hope that they become more realistic with time. Thankfully, CGI use is pretty thin in "Species III."

Oh, and in case your wondering, the film does end on a high note and a slight hint at another sequel. I don't think one will be made, but like any good sci-fi franchise, there is always a window left open for the future.

I recommend this film to fans of the other "Species" flicks. If you enjoy B-movies on SciFi like I do, this will definitely be an upgrade for you. I think that SciFi fans in general will enjoy this film, it isn't as bad as some say it is.

First there was Sil. Then we had her duplicate Eve. Now we have Eve's daughter Sara. Sara is closer to alien than her predecessors and is the charge of a university professor. He is trying to analyze her DNA and create and even more perfect creation. We also have a number of Hybrids (although Sil, Eve and Sara are also hybrids) who have agendas of their own.

As Sara matures her need to breed kicks in but she is unique and needs another with her level of alieness. The professor takes on a student researcher to assist in his plans. Although it is easy to learn from past mistakes, it is not easy to predict new ones and things begin to get out of hand. Soon there are bodies to be hidden and aliens to deal with as well as the government once they manage to find out what is going on.

This one lacks the feeling and menace of the earlier films and is far more upbeat. It is a different story from the first two and there is no explanation for the proliferation of the hybrids. All in all it is not what one would look for if you wanted more of the same. While different in many ways there is still good alien action and plenty of nudity like the original. But if you want a development and not just a continuation, then you might really enjoy this one. With a young protagonist this one should appeal to a different audience.

After the first installment of Species and its sequel Species 2, the new Species 3 marks a welcome change in the evolution of the series. If the previous two installments were horror movies, the new episode is more science-fiction. The original was out to create anxiety, whereas Species 3 actually generates some interesting character development, with the first suggestion that scientists dabbling with alien DNA aren't complete idiots after all.

In the first film, a distant planet sent a genetic sequence to Earth, which proved a luring recipe for disaster for a team of scientists who followed the instructions and wound up creating Syl (Natasha Henstridge). In no time at all, Syl grew into a creature who looks much of the time like an incredibly beautiful woman, driven to reproduce with - and kill - any human males she deems appropriate. In Species 2, a clone of the original Syl mated with an astronaut. Species 3 starts with a dying Syl giving birth to a child, who is swiftly appropriated and hidden away by Dr. Abbott (Robert Knepper), a university professor who is avidly curious and singularly nonjudgmental. With the self-named Sarah growing as an adult (Sunny Mabrey) in a couple of days, Dr. Abbott needs a bit of help and hires student Dean (Robin Dunne) to help him come up with a set of eggs. It seems that Syl left behind a legacy of decaying half-breeds who want Sarah to mate with them and continue their line. Meanwhile, the half-breeds aren't above some turmoil, and since Sarah comes from a lethal line herself ...

Ben Ripley's script goes in various unexpected directions, so that Sarah's conduct is truly unpredictable - we really don't know if she will be good or vicious in any given circumstances. This in turn makes Abbott and Dean seem more like authentic scientists rather than stereotypical horror movie enablers. The sequences with the naked Sarah and an aggressive half-breed called Amelia is really enticing (yeah, we know, they're aliens, they may sprout tentacles and kill somebody, but still ...), and they are undeniably scenic. The intrigue mechanics are definitely interesting. The characters are likeably original, with a nicely dry turn from Knepper and a credible performance as a dangerous above suspicion from the dazzling Mabrey.

IThe movie has a thoroughly filmlike appearance, with vivid colors and great definition in dark scenes. There are some nice, subtle effects of background machinery in Chapter 6 and a successful startling blast of music at the party in Chapter 13.

The audio commentary with director Turner, writer Ripley and actor Dunne is pleasant and instructive. There are four making-of segments - Evolution on casting and pre-production, Species DNA on production design, with designer Cameron Birnie illuminating on the wish to make the environments uncomfortable to look at - Alien Technology, which contrasts shots before and after the addition of CGI, and Intelligent Lifeforms, a decent segment on the creature design. A photo gallery is also included.

Species 3 does have the impact of the original, in an innovative way, it feels more consistent - the characters are certainly more appealing. It emerges as a more than agreeable and sexy SF diversion.

So this time we've got a new alien, played by Sunny Mabrey. She's being raised by a college professor who spirited her away from the government just after the end of the last movie. But there are also half-breed aliens, and they want to mate with her because their genes are all screwed up and they're dying from a whole host of diseases. When one of them shows up at the college professor's office and dies, he calls in help from a brilliant grad student. Soon, the alien starts to have "feelings" for this student, and the half-breed aliens attack.

This just wasn't terribly interesting, even for a direct-to-video movie. The story didn't have much forward momentum to it and the conclusion was fairly unsatisfying. The inclusion of the half-breed aliens didn't really serve any purpose except to put a stumbling block in front of the professor and his little science project. As far as the characters, the hot babe alien didn't have any emotions, so that pretty much wrote her out of the story. The professor and his student were just not very well developed and din't have any sort of personality traits that separated them from any other generic movie character. The whole thing left me uninterested. The worst part was there didn't seem to be any point to the story - what was the professor trying to do with the alien? This was never made clear, so when it wasn't successful, well, who cares?

Considering all the attention given to this being "unrated", it really didn't have any more gore or nudity than an average R rated movie.

This is the best of the trilogy. I believe this is a straight to video release but it is better than the usual of its ilk. The main reason being Ameilia Cooke's gas station scene.....

I thought this was pretty good. Normaly, T.V. movies would suck (well not all of them). This one is pretty good. The guy that gets cut in half was sick, along with the alien man melting. I think movie with a human falling for an alien is funny like Starman. This movie is pretty cool.

Reminiscent of 50's sci-fi in that whomever wrote the script obviously drinks a lot, the acting doesn't always fit the scene being viewed, and there's a tendency to go right to T&A to keep you from noticing, which is fine by me, but I notice it anyway. The movie is pretty good visual look to it and the direction is adequate. However, the ending is nothing more than giving up for lack of anything better to do. As in, "I don't know what to do here so somebody better start walking off into the sunset".

You know something is wrong with a movie when it's not released theatrically. And that it is exactly the case here. Species III was released in the Sci-Fi Channel in 2004 and shortly afterwards on DVD. Here in this 2nd sequel in the Species franchise we find another seductive alien on the loose only this time it is not played by Natasha Henstridge. The movie begins exactly where the last one left of, with Eve's body being loaded into the military truck, later on we find her giving birth to a pure breed Alien. The alien is taken by a scientist who for some unexplained reason is doing research on her species. Anyway just to give an insight this movie gives us a slight improvement over the previous entry... but its still garbage. The movie suffers from a lot especially bad lighting, which becomes excruciating after awhile. The acting is okay but the dialog is a bit confusing and sometimes for no real reason. The movie also has some minimal plot holes, such as half breeds still being alive after the 2nd picture (they were all killed supposedly in the barn in Specie II) and at times it suffers from poor character development, but other than that it can still be enjoyed as a comedy... because to me that's what this series really is... just on big cheesy sci-fi mess. Rent it or just watch it on the Sci-Fi channel when they air it.


MY PERSONAL RATING: 1 ½ OUT OF 5

The third, and hopefully final, entry into the Species series finds a low budget approach taken to the film. Series star Natasha Henstridge makes an all too short cameo in the beginning of the film, as she births a super hot alien/human hybrid with mating on her mind. Besides that, the rest of Species 3 comes off like a made for TV movie, with some bad FX but some nice T&A to go around. The acting is horrible, the story barely makes any sense, and there is hardly any redeeming factor to be found in the film. Fans of the surprise 1995 guilty pleasure hit and even it's lacking sequel may want to check this out since it does continue the tradition of what is in a Species movie: no plot, but a horde of gore and nudity.