Customer Reviews

Species IV - The Awakening (Unrated)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

SPECIES IV is undoubtedly the weakest of the four movies in the SPECIES canon, an unrated direct-to-video release that, like all one-a-half-star movies is both very good and very bad at the same time.

The lovely, luminescent and incredibly blonde Helena Mattsson plays Miranda, the half-human, half-alien creature. Ms. Mattson is far more reminiscent of Nicole Kidman than Natasha Henstridge from the original SPECIES. Her acting is fine, but not arrestingly good.

SPECIES 4 falls down simply because it's essentially a retread.

Miranda, a gifted college professor, is under the watchful eye of her Uncle Tom (Ben Cross), in reality the genetic scientist who created her from a mix of female creature DNA and human female DNA. He has never told her who and what she is. Miranda falls ill. Her illness causes her feral aspects to become dominant. Uncle Tom tries desperately to cure her, resorting to some very questionable tactics to do so. The ethical Miranda is outraged, but as her disease progresses, her humanity slips away and she becomes increasingly predatory, seeking to mate and kill. Not much else needs to be said. It's SPECIES redux.

SPECIES 4 is well-made but limited, an unremarkable film that nonetheless holds the viewer's attention and entertains despite it's predictability.

I've been a fan of Science Fiction for almost as long as I've been alive. It was my mother who got me started all those years ago with the original Star Trek series, and to this day, despite that I've grown to enjoy many other genre's, I still am a fan of science Fiction, and I will be until the day I pass on to the next life.

Also, due to a series of genetic defects that runs rampant in my bloodline, which fortunately for myself and my son, doesn't affect either of us, I've been quite interested in genetics and the human genome.

To top it off, for decades, SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) has been searching the skies for signs of non-human intelligence.

Back in 1995, a science fiction film starring a newcomer named Natasha Henstridge, and co-starring a list of popular actors (Ben Kingsley, Forrest Whitaker, Michael Madsen and Alfred Molina) hit the silver screen.

This film was called Species and put all three of these topics together in a sexy, scary, well crafted tale of the potential end of humanity as the dominant species on Earth.

To make things better, the legendary H. R. Geiger (who created the xenomorph that has become part of our popular culture, the original Alien), was contracted to create the alien hybrid of this movie, Sil.

The movie has since spawned three additional sequels, each getting worse and worse as the storyline progresses and this review is about the latest entry into the franchise called Species: The Awakening.

In one aspect, it's sort of a morality fable, about keeping secrets from those close to you, and that messing with things best left alone always has dire consequences.

But when it comes right down to it, this movie was simply a money grab from the studios.

Sadly, it barely fits the bill of science fiction, secondly, the whole genetic aspect was a joke, and finally - I don't think SETI was even mentioned in the movie.

To be sure, the main actress Helena Mattson was exceptionally attractive, although her acting skills left a great deal to be desired. Still, I've seen worse - from several of the supporting actor in the movie itself.

The movie, hell, the franchise sells itself on sex. Beautiful women, running around naked, trying to seduce men so that they can procreate and start an invasion of the planet.

That just doesn't cut it.

Most people, myself included, need a good plot and halfway decent acting, with some neat effects thrown in for good measure.

Ok the movie had some cool effects, as the alien hybrids were very well done, but the plot was, for the most part, non existent.

And what little plot there was had holes the size of our solar system. I mean, come on, using a combination of alien DNA to clone dead pets and loved ones for money? Alien hybrids running loose in a town in Mexico?

It was quite the joke, even if the writers did attempt to explain things by saying that the hybrid creations were sterile. And then only to have the main hybrid, Miranda, who had to take the genetic material from another woman to survive, suddenly `awaken' and become this alien monster who is now fertile and ready to being the invasion.

The slaughter of many innocent people was toned down, which is a good thing. I've never been a fan of gore for the sake of gore, and even the nudity was lacking compared to the other movies.

If the movie had one thing going for it, it was the effects. But, as many people know, good effects don't make for a good movie. And even now the effects were pretty blasé compared to major Hollywood productions. What do you expect for a direct to video shoe string movie though?

Not much, that's for damned sure.

Do yourself a favour, take my review for what it's worth. Don't waste your time on this movie unless you can see it for free, or can pick it up for cheap at your local rental store. Save your money for a real movie, or if you need to see the any of this franchise, rent or buy the original movie and watch it over again.

1 out of 5

While new star Helena Mattsson will most likely take your breath away, there is absolutely nothing else in "Species: The Awakening" to keep your interest for more than five minutes. As a big fan of the original Species and to a lesser degree its first sequel, it's painful to watch these straight to video sequels turn the series in to straight up sci-fi cheese. Every trace of intelligence the series once had has been flushed away with the past two "films". "Species: The Awakening" is simply a boring, poorly acted, poorly scripted piece of garbage with terrible "rubber suit" special effects and laughably bad dialog. Even beautiful women like the aforementioned Helena Mattson can no longer save this series from imploding on itself. Sil would be turning over in her grave.....

Species was designer H.R. Giger's hetero- answer to the rampant male violation present in Aliens. He transferred everything icky about the xenomorphs to the female form, where any body part (and I mean ANY part) can sprout a maw-tipped tentacle. Anime's been at this for years, so it's only logical that live action eventually caught up to it.

In this latest direct-to-video effort Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) is a knockout with super-model looks who also happens to be a brilliant professor. She, incredulously, lives with her "uncle" Tom Hollander (Ben Cross). On Miranda's birthday she suddenly suffers a mysterious illness that causes her to go on an alien rampage. Tom rescues Miranda before the authorities can catch her and flees to Mexico.

On the way, Tom explains that Miranda is actually a mad scientist's dream girl, created from combined human and alien DNA. He and Forbes McGuire (Dominic Keating) created her as a college science experiment. Miranda has been living a lie, fed a cover story about her non-existent parents and secretly injected nightly by Tom with human hormones to suppress her alien DNA. Now Tom is returning her to Forbes, the only person who will know how to help poor Miranda.

Finding Forbes only creates more questions. It appears the rascal has been using his DNA-magic to splice deceased pets back to life and selling them to rich owners. If you thought that the rat at the end of the first movie might be a problem, it seems Forbes pretty much heralded the end of life as we know it...but never you mind about that. Forbes offers a devil's deal: the only way to keep Miranda alive is to inject "fresh" human DNA into Miranda, which will kill the donor. Miranda, horrified by the thought of taking (another) life refuses. The decision is taken out of her hands when she falls unconscious again.

Tom, who loves Miranda like a daughter, refuses to give up. He ventures into Mexico's seediest clubs searching for a victim but ends up getting mugged in the process. Tom is rescued by Azura (Marlene Favela), one of Forbes' living alien dolls that he unscrupulously uses to sate his libido. Voila! Instant human DNA donor for Miranda. The procedure doesn't go quite as planned, however, and when Miranda awakens she's fertile and in alien heat.

It seems Forbes has left quite a few of his alien/human hybrids roaming about, and it's not long before there's a good ole fashioned alien showdown between Azura (demonic brunette) and Miranda (angelic blonde). Queue the nudity, special effects, and explosions.

Awakening goes back to the series roots in focusing on hot alien chicks that kill their human mates. Stripped of the big-budget production values of the first movie, Awakening's flaws peek through its gauzy plot. Very little makes sense, and the entire set up is really just an excuse for the battle between two alien hotties in full xenomorph mode.

In that regard Awakening is actually an improvement on the previous two sequels. If this latest installment is any indication, we haven't seen the end of tongue-thrusting alien hotties.

This is an old fashioned movie that relies 95% on plot instead of special effects or nudity. The greatest special effects that took place was the explosion that took place at the end of the movie.

You do not need to know anything about the other three Species movies to understand this one.

If you simply view this movie as a stand alone (no comparison to the other 3 Species movies), you will be left stunned.

I have no problem recommending this one be bought as new. There is no cheese is you view this without comparison to the special effects of the other 3 Species movies.

The acting is very good. The plot is very good and based upon the love of "Uncle Tom" wishing to extend the life of his half-alien "neice" Miranda. At no point does Uncle Tom give into lust - his love for his beautiful "neice" Miranda remains true to the end. He helped to create her and was basically her father.

This movie moves FAST. Nothing slow about the plot. There are no extra scenes than are necessary.

Don't cheat yourself. This IS a movie to be viewed solely as a stand alone and should not be compared to the other 3 Species movies. Buy it new!

It is my hope that there will be a Species 5. I can imagine how good it could be if it had BOTH plot AND special effects!

The actors were good in this film. I agree with the other reviewer about the 'rest stop" scene being awkward, but even more awkward was the scene where she tries to get her uncle to breed with her. THAT should have been omitted. However, the actors DID save that scene with some dignity in tact, since the producer(s) left it in. It did stick true to the ideal that Tom loved Miranda like a daughter and couldn't conceive of such an act, so she left to find someone else. I liked the plot and such--just not that particular scene. The rest stop scene was awkward, but if the other scene had gone totally left, it would have ruined the entire movie. At least Helena Mattson was not miscast and she did a great job, and so did Ben Cross.

I consider this movie to have a lot of action in it, it is very interesting,something anyone who likes thrills would enjoy,(unless you're dead, lol)I got the whole series!

i just saw this movie on sci-fi(which meant no nudity)i'l admit it had it's good scenes and of course bad but all in all i give it a 7.5 and i will buy this movie soon,real soon.

God, what a terrible movie. Since when has a "Species" movie had only 2 sex scenes [in it]? This is truly ridiculous. Not to mention, the DVD isn't even high-quality, either. I recommend seeing the others in this series (or "Decoys", which has a better sense of humor) instead of this one!

The movie is almost 1½ + - hours long. It is all so boring you will feel it right away from the very beginning. Half of the movie is based on nudity and mixed with sex scenes. But was even this fun to watch? No, like the whole movie it was plain boring. I advice to skip it or watch without high expectations.