Species III (2004) - A Review

I have come to the end of giving a chance to the ‘Species franchise’. I’ve learned it’s just not my thing, never has been and unless something radical is done to revamp and insert some excitement and catch my interest in watching any more of these it’s a movie series I don’t want to see again.

So the third movie picks up where the second ended. Eve (Natasha Henstridge) the hot blonde alien is dead in the back of an ambulance and gives birth to a half-alien/half human daughter Sara (Sunny Mabrey). A college biology professor (Robert Knepper) raises her and attempts to develop some kind of perfect DNA from her and win a Nobel Prize, but he needs the help of some student (Robin Dunne), but Sara wants to mate and there’s another hot alien that’s a brunette (Amelia Cooke) who seeks out Sara and……I don’t care.

Species III is a very low-budget flick that premiered on the Syfy channel and eventually made it’s way to DVD. The first half is a research story with the older and younger scientists talking non-stop about confusing crap while Sara walks around naked then the second half is the poor mans Dawson Creek kid on his own when the violent hot brunette alien shows and there’s a climax at some nuclear reactor or something.

I don’t know. Both halves stunk. I didn’t care for either of the two previous Species movies, but at least they were never this dull to sit through!

This movie felt endless. It’s nearly two full hours and I felt every minute of it. It actually took me three sittings to get the end of it. I only have myself to blame.

Oh sure, you get the mandatory Species boobs from sexy alien gals and some gore effects, but don’t think those bits are enough to warrant sitting through this dead on arrival sequel. It’s like going to a cookout and being served burnt moldy burgers on expired green rolls with soggy fries and flat warm soda then saying the only upside is the ketchup was pretty good. Just forget eating the crap and have a better meal.

Knepper and Dunne talk science throughout most of the first half and for all their talking not once did I get intrigued by what they were saying or anxious to see the results. It’s pretty amazing. I can’t even describe what they were trying to accomplish. Create some perfect DNA from Sara somehow, I’m not sure how that would work.

As soon as I saw Dunne I had him pegged as ‘a young good-looking guy who will have no presence in this movie and be as cliched a young hero in one of these lousy movies as possible’ and I was right. Apparently he’s done several of these direct-to-video sequels to popular movies. Things happening on the screen didn’t even make a dent in my brain and I mainly kept myself occupied with thinking back at how Knepper was so much fun as T-Bag on Prison Break.

Like all alien species in this series, Sara grows up fast into a hot a girl. You would think watching Sara wandering around outside looking for a mate would get things popping a bit. Nope. It’s so drearily done. She pushes eager college guys around. A train takes her arm off and it grows back – a scene I’m still confused as to why they included it.

Mabrey plays things so monotone and remote. She doesn’t have as sexy a presence as Henstridge managed to muster and I certainly didn’t care or sympathize with her. It was just a waiting game of when she’ll drop her shirt. She does get to kill an amorous teacher at least. I think that scene was the highlight of the first hour.

Cooke delivers a bit better in the sexy department and shows some skin, but she arrives very late in the movie. Her sexy inclusion is fleeting before she turns full blown evil alien and that’s when she goes about chasing Dunne around and becomes a CGI monster. Very good looking gal, but I guess this will be the biggest role we’ll see her in. I read she retired from acting and is now raising a family.

There are some very cheesy, blurry flashbacks to the other films at points. I guess that’s supposed to make fans forgive that Henstridge is only in this flick at the very beginning – and playing dead to boot. If I thought she was wasted in the second movie, here she’s relegated to a brief cameo. She lucked out not having to appear any further in this.

I still don’t like the alien design in these films. It still looks relatively uninspired. I don’t see much updating to it through this series.

To my astonishment this was not the end to the Species series! There was a fourth one released by Syfy. I can’t imagine that it could get much worse, but it’s telling that it was released in 2007 and we haven’t heard a peep of any more Species followups yet. Maybe Species is finally truly done.

Yeah, right who are we kidding??? Someone will eventually dig this title out again!