Species III

NOVEMBER 27, 2007

GENRE: ALIEN
SOURCE: DVD (ONLINE RENTAL)

Was there really a demand for Species III? It’s hard to find anyone who likes the original, and NO ONE likes the 2nd one. So why bother with a 3rd entry, especially if they can’t even get Michael Madsen back? Well, surprisingly enough, it’s not all that bad. It’s certainly better than the last one, though that wouldn’t exactly be difficult.

Like yesterday's Teeth, the Species films seemingly exist primarily to scare men out of wanting have sex. The aliens in these films are beautiful, sexually aggressive women who will fuck the shit out of you and then ram a tentacle through your goddamn head (make your own "climax" joke). Yet I feel compelled to keep watching them, if mainly for the eye candy. Natasha Henstridge is one of the most beautiful women in the world, so you gotta give them props for finding a replacement that not only could theoretically pass for her daughter, but is almost just as hot. Sunny Mabrey does just that, and yes, follows her cinematic mother’s footsteps where it counts (i.e. disrobes a few times). Plus, this one gives us another hot alien chick, Amelia Moore, who ALSO gets nude whenever the mood strikes her. God bless these films.

The film itself isn’t too bad either, for a DTV production anyway. Robert Knepper (T-Bag!!!) and some guy who looks the mutant offspring of Pacey and Scott Speedman (or Scott Foley; I can never tell those dudes apart) team up to do some science shit, while Mabrey runs around knocking frat guys about. It’s more complicated than that, involving viruses, clones, embryos, and what I believe is cinema’s first alien incest rape scene, and to be honest, even though the film is close to 2 hrs long, it moves along nicely.

And even though I hated the movie, I liked how Species II wasn’t ignored. I notice a lot of sequels lately tend to forget the other sequels existed and only reference the first one (especially if the sequel(s) tanked and/or sucked, which is certainly the case here). But no, while one doesn’t need to have seen either one of them to understand this film (I’ve only seen the other ones once, during their theatrical run, so fuck if I can remember a damn thing about them), both are mentioned in about equal portions, which is nice of them. The oft-mentioned “Dr Fitch” was Ben Kingsley’s character, that’s about the only refresher you need.

One scene in particular stuck out. Hot bad alien chick stops at a gas station, and demands full service. For some reason, we get numerous close-ups of the gas pump, as if it was foreshadowing something (an explosion perhaps). We get a close up of the tank being opened, the pump going in, the ‘auto-pump’ lever being activated, the auto-pump shutting off, the pump being removed, and then two other shots of the pump on the ground. What the fuck? None of this is interesting! All it does is take away from the scene’s REAL highlight, which is the hot alien chick fucking the shit out of some greasy dude in the filthy gas station bathroom.

The scene also offers a fake Rex Linn.

The DVD has a decent amount of extras too, though perhaps it SHOULDN’T, since the picture quality is pretty poor (everything is washed out, with blacks appearing gray. Ugh). There’s about an hour of making of stuff, and a commentary. So for those keeping score – Species III has lots of information about the film’s creation and production, and a full length commentary, plus some other superfluous stuff; Kill Bill has a trailer.

There really should be some sort of DVD Extra Police.

What say you?