Species: The Awakening (2007)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
The fourth and so far final film in the SPECIES series has college professor Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) going on a killing spree, which is something she doesn't understand. Her "uncle" (Ben Cross) takes her to Mexico where he informs her that he, along with another man, created her in a lab using DNA from an alien and this is why she's starting to act out. The uncle wants to save her life so he visits his old friend who has been creating all sorts of half-woman, half-alien creatures. SPECIES: THE AWAKENING is pretty much what you'd expect out of a direct-to-DVD release and that's a film with a few good moments but not enough to make it worth your while. As you'd expect, all you really need to make a SPECIES sequel is a good looking blonde willing to take her clothes off and the producers were able to find another one in Mattsson. As with the previous women, she too turns in a good performance as I found her quite convincing early on as the college lady but she's also very believable when she turns into the sex pot looking for a mate. As needed, she's certainly got a great looking body and knows how to use her sexuality. Cross is also pretty good in his role but the screenplay does him very little in terms of good writing. Dominic Keating plays the other scientist and is pretty good as well. The unrated version of this film features quite a bit of violent footage with a lot of deaths by the creatures tongue including one rather good shot of it going through a woman's skull and coming out of her eye. The actual CGI effect isn't all that believable but at least the money shot is worth watching. There's other bloody footage throughout the film as most of the deaths are rather gory and we even get another cocoon sequence where the beautiful lady gets to be born (nude of course). The biggest problem with the film is that the pacing is just so slow and we've seen this same story so many times that it's really hard to care about what's going on or how it's all going to end. There's also a cheap feel that hangs over the movie so this here is clearly for die hard fans only.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
The fourth and so far final film in the SPECIES series has college professor Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) going on a killing spree, which is something she doesn't understand. Her "uncle" (Ben Cross) takes her to Mexico where he informs her that he, along with another man, created her in a lab using DNA from an alien and this is why she's starting to act out. The uncle wants to save her life so he visits his old friend who has been creating all sorts of half-woman, half-alien creatures. SPECIES: THE AWAKENING is pretty much what you'd expect out of a direct-to-DVD release and that's a film with a few good moments but not enough to make it worth your while. As you'd expect, all you really need to make a SPECIES sequel is a good looking blonde willing to take her clothes off and the producers were able to find another one in Mattsson. As with the previous women, she too turns in a good performance as I found her quite convincing early on as the college lady but she's also very believable when she turns into the sex pot looking for a mate. As needed, she's certainly got a great looking body and knows how to use her sexuality. Cross is also pretty good in his role but the screenplay does him very little in terms of good writing. Dominic Keating plays the other scientist and is pretty good as well. The unrated version of this film features quite a bit of violent footage with a lot of deaths by the creatures tongue including one rather good shot of it going through a woman's skull and coming out of her eye. The actual CGI effect isn't all that believable but at least the money shot is worth watching. There's other bloody footage throughout the film as most of the deaths are rather gory and we even get another cocoon sequence where the beautiful lady gets to be born (nude of course). The biggest problem with the film is that the pacing is just so slow and we've seen this same story so many times that it's really hard to care about what's going on or how it's all going to end. There's also a cheap feel that hangs over the movie so this here is clearly for die hard fans only.