Species III (2004)

The honour of getting a strait to video release is kind of degrading, but in the b-movie industry in doesn't automatically mean that a film is without merit. Take for example the three tremors sequels, fans love those. I'll give Species III a little credit for rejuvenating the concept pioneered in the first movie. This material feels much more fresh than Species II. It manages to continue the story, without getting increasingly shallow as a side effect. What made species so unique was that the film was designed as a bug hunt, but for a while it makes us sympathetic to the bug, rather than repulsed by it. Species III has a similar effect at times, which I must say I didn't expect. It ends on a nice note for a horror film, something which may actually get you interested in Species IV rather than annoyed with the idea. The first thing to like about Species three is, that there is no more Michael Madsen or Natasha Henstridge, both of whom were rather useless in the sequel. Last time we saw Eve (Henstridge) she was in an ambulance on her way to the morgue. That's pretty much where we begin here. Next thing you know she comes alive, if only for a moment to give birth. the military escort Dr. Abbot runs away with the baby, raises her in secret, names her Sara, and once she is old enough formulates a plan to mutate her DNA. He takes on one of his students as an apprentice, who Sara falls in love with. This sums up the basics of the first two acts. The final half hour takes a weird and unnecessary turn, as the film tries overly hard to surpass, its predecessor. Apparently one bomb-shell alien chick is not enough. Why do so many films have climax trouble? being convoluted works in books or TV, but doesn't enrich a movie experience.In the end though, Species III, delivers more than you might expect, even if it lacks a moment of intelligence.

Another sequel, Natasha Henstridge only with a short guest appearance, and with a much lower budget = direct to video? Not a good premise to start with, but "Species III" actually is better than "Species II". Instead of outer space or a huge base/lab, the setting simply is a professor's house in the woods, where students help with his experiments. Obviously aiming at a younger audience, these young actors fortunately don't make it a typical silly teen horror flick, though - instead they prove that interesting characters are not a budget related thing. "Species III" is less concerned with killings, but a bit more with biology again. Insofar it is closer to part 1 than part 2 of the series had been. After the first half moves a bit slow sometimes, introducing Sara as the newly created alien in human shape, the second half contains more action when other alien clones start fighting Sara. Sara is played by Sunny Mabrey, a pretty model type of blonde who unfortunately is not much of an actress. Amelia Cooke who plays another alien has more screen presence and steals the show as soon as Sunny looks the other way. I voted 8/5/6/7 for the 4 parts of the series.

I have watched the first three one night in a row and it seems like this one the scriptwriters were seriously smoking something potent when they wrote the script to this.You could argue it has somewhat logic to it all, and with the way the characters act, but the logic is like the sort of logic only the craziest bond villain would possibly have, or just Dr Evil logic.For example the first moment of the movie has a college professor pretending to be an army officer just so he can steal the last surviving alien to take home to make a master pure alien race so he can win a Nobel prize? (I guess that said professor did not know that Nobel made the prize after inventing nitroglycerin, realising it was actually dangerous to mankind so created the Nobel prize specifically to reward scientists for making things that are good and a benefit for humankind) So how he thinks creating a pure race of alien that simply wants to destroy all human kind would win him this prize is way beyond me to understand?.Now to get back above, why the army would also allow something so highly top secret and risky to be put in charge of and transported back to the base in the hands of someone who nobody didn't even know is beyond all rational logic to me too.The only good thing about the movie in my opinion was the incredibly hot alien that comes out of nowhere in the final act just to be the final fight villain which obviously a film like this needed and clearly the filmmakers felt could not have been Sara as she was a very likable character so tacked on this other vicious Alien hot girl for solely that role.Which by the way she came into the film by posting on the internet in the personals ads asking if anyone out there knows and can explain to her what alien DNA is, which our hero's roommate steals the info from his journal just so he can potentially get in on with the hot girl which surprisingly turns out to be a bad idea, you can tell I am not making this up as I doubt anyone could make this up bar the one writer of this movie.Overall I felt it was an okay watch, the main alien girl was not a patch on Natasha Henstridge, but the incredibleness of the villain sort of made up for this. She should have been Sara though in my opinion as she was a better actor, had more edge to her and also was, in my opinion, much more attractive.I will be watching 4 tomorrow.

What happens when you take most of the sex and a good portion of nudity out of a Species movie and throw in a low budget and boring script? You get Species 3, which is appallingly boring when compared to the other movies. Number one had a great atmosphere and cast, number two had good special effects (and little else worth noting) and number three has.... um, hold on, I'll think of something.If you have read the plot synopsis for this movie, you have been badly misled. It claims that Sara is desperately seeking a mate while a military team closes in on her. Neither is true. The movie starts shortly after number 2, with Eve's body being transported somewhere so they can "use her dying DNA to make something else." Why they can't just make another one is beyond me but anyway. The truck driving her stops as an alien tongue bursts through the back wall of the truck and kills the passenger. The driver goes to investigate only to catch Eve waking up and giving birth in an unusual way. She doesn't even have time to see the baby before the little Patrick child in the back with her snaps her neck with his alien tongue. (Anyone else notice the cat that was in there at the end of 2 had vanished?) Anyway, the driver grabs the newborn creature and scurries away as troops arrive to see what happened to the truck. This driver somehow turns out to be a college professor (yes, I know, makes no sense) named Dr. Abbot. He starts to raise the young girl, whom he names Sara, while he teaches class at a local college. Shortly after, he is visited by a large, sickly looking person that turns out to be the halfbreed that was in the back of the truck. It is looking for Sara, as he and the rest of his kind are dying off due to weakened immune systems (Funny that these big bad aliens can't handle things like pollen). This halfbreed dies in his office, spilling it's guts all over. Abbot then enlists a brilliant student, Dean, to help him with his planned experiments involving the alien DNA. At the same time, Sara has gone into her cocoon and hatches out as a shapely adult. She is confronted by the university's dean while in her full glory, but rejects him as a mate (We later find out that her "superior DNA" doesn't match up with humans, so they will not produce offspring with her). He doesn't like this and she ends up killing him. Abbot and Dean return to find the empty cocoon and the dead dean and realize what happened. They get rid of the body and Abbot explains that he plans to use Sara's ovum (without her knowledge) and the DNA from the half breeds to create a perfect species (Why he wants to do this is never made clear). As Sara roams the college town, she senses another halfbreed that is seeking her out and almost mates with him before realizing that he is sick and dying. The next day, Abbot and Dean prepare to start experimenting on Sara when she is attacked by the halfbreed, who is desperate to mate before he dies. They manage to save Sara and kill him but not before he impales Abbot. After this, Dean returns to his dorm, where his roommate has an email from a very hot woman who is interested in cellular biology. The roommate responds to her request using information about the aliens he found in Dean's things. The woman turns out to be another halfbreed, Amelia. She arrives shortly after and seduces the roommate before taking him hostage. She and Sara then force him to make the new species so they will have mates. Dean and a government agent crash the party and the roommate escapes with the harvested alien ovum. They are chased down to a large nuclear facility that Dean worked at. Amelia and Sara chase Dean to the reactor as it warms up. He drops the eggs in there and Sara turn on Amelia, sacrificing herself to save Dean, who escapes. Three weeks later, Dean's roommate goes back to Abbot's house only to find Sara and a young boy. He races to the lab where Dean tells him that he was able to grab Sara at the last moment and had created the boy so she wouldn't be alone. Later, after the boy had matured, he and Sara leave, going into the woods to escape detection. Dean then assures his roommate that the guy is sterile and they will not have any little alien children. The final shot shows the number 1903 on a train bridge.The entire movie is just so drab. There isn't a ton of the violence, the aliens look to cheesy and they toned the sex and nudity WAY down. Sunny Mabrey is cold and emotionless as Sara but that is OK for the part. The rest of the characters are stereotypical and boring to the point that none merit any mention.Basically, see it if you're a die-hard for the series or really curious. Otherwise, pass on it.