Species II (1998)

This movie sucks! The original was much better and even it wasn't that good. The only thing this has going for it is the scenes with sex and nudity. Gore fans might like this movie but if your looking for an amazing science fiction/horror experience than watch the ALIEN films.

Fmovies: i saw this DVD having never seen SPECIES II before thinking "i wonder if its as good as the first was?" and all i have to say in response to watching it is "how does it only have 3.8/10?" I didn't have much expectations for it as a sequel but i was pleasantly surprised.

Michael Madsen and Marg Helgenberger return acting just as great as they were in the first film, as did Natasha Henstridge, Justin Lazard was a fantastic choice for his role, Mykelti Williamson, wasn't exactly award winning but he could have been a lot worse, and the same goes for James Cromwell.

the special effects were astonishing just as in the first one.

i thoroughly enjoyed this movie so i give it 8/10.

but my question for all haters of this movie and the first is "how else should it have been done? with Species rats?"

A lot of people must have needed to make house payments, their names listed at the beginning of this film as a testament. Put another way, one could do a Jeff Foxworthyesque comedy bit called "Your career might be in trouble if..." and the answer is "You worked on Species II." I have never felt so embarrassed for a group of actors as I had watching these thespians run through painfully stupid dialogue. The script is so inept you have to wonder if it wasn't written by a committee - of middle schoolers. Except for the sex and violence. Or, more succinctly the sexual violence. The filmmakers have some definite problems with women. Unlike the first film, which this outing makes to look like "2001" by comparison, here we only see women being ripped bloodily apart, usually during sex. There are bad movies that are fun to watch and laugh at. This turd is not one of them.

Species II fmovies. Yup, it's a crapper. Species I was adequate, but this sequel is not. Bad acting, strained and disjointed, and not much for effects, except for the final several minutes where he and she mutate and do their thing. I'll put up with quite a bit in the interest of sci-fi, but this blows. I'm trying to think of something equally as bad, perhaps those Cyborg movies.

In scream 2 the "horror movie geek" has a formula which this movie follows to the point. More blood, more gore, higher screams, more sex and more killers. I have seen only but a few good sequels in my time, unfortunately this is not one of them.

A BAD MOVIE!

(But if you like Natasha H. there are more nude scenes with here in this movie, but I hope that is not enough to make this a good film.)

An astronaut gets infected with alien DNA during the first mission on Mars and runs amok on earth. Preston and Laura team up with a peaceful, genetically re-engineered Sil (Natasha Henstridge) to track the monster down.

The first film became a cult favorite mostly because of the excessive nudity, near as I can tell. The plot was pretty straightforward and it does not stand out as one of those films that needed multiple sequels and its own franchise. And yet, here we are.

Writer Chris Brancato was working with MGM and knew the studio was interested in making a follow-up to Species. He pitched an idea to executive Greg Foster where this time two hybrid alien women would strike. Foster liked it, but once Brancato went to "Species" producer Frank Mancuso Jr., he asked to "approach this from a different angle, so that we don't have a tired retread of the original, as sequels often are." So Brancato took inspiration from "The Manchurian Candidate", where "somebody on a mission comes back, apparently a hero, but actually with some terrible demon inside."

We get much of the original cast back, and some really fine additional casting, including James Cromwell and a memorable role by Peter Boyle. We also get director Peter Medak on board, one of the great Masters of Horror (given his background in Hammer and "The Changeling")... and even aliens designed by no less an artistic authority than H. R. Giger. In many ways, this film exceeds the original.

Having Medak on board brought a few key changes. When Medak was approached by producer Frank Mancuso, a condition of Medak's agreement was to hire on composer Edward Shearmur ("Die Hard"). Also, Peter Boyle is a friend of Medak's and they have worked together many times since the 1970s, so we have Medak to thank for this key bit of casting. Even production designer Miljen Kreka Kljakovic came through Medak. (Kljakovic is not a household name, but look him up -- from "Delicatessen" on, he has made a long list of great films.)

And yet, the critics hated it and even the cast was disappointed. Michael Madsen expressed his opinion saying, "Species II was a crock of (doody). There are a number I'm not very proud of. The movie studios can't mind that much, as they haven't contacted me to tell me off about it. I'm honest - if I've made a bad movie, I want my fans to know what they're letting themselves in for." (Regardless of what Madsen thinks of the film, Medak loved working with him.)

I have to disagree with Madsen. The film is actually intelligent and clever in a way. The special effects were ahead of their time, even if they may appear dated today. The head regeneration scene is a bit cheesy, but even that allegedly cost $75,000. So it was not a cheap effect. I suspect when people look back now (2016), they will see this is a better film than given credit for.

The Scream Factory disc has an old audio commentary ported over (and it is as good as ever). We also have a new interview with Natasha Henstridge, which gives us a bit of a rundown on her career and how she transitioned from modeling to "Species". Oh, and don't forget new interviews with the effects crew. Whether you think this is a good movie or not, these interviews are valuable and really put 1990s horror and science fiction in context.