Movie Review – “Species 3”

My masochistic streak has shown its ugly head once more.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Sunny Mabrey as Sara

Amelia Cooke as Amelia

Robin Dunne as Dean

Robert Knepper as Dr. Abbot

J.P. Pitoc as Hastings

Natasha Henstridge as Eve

Written by Ben Ripley.

Directed by Brad Turner.

Complete information is available from the IMDB.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.ca

Premise

The glut of aliens that existed at the end of Species II is still out there, but they’re dying off. Their only hope lies in Sara, a “more pure” alien strain, produced by the incest of Eve and one of her children, because we all know how incredible the genetic traits of that type of offspring tend to be.

High Point

Tweaking the chromosomes before getting started.

Low Point

Learning chess by looking at the cover of the rule book. She couldn’t have at least flipped through it, so that she might have possibly seen the rules?

The Scores

This was not original at all. Apart from centering on an alien not played by Natasha Henstridge, we’ve seen it all in the series before, and the storyline was so common in structure it was remarkably predictable. I give it 2 out of 6.

The effects were not bad, given the rather tiny budget. I give it 4 out of 6.

The story was simplistic, with remarkably doubtful motivations for the characters involved. I give it 2 out of 6.

The acting ranged from competent with simple roles (Dunne, Mabrey, Cooke) down to rotten (the rest of the cast.) I give it 3 out of 6.

The emotional response from the plotline was a mixture of apathy and disinterest. I don’t know why I keep putting myself through the sequels in this series. It’s like a train wreck; I know it’ll be a disaster going in, but I watch it anyway. Once again, they went for the lust appeal (which was well used), and didn’t invest much effort in anything else. I give it 3 out of 6.

The production standard is obviously in the cheap, direct-to-video category. The lighting, camera work and editing are just terrible. I give it 2 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a bad movie, but still a step up from Species 2. I give it 2 out of 6.

In total, Species 3 receives 18 out of 42.

3 replies on “Movie Review – “Species 3””

    • Re: Deja-mu

      Didn’t we do this already?

      This is the first review, but we did a discussion column
      when it was broadcast on Sci-Fi, and we reviewed the first
      two last year.

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