Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's a rare and notable feat when a film can do so much wrong... and yet still hold your interest and keep you entertained throughout. But so goes the story of "Species II," a weird little conundrum of a film from director Peter Medak. A sequel to the mildly entertaining 1995 original, "Species II" has always been a bit of a sore spot for both audiences and for its own cast. Heck, even lead star Michael Madsen once infamously referred to the film as a "crock of (you know what)" in an interview. Its storyline is contrived. Its handling of characters suspect at best. And its sense of pacing and resolution underwhelming to say the least.And yet... I kind of enjoy it. Yeah. I'll admit it.It's not even a case of being one of those delightful "so bad, it's good" kinda movies. It's just sort-of fun to watch despite its faults. It's a glorified Saturday morning cartoon for grown-ups, filled with gooey gore and plenty of bared breasts and bottoms, designed to appeal almost exclusively to our inner teenager. It's pure kitschy exploitation junk-food. It's bad... but it's what you'd call "fun bad."Three years after the escaped alien-human hybrid Sil was destroyed, astronaut Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard) returns from a mission to Mars a changed man... Little does the world know, however, that he's been infected with an alien toxin that begins to take over his body and transform him into a fiendish monster. Attempting to build an army of offspring, Ross begins to impregnate woman after woman with his deadly spawn. And it's up to some returning heroes (Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger), along with a clone of the original Sil called "Eve" (Natasha Henstridge) to stop his deadly scheme!Director Medak, best known for the swashbuckling comedy "Zorro, The Gay Blade" and the wonderful haunted-house picture "The Changeling", does a fairly admirable job here. It's a well-crafted film, with some top-notch design work and a fantastic sense of visual execution. Medak creates plenty of moody sequences and does well with the script he's working off of, with a strong sense of flow and composition. And of course, as was the case with the original, the creature effects and gory deaths are just as mind-blowing as ever, especially thanks to the contributions of H.R. Giger. Say what you want about the film, but the aliens are just awe-inspiring and absolutely gorgeous.And indeed, it's this execution, combined with the charming talents of the returning cast that manages to salvage the experience. Even if he hated the finished product, Madsen is great in his returning role as former mercenary Press Lennox. It's a fun character archetype, and Madsen plays the part to perfection. Helgenberger is given some more intrigue and adventure to work with here, and she improves on her already very solid turn from the original. And I thought Henstridge was even better here than she was in the first film. She's given some more emotion this time around and also a bit more overt action, which was nice to see.Unfortunately the new cast is pretty uniformly terrible. Lazard is a dull villain who fails to inspire dread much of the time, and his wooden performance feels forced and oft-uncomfortable. It's only towards the end when he goes all in that he becomes any sort-of credible threat. Mykelti Williamson, whose usually a pretty solid actor, unfortunately falls flat on his face as the shoehorned comic relief- a catchphrase-spewing African American who punctuates every other sentence with contrived slang. And even James Cromwell and Peter Boyle- two classy and classic actors whom play minor characters- don't do well at all with their respective roles. They seem confused and lost as they fumble over their lines.The film's structure and writing are the film's biggest downfall, though. Writer Chris Brancato's script is trite and silly, with a lot of head-scratching moments that don't add up, and weird sequences that seemingly contradict the prior film This isn't helped by the oddly nonsensical tone, which bounces back and forth between horror and comedy so often, you occasionally find yourself laughing at the scares and wincing at the jokes. I also took issue with the fact that this is a film where characters often behave stupidly just to contrive scares- including one unintentionally hilarious scene where a man actually touches infected blood with his bare hands for no reason whatsoever. And the pace is just nonsensical at times, with the film speeding up and slowing down at random intervals to the point it becomes distracting.And yet... I don't hate this movie. The returning cast is just too good, the visual direction is just too strong and the exploitative sex and violence is just too fun for me to wholly dismiss the finished film. It's bad. Oh, it's very bad. But it's the sort-of bad where you can sit back, pop open a beer, and have a good time watching the insanity before you unfold. Especially with some friends to riff alongside you while you crack fun at its silly moments. "Species II" earns a below average but watchable 4 out of 10 from me. It's one of those sequels that's objectively a total failure... but is still enjoyable despite its faults.

Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard) is the first man on Mars. Ross, Dennis Gamble (Mykelti Williamson) and Anne Sampas return to Earth but both Ross and Sampas are infected with alien DNA. Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) recreates Sil with the duplicate embryo calling her Eve (Natasha Henstridge). Colonel Carter Burgess Jr (George Dzundza) is the military-in-charge. Ross starts procreating while his father Senator Judson Ross (James Cromwell) is grooming him to be President. Dr. Herman Cromwell (Peter Boyle) was investigating a Mars meteorite and discovered alien DNA. The military gets him fired and puts him in the psych ward. They rehire Press Lennox (Michael Madsen) to hunt down the new invasion.They should have kept this simple with just Eve. The Mars mission adds a layer of uselessness to the movie. I like some of the disturbing grotesque horrors. However Justin Lazard is a stiff actor and the spread of the alien DNA seems way too easy. There are way too many stupidity. The writing is pretty bad. There is way too much bravado. Press is actually holding his gun sideways gangster style. The characters are way too stupid. It's a big step down for a fun cult classic franchise. It's rather disappointing.

I thought the first Species in 1995 was not so bad-derivative of Alien but since Giger had also designed the Species creature it would make sense that it was similar. The dialogue in the sequel is trashy in a number of places which I think downgrades the film distinctively as opposed to what it would have been had they paid more attention to making the dialogue more intelligent. Frequently very gory & bloody and also suffers from plot errors in that one of the members of the space team who was exposed to alien DNA isn't considered suspect along with the others even after the other crew members have become fully infected with the aliens DNA. Dumb scripting. Its weird in the sense that they seem to be aiming for a younger audience in this one but if they are aiming for a younger audience they only made the film more death & sex orientated & generally cruder-that is some kind of a warped take on what younger people respond to. I think this film damaged the career of Michael Madson who was pretty good in the original and made Natasha Henstridge a non entity in the film business also. It looked like the budget was fairly generous for the film but I doubt if they made it back in the box office. It's always a mistake to treat the audience as if they are morons whose idea of a good time is slurping beer through a beer hat. Not true science fiction so much-more like schlock cinema at its schlockiest.

After returning from a mission to Mars, a team of experts' tracks down the infected astronaut carrying a parasitic alien before he can meet up and mate with a similar human/alien hybrid.A very rewarding sequel to a fine original, this one turned out to be very enjoyable. By adapting a more straight-up storyline instead of dealing with all the science and facts, there's considerably more action in this one in terms of splattered victims which seems to be the main focus of the first half. With an increase of splatter, there's some great kills and creature make-up used during those scenes, and the tentacled beings covered in slime generate a lot of fun, especially bursting forth from people's stomachs or chasing around the ground which are good times. Several other scenes with the alien children shooting their cocoons together and the effects work there allows even more goopy, gory fun in conjunction with a continuation of fun kills, miraculous healing abilities from both creatures and copious nudity. There are some flaws here, though, namely the decision to allow the captured male into the quarantined zone with the girl when there's plenty of knowledge to indicate his goal is to mate with her, as well as the film's rather tacky CGI during the finale when the practical effects were working so well. It loses some steam in the middle where they keep coming up short in the quest to stop him rampaging and raping woman as they're always on the other end of it, but otherwise there's still a lot to like here.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, several Sex Scenes and attempted rapes