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Species: The Awakening (2007) (V)

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18 comments in total

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24 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
This is what the second one should have been, 6 septiembre 2007

Author: rocky_lifter69 de United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Whenever a movie franchise, especially on that is horror or sci-fi, gets past the third entry, it is always a red flag. When you look at the history of Species, this is especially true. The sleeper hit that was the first one was followed by a horrendous excuse for a movie in part 2 and a ho hum, boring part 3. I am happy to report that "The Awakening" is easily the best sequel of the three.

The movie takes a completely different direction with the alien DNA that was sent to us from space than it predecessors. We first learn that college professor Miranda Hollander, while appearing to be a very beautiful woman, is in fact a hybrid, created by her "uncle" Tom and his former student Forbes. Miranda had lived a normal human life until she is found one morning lying naked in the woods. She is taken to a hospital, where she soon transforms and slaughters the staff. Tom finds her unconscious and rushes her to Mexico to find Forbes, who may be able to cure her illness. They find Forbes in a small town and discover that he has been creating more hybrids that, like Miranda, appear totally normal (and are also sterile). Forbes, along with his alien play-toy Azura, inform Tom that Miranda is at the end of her life cycle and will die unless they do a stem cell transfusion, which will in-turn kill the cell donor. Though reluctant, Tom finally agrees. The procedure appears to work, until Miranda awakens as a more sexy, vulgar version of herself. The procedure also undid her sterility and she begins looking for a mate. Tom knows he must stop her, but is torn because she is like his daughter. She does shortly thereafter mate with Forbes, killing him after. But Tom again finds her unconscious as the baby kicks inside her. Tom takes her back to the lab where her human side dies as the baby grows. Azura returns with the intent to kill Tom, only to engage Miranda. Azura stabs Miranda twice in the stomach, killing her and the baby but Tom kills Azura with a hydrochloric acid-laced shotgun shell. Tom then watches Miranda die before turning on all the gas in the building and lighting a fire. He walks out as the entire building erupts into flames.

While in no way a masterpiece, this movie has the most feeling of any of the four. You actually feel for Miranda as she slowly wilts away before she is reborn as a sexy vixen. Helena Mattsson is a mighty fine actress (in more ways than one) and brings a dimension to one of the alien creatures that hadn't been seen since Michelle Willaims played the young Sil in the first film. Ben Cross's Tom, on the other hand, is always teetering between being unwantedly over the top and too distraught. Some of his scenes make you want to laugh at the cheese but he is serviceable. Forbes, played by Dominic Keating, is your atypical movie asshole that doesn't care about the mess he makes, as long as he comes out on top. And Marlena Favela as Azura is .... well... she's very hot. That's about it. Her lines are were often delivered very over the top. But as a hot alien chick, she works.

Some people have complained that a Species movie without Natasha Henstridge is just not right. Well, this movie is better than two of the previous installments and is even in the same realm as the original. And (thank god), they did not leave us with some stupid cliffhanger to set up a sequel. It was an open and shut case, which is how the first one should have been 12 years ago but I digress. While the budget for this movie was a fraction of 1 & 2, the settings are all very nice and the effects are some of the best in the series. The new look alien is a breath of fresh air after the monstrosity that was Sarah's alien form in 3.

All in all, one of the better direct to DVD movies I've ever seen. It breathed some air into a way past dead franchise and even though it didn't bring it back from the dead, it was a great entry to the Speices mythos. 7/10

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56 out of 105 people found the following comment useful :-
what a waste of 90 minutes, 13 septiembre 2007

Author: thomswalwell de United Kingdom

it was a pity that IMDb didn't have the ability to rate movies as 0 because that is exactly what i would have given it. however, i have had to give it 1 out of 10, but i mean 0......

plot was very poor, movie was too confusing and the poor plot didn't make me feel a connection, like or dislike anyone in the movie.

seemed like random things happening with no explanation or leading up to any event in particular.

acting was a bit wooden, and the accent from Dominic Keating was probably the most entertaining of any of the script.

please avoid this movie, as you can never get the 90 minutes of your life back that you waste on this.

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22 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
Great Movie, wish it was theatrical, 21 septiembre 2007

Author: redheadmom de United States

I watched a screener of this film and have to say I was positively surprised. I was expecting a really bad movie, which it wasn't. I thoroughly enjoyed it and think that Helena Mattsson will be a new star after people see her in this. As a Enterprise fan, I also have to admit that I have a soft spot for Dominic Keating. He is so entertaining. I don't know much of Ben Cross's work, but he seems very good and I want to see him in more Sci-fi movies. The plot wasn't bad either, but it was at times a bit underdeveloped. But as a woman, I thought this would be a big booby fest but it wasn't. It was a good movie. I give it a thumbs up and hope that more films come out like it.

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11 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
The best since the original, 12 octubre 2007

Author: dustinhunter707 de United States

OK I was hoping that the fourth Species installment would be good, but I was truly surprised that it was this good. After seeing the second and third one, I thought I was convinced that they couldn't make another one that would match up to the original with Natasha Henstridge but I was wrong because this one came very close. The story is very entertaining and there are some good sequences of violence too unlike number 3. I was really entertained by this one because I watched it at like 3 in the morning and I watched it all. Overall I give it an 8 out of 10 because it was the best since the original and it is a great thriller. I would recommend it to all fans of the Species movies and of course to all the sci-fi fans out there like me.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
It was what it was-B grade Saturday afternoon entertainment, 21 octubre 2007

Author: zxfbc-1 de Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Got see Species: The Awakening today and it was about as expected considering it is the fourth movie in the franchise ,a bit of a letdown from Species-111 but I could not say it was a bad movie. The acting was OK and associated special effects,definitely not a big budget movie and definite shortage of lighting for the most part. Helena Mattsson did not quite seem right for the part of Miranda,it was as though she was an understudy for Nicole Kidman with the soft voice and all associated gentle movements until it was time to be ugly, however I enjoyed it anyway for what it was,a good B grade Saturday afternoon entertainment movie.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Fairly Good, 14 marzo 2008

Author: honsheung18 de Hong Kong

I think i am obliged to write a comment about this movie, cause it is far underrated. The average is about 4.3, not even reach 5.

As a scary film, I saw many monsters , I achieved my objectives, got the feeling I wanted.

Well, yeah, the plot is not that good. but the actors are at least attractive but not ugly.

The appearance of the hybrid monster are scary enough. They look like a real monster which is unlike to usual ones.Efforts are seen from the productions. Thus it can be said to give you a surprise.

I think if you want to be scared , u can get wt u want. This movie worth 7 IMO

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18 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
Alien it ain't, 8 octubre 2007

Author: bernie-122 de Sydney, Australia

I was expecting it to be a bit cheesy and low-budget-looking, but I wasn't expecting to be insulted.

This "film" has similar production values and acting caliber as you will find in an average daytime soap.

It's as if the crew of "Days of Our Lives" borrowed the studio's gear for a weekend and went and shot a "Sci-Fi/Thriller" because those are popular these days, so we should be able to make some cash with it.

It wasn't scary, wasn't thrilling, wasn't even sci-fi-y, just boring and predictable. No plot, bad lighting, laughable critters, wooden acting, no reason at all to force yourself to sit through a turd like this one.

The rave reviews here have to be from people associated with the production, or else who haven't actually seen the "film".

Avoid at all cost.

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4 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Another great addition to the SPECIES series!, 3 octubre 2007
Author: Prolox de Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Fourth in the SPECIES series, which has now become a direct to DVD franchise, has an uncle fleeing with his niece to another town following a mysterious blackout she has suffered which when she comes to, she finds herself naked, weak & with piles of corpses in her midst. She later finds out from her uncle that she's only half human, part of an experiment started by a scientist & like in all movies like this, particularly of this series, more evil aliens pop up to mate & destroy any male or female that crosses their paths & soon Miranda has instincts to join them. Fourth installment in the SPECIES franchise has all the ingredients that made the first three the successes they were, awesome alien make-up, a sprinkling of nudity & sex, beautiful babes, lots of gore, suspense, great acting & directing! & although the film really has no connections to the first three (NATASHA HENSTRIDGE is nowhere to be seen, or any of the characters from the first three) it's surprisingly well written & somewhat intelligent in terms of it's plot (Much more intelligent than II & III) which is something one can't really say about films dealing with lust filled aliens. The only down fall I can see in the movie, is the flashing lights that constantly flicker during the fight scenes & may wind up hurting your eyes, it's also plain annoying & ruins a somewhat good alien fight scene. All in all this film is worth a look for all SPECIES fans, just don't expect one of the greatest alien movies ever made or expect it to top the original & you should have fun.

***1/2 stars

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8 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
1, 2 and 3 made sense but 4... no no NO!, 26 diciembre 2007

Author: antipas2000 de United Kingdom

Being a fan of the "Species" films, especially loving Species II, I watched this with open arms. I did not think it worked. Partly because the storyline seemed so short-lived. The trailer did look a tad on the positive side though but that, is how trailers are designed. But this is nothing at all like the previous ones, except for the Alien DNA etc etc.

This has awful acting, one hell of a bad bad accent and an OK blond playing the Alien femme fatal, but not worth the 90 or so minutes that it ended up as. If the species films are ever going to work and be believable they need to be serious, with serious (good, well-known) actors. That alone would help the publicity! But no, they go for the opposite.

I even wished afterwards that I had been a director doing this film. Oh my god would I have made some CHANGES! Should have mixed the DNA with sense instead of aliens LOL

big no no no no no, cannot emphasize that enough.

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3 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Really, really bad, 14 noviembre 2007

Author: palmer-4 de la

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The person's whose comments read "Alien it ain't" couldn't have been more dead on.

The beginning of this movie starts with the girl, who is the alien in this film simply because of a slight resemblance to the blonde alien in the original (not because of ANY acting skills), is a college professor giving a lecture. She's as believable as a college professor as Steven Hawking would be playing a high school cheerleader. She looks like an 18 year old high school cheerleader. She delivers her "lecture" as awkwardly as it is for us to watch it. There wasn't a person in the world who bought her as a college professor including the director and herself. She gives the lecture and delivers the "punchline" so poorly, I knew at that point there would be no way I could finish this movie. It's insulting that anyone would think we're supposed to buy her as a college professor. It was one of the worst pieces of casting/writing I've seen this decade.

The "acting" in the rest of the film, including Ben Cross's performance, was terrible, literally unwatchable. I've seen amateur performances on Youtube that were better. About 20 minutes into the movie I was just fast forwarding.

The CGI looks like it was unfinished, like it was from 1992. There is nothing scary or tension building about anything in this movie. I wasted a Netflix rental on this garbage and was more mad at myself than anything - and mad at the rating this movie has in the IMDb (over 6 at this point - it HAS to go down). I really liked the original film. This movie should be taken off any video store shelf. It's just awful.

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