It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

MGM's Species franchise, like Wishmaster and The Crow, is a perfect example of the law of diminishing returns. Roger Donaldson's 1995 hit Species was a stylish, self-consciously trashy homage to B-movies. One that has had its scenario rehashed three times now. One would expect a low-budget sequel to revel in sleaze and gore, but since 2004, when the concept was resurrected, 6 years after the cinema release of the disastrous Species 2 (1998), for the direct-to-DVD market, there has been a surprising resistance to the gratuitous ingredients of sex and violence. Species 3 paid little more than lip service to the desires of the target audience and the same is true here. Deviating from the plot line established by the first three films, which featured Natasha Henstridge, The Awakening is a standalone feature that references and reimagines the ideas of the first film. It posits an alternative scenario; what if the scientist played by Sir Ben Kingsley in the original had not kept the young girl like a rat in cage? What if he'd raised her like his own? This could have made for an intriguing exploration of nature versus nurture. Had Henstridge's Sil been allowed to develop in a more normal way could her dangerous, alien side have been suppressed? Alas there is little such depth to this cheap cash-in.Kingsley's role is reinterpreted by fellow British thespian Ben Cross, while Swede Helena Mattsson (who looks a bit like Nicole Kidman) takes over where Henstridge and Sunny Mabrey left off. With only four key cast members and no sign of even Michael Madsen, The Awakening is the weakest of exploitation films. Only the audience is being exploited. A studio like MGM isn't short of cash, so the explanation for the cheapness of this film is clear; they knew they can get away with it and turn an easy profit. Studios like The Asylum have their desperately limited resources to explain their crass and dissatisfactory efforts, but there's simply no excuse for a Species film to be as unspectacular as this.Feeling more like a cross between a vampire movie and a retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein than a sexy sci-fi movie, Nick Lyon's film merely coasts on tenuous links to its predecessors. There are the HR Giger-inspired creature costumes and the promise of flesh is vaguely satisfied but there's not much effort or imagination. Were it not for a few gratuitous moments and aggressive curse words this could have been made for mainstream TV. Lyons does well to pay homage to the original film and its subtext but seems to have forgotten how tongue-in-cheek it all was. Species 4 should have taken things to a cartoonish extreme. Instead what could have been knowingly amusing is just po-faced and embarrassing. From Dominic Keating's terrible Aussie accent to the fact that the alien hybrids use their tongues as weapons, at one point they shoot icicle-like spears from their mouths in bullet-time, the experience is one of contradiction.The original Species really went for it. Utterly shameless titillation. The sequel went further, but in a misjudged, sleazy and misogynistic direction. Perhaps this is why the following two instalments have been so tame. The Awakening, as evidenced by its 15 rating, delivers the bare minimum that one could expect from a film with the Species title. Cautiously exploitative. Like its heroine, The Awakening is in denial, trying its best not to give in to its primitive instincts. There's the potential for a wild ride in its concept and its plot, but Lyons takes it so seriously that the only laughs come unintentionally. This is a film in which a back alley scientist creates sex-crazed human/alien hybrids that run around Mexico! One of them dresses as demonic nun and leaps between rooftops, lassoing potential prey with its tongue; this is potentially hilarious stuff! But it's stripped bare, like its heroine in the final act, devoid of emotion. This is a film of wasted opportunities.

One nice thing about the "Species" movies is that they all approach the subject from a different angle. "Species III" is terrible, but at least it doesn't recapitulate the plot of either previous film. This installment continues the trend. It's also rather entertaining, although "Species III" set the bar so low that it's easy to praise anything coming afterward.I enjoy this movie, with reservations, and I'll try to explain why without any major spoilers. Like I said, there's no rehashing...or returning cast members, for that matter. None of the human-alien hybrids in this movie are genetically identical to Sil and Eve, so none look quite the same in human or alien form. This also allows the writer (Ben Ripley, who scripted "Species III" but seems to be trying much harder this time around) to give them different strengths, weaknesses, and behavioral traits than the hybrids we've seen before without causing inconsistencies. That being said, the E.S.P. on display in this film seems like a stretch. But besides some minor issues, this movie adds new wrinkles to the "Species" mythos without contradicting or shifting emphasis from what we already know.Our main "template" here is played by Helena Mattson. Her roles tend to capitalize on her body more than her acting talents, but here she does a fine job of portraying a very human character, and the camera doesn't linger on her female anatomy *that* much. This character never doubted her humanity before, and her reactions to the revelations in the film are believable and evoke sympathy. She also plays a more hostile and contemptible character later in the sequence of events. The actress fits into the new persona well, and conveys this other set of character traits with subtlety. The other two thirds of the main cast consists of actors who've put on unimpressive performances in recent incarnations of "Star Trek," but both are more than passable here.Another thing that pleasantly surprised me is the number of truly scary moments. Not on the level of the first movie, and maybe not even on the level of "Alien 3," but definitely not your by-the-numbers aliens-killing-humans scenes. The only times the effects don't seem authentic is in scenes where things are happening so quickly it's hard to say what you're even seeing. One complaint goes to the scene where two of the hybrids (in "alien" form, with the exoskeletons and protuberances) appear together. They look so similar I often couldn't tell which was which. The movie's set mostly in Mexico, and uses the locales to creepy effect. You're likely to be reminded of "The Arrival" more than the previous "Species" installments (and that's not just due to the setting; both were produced by Lorenzo O'Brien). There are a couple times the action/slaying/mayhem verges on silly, but those are thankfully rare, and the movie doesn't really come across as over-the-top. Just don't expect clinical realism.I was perhaps most surprised by how the very ending was handled. I was expecting much worse. If this proves to be the final chapter in the "Species" series, it will be a worthy end.The bottom line is this isn't a bad sci-fi/horror/action movie. This isn't even one where you turn your brain off and enjoy yourself. This is a solid piece of cinema, despite going straight to D.V.D. However, there's nothing in the premise or plotting that's really brilliant, the creature designs and effects won't blow your mind, and the script's psychological and sociological insight is limited.

This sequel was actually THE best of all the sequels of Species. It was sexy but actually there is a story attached to it that makes fictionally sensible. The IMDb rating of 4.1 of the time I am writing this review must have been given by those who were sexually frustrated because the way the movie was marketed (The Cover) it was for those who were perverted minded hoping they will get a full on alien soft-core flick which is not at all. For me the sexy scenes just spiced up the movie like any other which had a really good story, good plot, great actors and a good ending. The team behind the making of this sequel actually put much effort into making this a good movie which is worth its time watching, just hope they made a buck at the end. This movie should have went to theatres because it was good as the Alien series with Sigourney Weaver. This movie is probably not an Oscar type of movie but is much better than some of the movies that get so much attention like Twilight: New Moon.This movie is two thumbs up like Ebert & Roeper would say.

I think it was obvious that another straight-to-DVD sequel wasn't a wise decision, you even see the letters PU at the beginning, so it was obvious to stink, lol. Basically college professor Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) lives her life like any other normal woman, before suffering a mysterious blackout, and without her knowledge, transforming into a hideous alien creature. Her "uncle" Tom Hollander (Chariots of Fire's Ben Cross) tells her the truth he has kept from her since birth, she is a half human, half alien creature, created from alien DNA to create a hybrid. She has been injected with human hormones to stop the alien inside her coming out since birth, but it is obvious they are not working as well as they used to. The only person who may be able to help her, and explain another creature chasing after Tom, is co-creator of Miranda, Forbes McGuire (Heroes' Dominic Keating). The only way to save her, from dying, is to find a live female to clone from, and Forbes finds a prostitute (of course). The new Miranda is created, with the same memories, but even more vicious, blood-thirsty and desperate to breed, thankfully she is blown up in the end, by Tom. Also starring Edy Arellano as Calderón and Marco Bacuzzi as Rinaldo. The special effects are limited and not convincing, the gore doesn't do anything, and the acting skills, lame Australian accent by Keating, and most dialogue, are just terrible. I can safely say that this was even worse than the previous sequel, and I wouldn't be too surprised if they were stupid enough to make another sequel, or even a prequel. Poor!