"Species: The Awakening" review

Species: The Awakening (2007)

Director: Nick Lyon
Writer: Ben Ripley

Helena Mattsson ... Miranda
Ben Cross ... Tom Hollander
Marco Bacuzzi ... Rinaldo
Dominic Keating ... Forbes McGuire
Marlene Favela ... Azura


A beautiful blonde has a problem. She just might be an alien. Her creator kept the truth from her all of these years in an effort to make sure he had his hot blonde “niece” with him at all times. Mad scientists can sometimes get attached to their evil experiments. They like to nurture them into their full hot blonde maturity. Unfortunately for the adopted Species monster, it seems her life span only lets her live to about 22 human years or so. That’s like 90 in Species years. They decide to take a road trip to Mexico to find an evil expert in Species biology who just might be able to save her.

Why is all this hand wringing over an alien beast happening in a “Species” sequel you ask? Good question. The filmmakers tried a different approach this time by trying to get us to care about the alien babe and her attempts to stay alive. Of course this perverts the very idea behind the franchise. The whole premise of these flicks is watching some beautiful alien woman try to mate with every man she sees before ripping his head off. The “Species” flicks give you a lot of eye candy before delivering the killing blow. In “Species IV”, we get a hot blonde who wants to stay human and not tear her way across town. This will not stand.

Fortunately there is a screw-up at the lab and the blonde monster starts giving in to her alien instincts. She goes out to mate and procreate with some doomed soul. There is also another beautiful Species creature, (Marlene Favela), who wants to destroy her. Marlene didn’t like her barging in on her good times and wants to finish her off. This will lead to a showdown between “Species” babes to see who will rule.

“Species the Awakening” is a fair B-movie. It won’t hurt you to watch it but there aren’t many scenes that are memorable. Actually, it’s pretty much fading from memory now. Also, the nudity and Species sleaze is light in this one. A little too light for my tastes. But both Species women get naked and a reasonable facsimile of a good time is had by all. Or maybe just some people will like it. At any rate, if you’re into the “Species” flicks, (and let’s face it none of them have been great movies anyway), you’ll probably get into it.


SCORE: 2 out of 4 killer Species

Marlene, Marlene, Marlene.