ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

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__________________Species 2 Official Trailer


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Sequel to the 1995 film. Natasha Henstridge returns as a 2nd alien/human hybrid, fertilized from a frozen egg mentioned in the previous film. However, she's not the threat in this one.

It take place a couple of years later and act one features mankind's first successful manned landing on Mars. As this happens, some nut (played by Peter Boyle) in an asylum screams about how he warned them not to go. The first man on Mars (played by Justin Lazard) is the 'chosen' one — he's a senator's son — a jock, an astronaut, and probable political figure a la JFK.

But, he picks up the wrong sample on Mars. Something creeps out of its container while the ship heads back to Earth and the three astronauts on board lose a few minutes of time.

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Back on Earth, it's quickly evident that the first man on Mars has been infected with something. He has sex with a couple of randy females in a hotel room, and these unlucky women die in a painfully grotesque manner.

Pretty soon the astronaut is building a collection of offspring which he hides on his family's estate, in an out-of-the-way shed. These alien kids are birthed almost immediately after the sexual act and mature into what looks like 5-year old boys hours later.

Even more than the 1st film, this one warns of the dangers of unprotected sex, in a very extreme fashion. The film builds on such extra sleazy scenery and abnormal developments, but also undermines itself with stupid behavior on the part of the characters. In an early scene, a supposed scientist watches the alien blood move on its own and then proceeds to touch it with his bare hand!

Later, the now-rogue astronaut is captured, but they let him escape as if no one really tried to hold him captive.

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Michael Madsen and Marg Helgenberger also return from the 1st film to reprise their roles. Marg has taken over the supervision of the alien hybrid Eve, while Madsen is called in due to his experience in such matters.

George Dzunda is the head military guy, while Mykelti Williamson is one of the other astronauts who luckily escaped infection. James Cromwell plays the bigwig senator who shows little sympathy even for his own son's troubles, just anger over the events.

Everyone is over-the-top in this film — melodramatic, angry, callous, belligerent. Dzunda even comes across as a bit psychotic for a big time general, with one eye off-colored due to some old injury. But the whole film, in tone & style, is the same way. The most startling scene is when the infected astronaut decides to blow his own head off with a shotgun and it merely grows back, showing that he can't die. The other astronaut witnesses this macabre scene and later recounts it as if he'd simply witnessed a mugging.

Anyway, as the audience may surmise, it falls to a female alien hybrid to confront this new male alien threat.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

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Specious Trivia (from Wikipedia):

The nature of the alien species is explored to a slightly greater extent in the second film. A professor claims that they originated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (called the Magellanic Galaxy), due to it apparently being the only other place carbon-based life forms have been discovered.

It is also stipulated that they were a "cancerous" race that visited Mars millions of years ago and annihilated all life on its surface, (which is described in the film as being Earth-like at that time) before leaving a remnant of DNA in its soil. This DNA was intended to be picked up by other visitors so their species could continue to infect other planets.

Since Patrick's alien form was quadrupedal (as opposed to bipedal, like Eve's form), bigger, and more 'brutish' in appearance than hers, it is assumed that this must be the common appearance of most of, if not all of, the males of the alien species. Their appearance is also similar to the xenomorphs of the Alien films. Both were designed with input from H. R. Giger.


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, here's another fine review by the late Bogmeister which hasn't received single reply in over a year!

I painstakingly rescued this review and over 200 others from his "Lost Message Board" — The Galactic Base of Science Fiction (<— link) — four years after he passed away!

Bogmeister worked diligently to add posts like the one above to his magnificent message board for five years, while he only acquiring seven members — few of whom posted anything!

During that time Bogmeister served as my co-site administrator for seven years on All Sci-Fi, from 2008 until 2015 . . . without ever telling us that he had created his own online forum in 2010 and single-handedly kept it active until 2015 when he passed away!

We'll never know why he did that.

But I've preserved several hundred of the complex and brilliant reviews crafted by Andrew Bogdan — akaBogmeister — and posted them here in his name to allow his creative efforts on his own "lost message board" to live on here at All Sci-Fi.

I hope our members will honor Andrew's memory by adding their comments to the reviews written by him like the one above.

_________________Species II (1998) - Trailer


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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ EVE stands for Extraterrestrial Vulnerability Experiment.

Note from me: I'm sorry, but that phrase requires a bit more explanation. "Vulnereability" experiment? I don't get it.

~ Most of the nude scenes, such as the debutantes having sex with Patrick or the strip-club sequence, were shortened in the final version of the movie. The full scenes can be seen in the DVD extra features.

Note from me: Well gosh! That was mighty nice of those DVD folks to give us more shots of naked ladies!

Boy, if I paid to see this movie based on the hot chick in black leather which appears on the poster and then DIDN'T get to see her, I'd demand my money back!

I mean, damn! The nerve of those guy!

~ Like Sil, Eve is an ectogen — a person who was, or is being, gestated in an artificial womb.

Note from me: Wow, there's a special word for that? I had no idea.

~ Patrick Ross has two types of alien forms: Bipedal and quadrupedal. The bipedal form is for mating and its appearance is the male version of Eve's alien form , while the quadrupedal form (so-called 'Fighting Patrick') is for combat and is bigger, brutish, and more massive.

Note from me: "Don't mess with me, buddy! I'll grow two more legs and kick your ass from four different directions!"

~ The plot device by which the aliens were defeated is lifted from the original storyline of H.G. Wells's novel War Of The Worlds. In WOTW they were beaten by bacteria and viruses; in this film they were beaten because of a human virus. It is also similar to the way the aliens were defeated in Independence Day.

Note from me: I think I pitched an idea I had on this subject in another thread, but I toss it out again in this one.

Suppose an alien race invaded Earth, but they soon discovered that their per-invasion inoculations against human diseases didn't cover the newest one — Covid-19.

They all start dying off quickly . . . but our new vaccine is rapidly making mankind immune!

I love the irony! Jeez, I outta be a writer, huh guys!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]