Species 3 (3½ Stars)

This is the third film in the Species series. "Species 2" made a loss at the box office, so it was decided that "Species 3" would be a direct-to-video film. I don't understand it. Nobody was interested in watching a film about sexy naked aliens any more?

The film begins where the second film ended. Eve has just been severely wounded and is being taken back to the laboratory from which she escaped. However, the ambulance driver overpowers the soldier accompanying him and attempts to free Eve. Unknown to either of them Eve is pregnant. She has a baby girl and then dies.  The driver runs away with the baby. But we soon see that the driver is really a university professor who believes that the new alien species has a right to survive. He keeps her in his cellar while she grows into adulthood (which only takes a few days).

The film continues with a conflict between two types of aliens. The aliens born to the infected astronaut in "Species 2" are half-breeds with a genetic fault that makes them susceptible to illnesses. Only Eve's daughter, who the professor calls Sara, is relatively pure. The half-breeds want to mate with Sara, but she refuses to mate with them, because she expects the offspring to be diseased.

It's not only the alien half-breeds who want to mate with Sara. The university dean (in the picture above) decides to rape her after she greets him at the door naked. He's a typical man, unable to control himself when he's sexually aroused. Of course, Sara kills him before he can rape her. Rightly so. He deserved it.

One of the most amusing scenes is the female half-breed Amelia setting up a website to find scientists who could help her be cured.

"Hi, my name is Amelia, and I am looking for anyone in an accredited biochemistry programme who's recently done work in advanced DNA electroporation".

"Have you done any unusual lab work in proto-plastic cell suspension? Specifically any kind of trans-membrane conductivity and permeability diffusion? I'm looking for a man who's measured pore coefficients greater than 10e-16 meters squared per second. If you're that man, please submit some sample data in response by an email to me. If I like what you write we can meet. I promise you won't be disappointed".

Sweet talking like that is enough to attract any horny young scientist. Or is it just the naked photos?

The film was made on a much smaller budget, only four million dollars instead of the thirty-five million available for each of the previous films. However, the end result still looks professional, due to this being the first film in the series that was filmed digitally. The special effects were kept to a minimum, which had the advantage of reducing the amount of gore. The acting is adequate and spiced up by occasional nudity, but overall the story isn't gripping. It's an interesting film, but not worth watching more than once.