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Species: The Awakening (2007)

DVD Cover (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
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Overall Rating 40%
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Connections: Species

When she reaches the end of her lifespan, a scientist rushes to Mexico, in order to save the half-breed alien seductress he raised as his docile niece, but soon awakens the deadly, sexual predator inside her. --IMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: September 10, 2012
It's been three years since the main Species trilogy wrapped up, and now the Syfy Channel has taken it upon themselves to add a new movie. How can this be anything but tragic? Trust me, I was as surprised as anyone.

Beautiful, brilliant Miranda seems to have it all. She's been hounded by a prestigious English college to join their employ, and her only reason for turning the opportunity down has just become a moot point. You see, she didn't want to leave her only family, her Uncle Tom, alone, but he's decided he didn't want to be her albatross and has decided to move overseas with her. She couldn't be more ecstatic, but we wouldn't have a movie if the shit didn't hit the fan in a big way. As she's getting hot and heavy with her boyfriend one night, she blacks out and is found the next morning unconscious, naked and covered in blood. She awakens in the hospital, and suddenly transforms into that familiar alien form and annihilates the staff. Tom arrives shortly after the bloodbath, puts his niece in his car, and hightails it for Mexico. Obviously, he's got some 'splaining to do. Apparently, he and his friend Forbes had gotten hold of the DNA from the Alpha Project somehow, and have been kicking out some experimental aliens of their own. Overwhelmed with a sudden conscience, Tom took Miranda as a child and raised her himself, giving her a steady injection of human hormones to suppress her other half. Obviously, it's not working anymore, and he's hoping his old partner can provide him a means to save the girl from herself.

While I had some obvious doubts going in, the violence on display invariably won me over. I was sighing all through the exposition, dreading the next hour, until Miranda went crazy in the hospital, and the moment the fully transformed alien put the series' trademark weapon of alien tongue through that nurse's eye, I realized we just might have something here. Sure, the CGI was shitty, and the creature's new-found tendency to halfway-transform (contacts and forehead prosthetics) was really dumb, but the movie offers plenty of low-bar mayhem. And when the obvious climatic battle between two of the creatures finally hits, I couldn't keep the grin off of my face. Sure you couldn't tell which creature was who, but to be honest, it didn't even matter as you knew you'd figure it out quickly enough once a victor emerged.

As entertaining as the violence was, the story was severely lacking. This is obviously B-movie level, and the entire film, as a sequel, falls short as a result. Sure, the screenwriters for the other three weren't exactly taking home Oscars, but The Awakening is still a few steps down. You see, at some point, it was always obvious what the creatures were attempting to do: the most basic of natural instincts, maintain the survival of the species. Part three nailed that point even more than the first two, showing the lengths they were going to as extinction loomed. Well, that entire plot point has been removed. Not a big deal in and of itself, but the problem is that they didn't replace it with anything. Throughout the entire movie, these creatures do what they do for no reason whatsoever. I have no idea why the taxi driver or Azura attack Tom and Miranda, and I'm fairly certain neither did the writers.

You know, I didn't expect it, and I almost don't want to admit it, but I liked it. Species: The Awakening is one of those movies that I enjoyed while it was on, but I'd be perfectly OK if I never saw it again. Some nights, those movies are just what the doctor ordered. 6/10.
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