Species: The Awakening

Plot synopsis:
Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) is a beautiful and smart young woman. She is a college professor and lives with her "uncle", Tom Hollander (Ben Cross) who works in a museum; he adopted her after a car crash killed her parents. Miranda can read books just by touching them, without even needing to open them. Miranda believes that she has lived with her "uncle" ever since her parents were killed in an accident while she was a baby. After her birthday, Miranda passes out and is sent to a local hospital. Tom is notified by the police. When Miranda arrives at the hospital, she silently transforms into alien form, strips naked and seduces and kills a few people. When Tom finally arrives at the hospital the following morning, he finds bodies everywhere. Tom locates Miranda, injects her with human hormones and begins driving her to Mexico.
On the way to Mexico, Miranda wakes up, asking for the cause of her 'illness'. Tom tells Miranda that she is the result of an experiment that combined human and alien DNA, an experiment conducted with his friend Forbes McGuire (Dominic Keating) while they were both still in college. Tom has been injecting her with human hormones since her childhood to suppress her alien DNA (thus she never entered a cocoon stage and aged like a normal human). Her parents never existed; they were just a fiction created by Tom to help build up Miranda's "normal life". Tom explains he and Forbes parted ways because of differences of opinion over their vision of their creation.
When they arrive in Mexico, Miranda rests in a motel room while Tom spends the day searching for Forbes. After a few incidents, Tom and Miranda locate Forbes' current home. Forbes now lives with his recent experiment named Azura (Marlene Favela), another human and alien DNA hybrid who also serves as his assistant and lover—she is sterile to prevent offspring. Forbes supports his experiment by creating half-alien facsimiles of dead pets and relatives. Forbes checks Miranda's condition and finds that Miranda has reached the end of her lifespan and will die in days; her changes to alien form are her body's way of fighting back as her human form has a weaker immune system. The only way to deny death is injecting fresh human DNA into Miranda. Miranda won't allow that to happen when she realizes it will result in the sacrifice of another human being. Again, Miranda becomes unconscious. Tom goes searching for a "donor" and is mugged by a woman in the process. Azura then incapacitates the mugger and the two bring her back to Forbes' lab, where they succeed in extending Miranda's life.
However, Miranda starts acting odd, joking about having sex with Azura. Tom checks her blood as she invites him to get drunk and have sex in their hotel room; he tells her to rest, believing she is delirious from the procedure. She leaves in a huff. Tom finds Forbes did a sloppy job; Miranda's hormones are unstable, causing her alien side to become increasingly dominant. Driven by her alien sex drive, Miranda manages to seduce the innkeeper, another hybrid; however she kills him mid-process upon finding he is sterile. She goes to a bar for potential mates, seeing that a female singer in a provocative red dress is garnering a lot of attention. She sneaks backstage, intimidating the singer into giving up her dress.
Tom wishes to sedate Miranda, so they can fix the imbalance in her DNA; Forbes gives him a near-lethal dose to use, but warns that she's "100% pure creature". Making things worse is that Miranda is no longer sterile, thanks to the new stem cells. Investigating a church, Tom is attacked by Azura; she is angry that his arrival changed things. He manages to knock her out by dropping a large cross on her, leaving Azura to heal and regain consciousness. Forbes tracks Miranda to an abandoned warehouse, where she strips naked; Miranda reveals Forbes has wanted to have sex with her since they met. She squeezes his hand to make him drop the sedative; Forbes gives in to his lust, allowing Miranda to strip him. They copulate, much to his pleasure. Once finished, Miranda changes into alien form and sends her tongue down Forbes' throat, suffocating him. Tom finds them later, barely pitying Forbes.
Tom takes Miranda back to Forbes' house, where he discovers via X-ray that a new creature is rapidly growing in her womb. Miranda weakly says her humanity is dying, and that she doesn't want to be pure alien. Unfortunately, Azura returns in alien form; Tom is forced to fight her. Just when Azura has Tom cornered, Miranda attacks her and kills Azura. However, she suffers a fatal wound. In human form, Miranda thanks Tom for giving her life before dying.
In the final scene a saddened Tom turns on all the gas burners and tanks in the house and leaves. The house explodes and Tom walks away, as the film ends.

Tags: murder

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Awakening, as evidenced by its 15 rating, delivers the bare minimum that one could expect from a film with the Species title.
This is a film in which a back alley scientist creates sex-crazed human/alien hybrids that run around Mexico!
I was expecting it to be a bit cheesy and low-budget-looking, but I wasn't expecting to be insulted.This "film" has similar production values and acting caliber as you will find in an average daytime soap.It's as if the crew of "Days of Our Lives" borrowed the studio's gear for a weekend and went and shot a "Sci-Fi/Thriller" because those are popular these days, so we should be able to make some cash with it.It wasn't scary, wasn't thrilling, wasn't even sci-fi-y, just boring and predictable.
No plot, bad lighting, laughable critters, wooden acting, no reason at all to force yourself to sit through a turd like this one.The rave reviews here have to be from people associated with the production, or else who haven't actually seen the "film".Avoid at all cost..
however, i have had to give it 1 out of 10, but i mean 0......plot was very poor, movie was too confusing and the poor plot didn't make me feel a connection, like or dislike anyone in the movie.seemed like random things happening with no explanation or leading up to any event in particular.acting was a bit wooden, and the accent from Dominic Keating was probably the most entertaining of any of the script.please avoid this movie, as you can never get the 90 minutes of your life back that you waste on this..
I don't know much of Ben Cross's work, but he seems very good and I want to see him in more Sci-fi movies.
But this is nothing at all like the previous ones, except for the Alien DNA etc etc.This has awful acting, one hell of a bad bad accent and an OK blond playing the Alien femme fatal, but not worth the 90 or so minutes that it ended up as.
If the species films are ever going to work and be believable they need to be serious, with serious (good, well-known) actors.
I would recommend it to all fans of the Species movies and of course to all the sci-fi fans out there like me..
There's a misguided but decent scientist hero – Ben Cross, looking embarrassed to be here, a pretty young and nubile actress, Helena Mattsson, whose acting skills are extremely limited, some monster suits and some very bad CGI effects.The storyline kind of meanders from place to place without ever progressing.
Then throw in a storyline that a primary school child could do better than, and weave some budget SFX through the mix for good measure.The stereotypical cowboy sounds like he comes from blazing saddles, and the "Australian" guy who can't work out if he's from Sydney or London all lend lack of credibility to this complete mess.Please, please don't waste the hour & a half..
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.
Helena Mattson clearly is the most talented actress among the female aliens of the series (Henstridge may have more charisma, but not as much versatility), because in these scenes Mattson is very believably moving from shock to guilt - and onwards to the inhuman superiority of a higher developed species.If this had been shot in the 1950s, it probably would have been entitled "I Walked With A Teenage Alien".
In the second half of the movie, the makers give in to the expectations of the audience with more fights (including a spectacular alien vs alien death-match), but until then, it was really clever, playing more than its predecessors with the idea of "shall we do that just because it can be done?".
They just totally ruined that amazing SIL design by H.R.Giger...I really expected that "Species" series could be at least as good as Alien series but the ruined it.
SIL design and special effects were good for 1995 situations...But now for 2007 movie (I think its all about the budget I don't know) I didn't expect that...It was utterly, awful..I wish I could give "0"...
The acting was so bad, I could have thought I deserve an Academy now.But, I being a sci-fi buff of sorts, had to keep wondering, after the lab burns, how many more of those things are out there.Having some mercy on their audience, they didn't pan to a million other morphing monsters, just ready to breed.We can rest assured they are dead, until the next grade D sci-fi- clone of Species is produced..
The average is about 4.3, not even reach 5.As a scary film, I saw many monsters , I achieved my objectives, got the feeling I wanted.Well, yeah, the plot is not that good.
i can't say this is an awful movie.it's just that it is so slow.until the last 15 minutes,nothing much happens.there is very little excitement,and i didn't find the storyline compelling.nor were there any great characters.there is some nudity,which doesn't really bother me.i am a guy,after all.and though there isn't a lot of profanity,what profanity there was,i felt was unnecessary and did not have any context in the movie.i don't mind profanity,but there should be a purpose or reason for it.but there is some good news.the special makeup and creature effects were pretty good overall.the acting was OK.and this movie is certainly better than the unfortunate Species 2.i don't think it's as good as the original Species,and it's certainly nowhere near as good as Species 3,which to me,is the best of the series.to me,this movie is somewhere in the middle.i give Species:The Awakening 5/10.
The reason why I don't like this movie is because it's way oversexed, the plot was rather pointless, it was weak, decadent, and played out period.
There is definitely not enough gore, almost all the sex scenes were unnecessary, and some stuff just didn't add up or made any sense whatsoever (the reason for Fisk's lies, the taxi-driver and the reason for Azura's actions when they arrive in Mexico - just to name a few).The reason for this getting a 3 and not a 1, is the first half hour of the movie, and the not-so-terrible acting.
Realizing that his bio-engineered daughter is turning into her fully-alien counterpart, a doctor takes her to Mexico for help in controlling the change, only instead unleashing a far more vicious side to her than he imagined.A lot more enjoyable than imagined, due mainly to the fact that the warring nature of her transformation is almost always present, resulting in the changes that force out more action and science fiction elements as well as the occasional jolt of horror with some bloody killings spread throughout that give off some good points every so often.
It's also  really not essential to watch any of the previous Species movies before  watching this one, fore this movie and its story have basically very  little to do with any of the previous entries, that were about aliens  trying to breed and being hunt down by the military.
This movie has some good characters  and even better actors portraying them.
Ben Cross is a good actor and a  nice leading man for this movie.
However because it's such a fine  put together, with a good visual look over it and some nice actors  involved, this movie works out as a perfectly watchable one.
They travel to Mexico in search of his former research partner Forbes McGuire (Dominic Keating) who helped create Miranda from combining human and alien DNA.This is the fourth movie of the franchise and a TV B-movie at heart.
Beautiful blonde college professor Helena Mattsson (as Miranda) finishes a lecture and goes to see her uncle and father-figure Ben Cross (as Tom Hollander), a scientist and museum worker.
The story is easy to follow, but not really engaging.*** Species: The Awakening (10/2/07) Nick Lyon ~ Ben Cross, Helena Mattsson, Dominic Keating, Marlene Favela.
Species: The Awakening (2007) * 1/2 (out of 4) The fourth and so far final film in the SPECIES series has college professor Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) going on a killing spree, which is something she doesn't understand.
Her "uncle" (Ben Cross) takes her to Mexico where he informs her that he, along with another man, created her in a lab using DNA from an alien and this is why she's starting to act out.
SPECIES: THE AWAKENING is pretty much what you'd expect out of a direct-to-DVD release and that's a film with a few good moments but not enough to make it worth your while.
As you'd expect, all you really need to make a SPECIES sequel is a good looking blonde willing to take her clothes off and the producers were able to find another one in Mattsson.
The unrated version of this film features quite a bit of violent footage with a lot of deaths by the creatures tongue including one rather good shot of it going through a woman's skull and coming out of her eye.
Another painfully bad entry into the Species series that offers nothing new or good.
I am happy to report that "The Awakening" is easily the best sequel of the three.The movie takes a completely different direction than it's predecessors while still focusing on the alien DNA message received from space.
We first learn that college professor Miranda Hollander, while appearing to be a very beautiful woman, is in fact a hybrid that was created by her "uncle" Tom and his former student Forbes.
Forbes, along with his alien play-toy Azura, inform Tom that Miranda is at the end of her life cycle and will die without a stem cell transfusion.
Azura returns with the intent to kill Tom, only to end up fighting Miranda in alien form.
Helena Mattsson does a mighty fine job in the role and brings a dimension to one of the alien creatures that was only glimpsed when Michelle Willaims played the young Sil in the first film.
Forbes, played by Dominic Keating, is your atypical movie asshole scientist that doesn't care about the mess he makes, as long as he comes out on top.
But as a hot alien chick, she works.Some people have complained that a Species movie without Natasha Henstridge is just not right.
The Cat people , Jaws and Alien established and reinforced what I consider to be the golden rule when it comes to monstrous creatures in film.The monster should never be on screen too long.That is: If the audience is needed to feel threatened by the creature , we should rarely see it.Failing that the creature should be so terrifying that when we do see it we should be transfixed to the screen or covering our eyes in fear (the original Japanese 'Ring' is a great example)The success of any monster simply lies on it appearing a credible threat .
Helena Mattsson did not quite seem right for the part of Miranda,it was as though she was an understudy for Nicole Kidman with the soft voice and all associated gentle movements until it was time to be ugly, however I enjoyed it anyway for what it was,a good B grade Saturday afternoon entertainment movie..
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.
Honestly they should have left the story where it was at the end of species three.This movie had almost nothing to do with the first three.
The idea's not bad, but after the first chase scene in the streets of Mexico the movie shifts to a series of dimly-lit night sequences which make it hard to even understand what's going on.
If they wanted to just convey the sexual point in the story they shouldn't have filmed full body sex.Basically if you were happy with how they ended number 3, don't waste your emotions getting involved with these unrelated characters.
Species 4: The Awakening Movie Review  by: Meh   We all know that SciFi films are not exactly the top of the bar when it  comes to movies, or horror movies for that matter.
The premise of the movie is a young woman discovers she's actually the  genetic crossbreed between human and alien.
Species 4 has a cast of B actors who do a great job at carrying the  story and the level of CHEESE in the plot and characters was kept to a  bare minimum making for overall a well put together made for TV sci-fi  horror film.
I think that folks who like SciFi Network films will love  this movie and people who hate them will actually say 'Hey this ain't  half bad'..
While it is explained that Sara (the Alien) has no feelings and that is acted perfectly, she becomes a side character and rather boring in her own movie, until the third act.
Species The Awakening-The main theme is survival, again, but this time not the survival of the alien DNA, but the human side of the alien.
While characters are more fleshed out, and acting is not bad at all, the story is just so plain and boring, the alien costume looks much cheaper than the ones from the 3 previous movies, especially noticeable on the face, and the movie ignores a big part of how the aliens were introduced in the previous movies, more on that later.SPOILERS AHEAD: 10 minutes in you learn who the characters are, how they fit the Species universe, and what their goal is.
2 minutes later she is transformed fighting Azura with no pain, and the baby is never mentioned again.Now the inconsistency problem.The enemy alien, Azura, is boring and is introduced as inferior to the main alien Miranda, even called outright stupid in the movie, and given a super bad accent which sounds Russian, not Mexican.
She is inferior, but in alien form she has abilities that Miranda does not possess.Azura is sometimes good, sometimes bad.
Boring, nothing like the rest of the Species movies.
She starts to turn alien and then the Professor must take her to Mexico to find an old colleague who can maybe save here life.From then on it's just boobs, sex, killer tongues, and more boobs with some pretty dull action scenes thrown in between.
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.
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.
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.
In this film Tom (Ben Cross) loves Miranda (Helena Mattsson) as his daughter.
This movie wasn't that bad but I liked to know what happened to the people walking away to the woods at the end of the third part..
She lives with her uncle "Tom Hollander" (Ben Cross) due to the fact that both of her parents were killed when she was quite young.
The truth of the matter is that she was created by Tom and this other scientist named "Forbes McGuire" (Dominic Keating) as an experiment using human DNA and mixing it with the same type of alien DNA used in the previous movies.
In any case, this movie wasn't quite as good as the first two films and I have rated it accordingly.