Astronaut Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard) is infected on his way back from Mars with the same alien DNA that had been studied in Species. Now he has an uncontrollable urge to mate and create an army of partial aliens. Assassin Press Lenox (Michael Madsen), Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger), and astronaut Dennis Gamble (Mykelti Williamson) must stop him. Their only advantage is a clone of the original alien Sil, called Eve (Natasha Henstridge), that has a mental connection to Patrick.
While Species had a few stupid concepts, this one is all stupid concepts. Nothing makes sense, humans act in bizarre ways, nonsensical events happen on a regular basis, and the science is on par with ’50s giant turtle movies. A few winners:
- Patrick, an incredibly famous and popular astronaut, can leave any destination with a new child and no one notices; women can scream from his room and no one comes and police can’t follow him even though he leaves each room tracking blood.
- Patrick has an infinite quantity of prison smocks for his children in a country house (in all sizes).
- After several years of research on how to harm the aliens, no one had ever thought of infecting them. Didn’t these people watch War of the Worlds?
- Genes are equivalent to viruses, so if you get stuck by a weapon with the blood of someone who has a genetic problem, you’ll get it.
- Astronauts are taken on missions to kill aliens instead of using trained military personnel.
- The most basic and overwhelming urge of an alien can be overcome by asking nicely.
And there are so many more. However, these are minor problems. The biggest flaw is that the story follows Patrick, not Eve. Patrick is a bland human and (except for a few moments of mental difficulties) a cold-blooded alien. I don’t care about him the way I did about Sil. Eve had potential, and since she’s played by Natasha Henstridge, she’s why anyone coming to Species II bought a ticket. Sure, there are lots of topless scenes, but of nonentity victims. And there’s lots of gore, but from the tentacles of Patrick. It’s OK, and if you liked the first film, you’ll enjoy this to a lesser extent, but an opportunity was missed.