Docile and controllable? (Species (DVD))

Member Name: Brett Bligh

Product:	Species (DVD)
Date:	30/08/01 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Print in correct aspect ratio and of good quality, anamorphically enhanced, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Disadvantages: Lack of much in the way of extras, bland menu presentation, many of the ‘extras’ are actually MGM advertisements.

Creature features have never really been known for their depth of characterisation, their originality or their deft statements on the human condition. They can, however, be very exciting and make for light-hearted, harmless entertainment. It is on this basis that many such features have, even to the present day far beyond the golden age of such films in the 1950s, scored very highly at the box office, and in 1995, with the by-line “men cannot resist her … mankind may not survive her”, ‘Species’ became one of those films, cleverly combining pretty fast-paced action and special effects wizardry with the other trusty marketing ploy of frontlining a highly attractive woman in the film. Now Species is available on MGM DVD, allowing audiences to emulate the Species cinema experience within their own home.


THE FILM
The plot to Species is, as expected, rather basic and highly formulaic. Four people, Press, a government assassin, Dan, an empath, Laura, a biologist, and Arden, an anthropologist, are assembled together and told that they are to team up, under the command of a man named Fitch, in order to seek out and destroy an alien life form which was developed by scientists in response to alien broadcast transmissions and which has now escaped onto the streets.

The alien life form, meanwhile, has metamorphosed from a young girl into a fully-grown, and highly attractive, young woman, and is now desperately seeking a mate, hoping to reproduce and hence produce offspring, the start of an attempt to end the reign of humanity as the dominant race on planet Earth. Can the team track down the alien, codenamed Sil, before it is too late?

Species is one of those films which is never going to stand rigorous examination or any kind of deep critique. The acting, for the most part, is serviceable although not terribly outstanding: Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley’s Fitch seems to do nothing but walk around looking grim onl
y to break into hysterics at the first sign of any real trouble and Michael Madsen’s Press is a typical action hero, gruff and uncommunicative but strangely attractive to the women of the film. Only Dan, played by Forest Whitaker, provides anything out of the norm, and although empaths seems to have become over-common in the science fiction genre since Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation his character seems to be genuinely unusual, a highly emotional and very sensitive man whose character is unfortunately, as events actually unfold, reduced to prodding along the burgeoning relationship between Press and Laura and sensing when the alien is close or in what direction the alien has travelled during the main storyline.

Perhaps both the most interesting and simultaneously deeply flawed aspect of the plot is the actions of Sil herself, played in adult form by Natasha Henstridge, who simply refuses to CHANGE TERRITORY after her initial escape onboard the train. Hence the team, who also simply assume she will stay in one place, are able to catch her. Actually, Sil’s idea of attempting to convince her hunters that she has dies in an explosion resulting from a car crash is a reasonably interesting one, and quite nastily done for a film which, despite being most certainly within the boundaries of the horror genre, is otherwise resoundingly un-horrific. But after accomplishing what she set out to do, Sil then decides to attempt to seduce one of the actual team members who have been hinting her for the past few weeks!?! Why not simply go and grab some bloke from a club, as she has done before, and have done with it?

Of course, the actual answer to this is that Species is a film whose plot is continuously on the verge of collapsing in on itself for most of its duration. It is, however, quite entertaining if one is able to accept it for what it is, and apart from the closing scenes in the sewers, which I thought plodded somewhat, Species is
quick, harmless entertainment. Put brain into neutral and relax.


THE DISC

· Distributor: MGM DVD [15910DVD Z1].
MGM DVD releases often vary widely in quality, from the excellent treatment given to their prestigious James Bond collection to the more shoddy, slapped-onto-disc mentality often awarded what MGM obviously sees as its less potentially successful projects. On the basis of this release, it is obvious that Species was thought to be mid-way between the two, although perhaps towards the bottom end of the prestige spectrum.

· Rating: 18.
Species is not a particularly memorably gory film, nor does it contain any groundbreaking special effects in that regard (perhaps the most memorable sequence being the start of the transformation of the young Sil into chrysalis onboard the train). It is, however, a creature feature in which the creature kills and mains, and hence this certificate would appear justified in the context of other BBFC judgements. Personally, however, I think a 16-year old (or perhaps even younger) could watch this film no problem.

· Region: 2 (PAL encoding).
Region 2 is intended for Europe (including the UK) and Japan, whilst PAL is a system used by the UK and Australia, among others. Essentially, this disc will play on any region 2, multi-region or region-free player which is compatible with PAL playback — if you bought your player in the UK there should be no worries whatsoever.

· Type and case: DVD5 with black Amaray keepcase.
DVD5s are the lowest capacity DVD disc of 12cm diameter, and feature a single data layer on one side of the disc which can store 4.37 gig of data approximately. The black Amaray keepcase seems to be the standard and, indeed, predominant DVD presentation format these days; included in the package is an 8-page booklet discussing the making of the film which focuses mainly on the design and creation of the monster and on casting.

· Running time: f
eature 1 hr 44 minutes approx.
The print contained herein is that of the theatrical release.

· Picture format: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.
The film is here presented in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of 2.35:1, the anamorphic PAL transfer ensuring maximum screen resolution which will be best appreciated on a widescreen TV. The actual picture quality is excellent. No print scratches are present, and the colours are vibrant and convincingly reproduced, with excellent blacks and fleshtones and a suitable level of contrast. Basically, the visual quality of the film here could not have been done much better, and I would award it virtually full marks.

· Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, German and Spanish.
The English soundtrack is of a very high standard indeed, and I did not notice any audio faults during my viewing of the film, including no mismatched scene transition ‘pops’ and no background hiss. The quality of the surround mix is also of a high standard, with music emanating from all audio channels and voices mixed appropriately according to their relative positions; atmospheric sounds are generally well achieved. Essentially, this is a 5.1 audio track done properly.

· Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, English HOH, German HOH..

· Extras: Theatrical Trailer, Species II Theatrical Trailer, Also Available on DVD.

The Theatrical Trailer is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, is in very good condition and has a duration of a little over 90 seconds. As trailers go, this is a very bog-standard effort (although, of course, arguably so is the film itself!) but, as always, this is a welcome addition to the DVD release.

The Species II trailer is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen and is also in excellent condition. It has a duration of slightly less than two minutes; this is a slightly less welcome addition to the d
isc, since to me it constitutes little more than advertising for one of MGM’s other DVD releases (were I to find it on the actual Species II disc, of course, then I would have no objections), as does the item below.

Also Available on DVD is, as the title suggests, an advertisement for other DVDs, in this case a selection of trailers for other MGM titles, including ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’, ‘Rain Man’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Midnight Cowboy’, ‘Thelma & Louise’, ‘Species’ [yes, one gets the impression that this is a bog-standard clip selection used on every DVD released by MGM around this time], ‘Rocky’, ‘Blown Away’, and ‘GoldenEye’. The aspect ratios for each of the films vary, but the entire selection is anamorphic (and good quality too), so one is able to simply sit back and watch.

· Menus: The menus are static and the design is very basic. The overall impression is of a functional, adequate way of navigating the disc’s relatively sparse features, and nothing more.


CONCLUSION
To be perfectly honest, the Species region 2 release is neither anything special nor anything particularly poor. It is, rather, something profoundly competent yet average — competent in that a pristine edition of the print has been included, in the correct aspect ratio with no print blemishes and with anamorphic enhancement, accompanied by a very well realised Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, but nothing special in that the extras are, to be honest, very little of any worth. The theatrical trailer of a film is always a worthy addition to a DVD release, but here it is the only extra on the disc which is not essentially an advertisement for something MGM DVD is trying to sell, and that is hardly enough on its own to warrant much in the way of praise.

In the end, therefore, I would recommend that one buys this film on DVD if two conditions
are true: firstly, if one likes the film (yes, I know that the film is hardly outstanding, but it IS rather enjoyable in my opinion, and just the kind of film I like to watch when I simply wish to relax for a couple of hours and be entertained mindlessly), and, secondly, if the price is good or if one can obtain the disc in some kind of special offer.

Not a terrible disc, then, but not exactly something which is going to march straight to the top of everyone’s “to buy” list, either.

Summary: