Given its subject matter, it's appropriate that "Species" turns out to be such a jarring hybrid of ideas and tones. Thirty years after it originally mutated into multiplexes, this high-concept tale of an alien woman created from human DNA fused with genetic code from the stars remains an implausible collection of contradictions.
Is it a glossy sci-fi actioner or the result of a major studio spending big money on an exploitation movie? Are the "Contact"-esque themes at "Species"' heart genuinely sophisticated, or just a gratuitous excuse for its central character to take her clothes off (repeatedly) in her murderous quest to — in the film's words, not ours — "mate"?
