Review of Life (2017) by Lukehat — 01 Jul 2017

Another dissapointing sci fi budget that could have been much more.

- Astronaughts; very educated and thoughtful people, depicted in holywood as moronic fools, continually making whimsical decisions that lead to the shallow cat and mouse action monopolising the film. It's all too familiar in sci fi films. Did the alien need to escape so soon? Could the story have been drawn out a tiny bit more? We could have learnt more about it's complex biology, or why it learns quicker than any other animal.

- Jake Gyllenhall and Ryan Reynolds: two star actors, aren't given much dialogue. Such a waste.

- The alien is strong enough to mangle a hand, but it can't rip a glove; a glove that can be pierced with a sharp object...? - Why is quarantine suddenly called firewalls? Is the alien a computer virus?

- Gyllenhall, self proclaimed pilot, manages to do the complete opposite of what he intended, by flying the ship with the alien back to earth. Maybe the alien learn how to fly immediately: It's just that clever.

- Conviniently, despite the majority of the earth not being populated, they manage to land the shuttle right next to a boat. Without discussing it, these fisherman think their best course of action would be to open up the door to the shuttle that just crash landed next to them, despite Gyllenhall looking a bit stressed inside about them doing that. Is every one as stupid as an ape in this film?

- On the limited bright side, the alien was quite cool, and if there ever is a LIFE2 film, the earth is a much better scene for a cat and mouse saga than a small space station. Think Jaws, Godzilla or Jurassic Park. Though hopefully this group of filmmakers won't be given more than a B-movie budget ever again.