Review of Life (2017) by Kristofer H — 24 Mar 2017

Proper Perspective: If you are concocting a recipe for a suspenseful alien movie in 2017 throw in elements of Ridley Scott's Alien, a little Gravity, and to help stick out get the writers of Deadpool to sprinkle in humor for release. Let's talk about Life... (the movie that is).

Official Synopsis: A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life form, that caused extinction on Mars, and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth.

Plot: The movie wastes no time introducing the audience to the lifeform and the crew inhabiting one of the most technologically advanced space ships ever crafted. The lifeform is on board in the first few minutes. Then, after infatuation turns to fear and ultimately to survival mode, the crew has to find a way to either survive, kill the lifeform, or at the very least keep it from getting to earth.

Take: I like this concept. A lifeform that is found dormant on Mars and slowly comes to,.

Growing and evolving as it gets the necessities to live in sustenance and oxygen. Mars is desolate because these things whipped out the plants inhabitants and then went dormant because there was nothing else for them to do.

Overall this movie was exactly what I expected. A B- version of the original Alien film with some humor, some scares, and quickly paced plot.

The coolest part of this movie was the theme of sacrifice. I don't want to get into spoiler territory, but it is a cool theme in the movie and I got the beats of that right away. On that point, the movie does telegraph the story as it goes along. Nothing is inherently new or original, but having said that the movie is put together well and the story is intriguing.

Across the board the acting was solid, especially from Jake Gyllenhaal (Night Crawler, Prisoners). All of the emotional beats were given to him and it showed why. All the other actors and characters were solid in their roles, but Gyllenhaal grounded the movie.

Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Girl on the Train) was good too along with Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool, Definitely Maybe), Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samuri, Ringu), Olga Dihovichnaya, and Ariyon Bakare (Rogue One, Jupiter Ascending).

The cinematography looked nice, but the shots and camera angles, especially when they lingered too long upside down or came in from a right side up scene into an upside down scene was a bit sore on the eyes. But that might just be me. My only negative about the movie is that and maybe generic to weak direction from Daniel Espinosa (Safe House, Child 44).

Recommendation: This is a good space/alien thriller so if you are itching for one and cannot wait for Alien Covenant to come out, Life is a solid placeholder while sit patiently for the next installment in the franchise that surely inspired this movie here.

I wonder if the aliens from Arrival were trying to prepare us and warn us for this...