Review of Life (2017) by Jeff R — 03 May 2017

"Life just serves as "Alien" leftovers for the horror movie crowd until the next "Alien" movie arrives in May".

Movie Review: Life.

Date Viewed: March 24 2017.

Directed By Daniel Espinosa (Child 44, Easy Money and Safe House).

Written By Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnaya.

Some "Life" in the "Alien" knock-off universe are just not meant to come to life. "Life" must be the 90th, 111th or 150th "Alien" clone to hit the multiplexes. It has everything an "Alien" sibling or cousin should want, dumb characters who don't know what to do or how to defeat the grotesque extraterrestrial life-form, several amounts of gore and cheap tension. Some of these "Alien" clones did work in the past (check out 1987's "Predator") but every so often these rip-offs or knock-offs tend to be idiotic and not very original. How did this $58 million production managed to attract the writers of "Deadpool" and "Zombieland" and pretty good actors like Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson? All three of them have done amazing work over the past several years but why did they have to make their characters so dumb? I think I might know the answer! In space, no one can hear your critiques or criticism.

"Life" is of course set in space on the International Space Station where a six-member crew led by Dr. David Jordan (Gyllenhaal) and Dr. Miranda North (Ferguson) manages to capture a space probe from the red planet of Mars because hey everybody! Earth might be in danger due to climate change so we may have to colonize on Mars in the near distant future. The space probe brings back a soil sample from the planet and biologist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) analyzes it to ensure that it is proof of extraterrestrial life on Mars. The small plant-like sample grows into a multi-celled organism and it becomes an immediate success with the space crew and back on Earth a couple of New York kids name the organism Calvin. Really? It's just a small life-form and you're already giving it a name? You really shouldn't underestimate life-forms from other planets because they can either be hostile, dangerous or even monstrous.

As the crew members celebrate their scientific achievement, Hugh goes to back in the lab to do more research and that's when things start turning ugly. The life-form grabs hold of Hugh's hand, he crushes it and it grows more intelligent which shocks the international space crew. WELL DUH! One of the astronauts bravely gets Hugh but he or she (I won't tell you who dies first because it may shock you) gets locked inside the lab where the alien runs amok. Eventually, the alien kills the astronaut by going inside the body and killing him or her instantly.

When the alien life-form escapes from the lab, the crew desperately tries to figure out how to get rid of it without having it reach Earth because if it does, there will be no way of stopping it and all hell would break loose. I can accept a rip-off of both "Alien" and "Gravity" unless it is well-written and well-acted but there is no life to be found anywhere in "Life". There was one scene where I jumped out of my seat but that isn't saying much because "Life" is a suspense-free thrill ride. The grotesque alien life-form isn't very interesting or scary and director Daniel Espinosa (Child 44, Easy Money, Safe House) has no clear path for the actors to go other than to shout cliched lines. We do get some development in the characters including the Asian astronaut, Sho (Hiroyuki Sanada) who just became a father and the female Russian astronaut, Katerina (Olga Dihovichnaya) who's always calm and steady during big situations but this movie is just not very frightening or original for that matter.

"Life" just serves as "Alien" leftovers for the horror movie crowd until the next "Alien" movie arrives in May.