Review: Life
The six members (Team leader
Rebecca Ferguson, Microbiologist Ariyon Bakare, expectant father Hiroyuki
Sanada, medic Jake Gyllenhaal, resident smart arse Ryan Reynolds, and token
Russkie Olga Dihovicnaya) on board the International Space Station bring a soil
sample from Mars on board. Bakare finds traces of life after examining the
sample in his lab. Becoming utterly fascinated by the small, blobby organism,
Bakare watches it grow. One day though…it stops growing. Stops moving
altogether. Worried that it might have died, Bakare tries to give it the jolt
of life…and the organism doesn’t much like that. In fact, it violently attaches
itself to Bakare, crushing his hand. Growing stronger, more tenacious, and
smarter it then proceeds to run amok on the space station, bumping the crew
off.
Director Daniel Espinosa (the flat
“Safe House”, the complete mess “Child 44”) essentially gives us
an unofficial remake of “Alien” with this 2017 sci-fi/thriller, scripted
by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (who teamed up for the excellent “Zombieland”
and the overrated snarkfest that was “Deadpool”). It won’t be a popular
opinion, but I’ve never been a fan of the 1979 Ridley Scott ‘slasher movie in
outer space’ and consider “Alien3” a better version of that
idea anyway (with “Aliens” being the best in the series by far). I think
this film is, like “Alien3” a better version of “Alien”,
if ultimately still just a simple slasher movie in outer space.
There’s some nice camera movement
inside the quarters of the ship, and early on Ryan Reynolds livens the film up
with some good humour as the ship’s smart arse engineer. In a very typically
Ryan Reynolds performance (despite originally intending to play the Jake
Gyllenhaal part, before scheduling issues got in the way), he narrowly avoids
the trap of coming off too much like Matt Damon and Chris Pratt in “The
Martian” and “Passengers” respectively, finding his own brand of sarcasm. He steals the
first 30 minutes of the film effortlessly, whilst Jake Gyllenhaal lays low,
giving Reynolds room to shine. Meanwhile, I find Rebecca Ferguson a cold fish,
but I can’t deny she’s well-cast here as a character who probably can’t let her
emotions get the better of her.
I won’t deny it covers territory
already mined by Ridley Scott (and others), but it’s mostly a really well-shot “Alien”-esque
film where the characters are probably more intelligent and interesting than
the space truckers of the earlier film. The CGI is pretty good, and the alien
itself is more interesting and unique than most. It doesn’t look a whole
helluva lot like anything on Earth, which is as it should be. It’s hard to
shake the familiarity of the plot, but at least character and alien-wise, the
film works. I also really liked the completely devastating, memorable ending.
Quite a ballsy note to end on, actually.
A familiarity of plot is all
that’s wrong with this otherwise well-made, well-shot, well-acted, and
interesting alien-on-board flick. Worth a look, especially if like me, you’re
not beholden to “Alien” as some kind of untouchable cinematic God.
Rating: B-
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