Life – Movie Review
Life – R
Release Date: Fri 24 Mar 2017
A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a strange biological life form that had been in hibernation on Mars. What begins as the celebration of a breakthrough discovery soon turns very dark as the life form becomes deadly to the human crew.
The trailer for Life hints at betrayals, hard choices and some overall drama between the human characters. This is not the case. Once the attack (shown in the trailer) occurs, all of the remaining movie is reactionary and well-trodden sci-fi tropes. Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds have very little script to work with but do their best to keep the viewer invested. The dark palette and slow pace made it a challenge not to drift off to sleep or think about all the movies (Alien, Gravity) that have done this sort of story right as well as several knock-offs that do it better than Life.
If you’re absolutely starved for a cramped space horror that won’t challenge your brain, you can do worse than Life. For everyone else, I’d say skip this one.
Aaron and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car:
