Life Reviews
Life review
Posted : 5 years, 5 months ago on 22 November 2018 12:10Like the creature in the film, "Life" takes the strengths of other films to make something functional. This might sound cold and processed but it actually comes off as something that this viewer ended up warming up to quite a bit. Take a healthy serving of "Alien" (crew we get to know and enjoy the company of brings alien entity back into ship and soon fails to keep quarantine protocol), Carpenter's "The Thing" (creature adapts quickly by mimicking aspects of its prey and gets loose in the facility and, SPOILER, basically is a harbinger of the world's end), and even Gravity (astronauts coping in a variety of ways with real life issues back home and in space cope with a disaster) and you can begin to see what "Life" is all about.
Normally this would prove a deterrent to enjoyment but the film is very competently but together. The characters are empathetic, the science fiction framework is engaging, and playing with your expectations works out quite well without ever losing any tension or suspense. I stress this final part the most because, as you might be aware, the ending of this film was leaked early on and spoiled for many people. I went into this not only seeing how much of a pastiche of other works it was but knowing where it would all end up and it still was an engaging and enjoyable experience.
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery but that can only get you so far. "Life" manages to be a patchwork of many things, sure, but it handles itself deftly and does approach the material from a different enough perspective that it feels both like you're visiting old friends but also discovering something new about them. It also has that effect that makes you remember it fondly and want to revisit it again, if only because sometimes you're not up to putting yourself through the nihilistic terror of the films it borrows so heavily from.
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An average movie
Posted : 7 years ago on 1 April 2017 07:120 comments, Reply to this entry
"Life" (2017)
Posted : 7 years, 1 month ago on 28 March 2017 08:13A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life form in the soil samples from Mars, which now threatens the crew and all life on Earth.
This movie, I'd say, is just generally competent. The script is well written and keeps the tension going, but the characters aren't really interesting enough to separate it from the myriad of sci-fi horror out there. Though I do like how none of them are overtly stupid; whenever someone does the wrong thing, it's merely out of ignorance. Also, thinking about how much time they must spend in each other's company, how close they must become, makes it easy to feel their heartbreak when one of them dies โ let alone two within the space of half an hour!
There's nothing cartoonish about the violence; it feels very grounded and grisly.
So I spent most of the movie admiring the craft but hardly on the edge of my seat. โฆAnd then the ending happened! I'm not going to say exactly what happens, but I have to say, it came across like a cruel, sick joke! That was a "fuck you" ending! However, I don't think it detracts from the enjoyability of the film as a whole.
Overall, it's good, but nothing special.
My rating: 70%
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