Movie Review: Life

Who doesn't like a good sci-fi thriller involving aliens in deep space? I for one can't get enough of this genre, so you can imagine my excitement when I finally got the chance to view Life. With an above average cast of actors I thought this was going to be better than or as good as anything in Ridley Scott's Alien universe. Boy was I wrong. In Life the crew of an international space station is on a mission to prove there's well, life beyond earth. When they find out that we are not in fact alone in this vast universe bad things begin to happen.

Jake Glynhall, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ariyon Bakare highlight the cast of this Alien knock off. To be fair it has to be difficult trying to forge new ground in this genre when you know you'll constantly be compared to the Alien series, but Daniel Espinosa put it out there for our consumption so he'll have to deal with the praise and criticism. During the first 20 minutes of the film I was beyond optimistic. As the crew members bustled about trying to save "something" from being lost in space forever there was an energy that seemed to jump off the screen. Perhaps it was watching all of this take place in a zero gravity atmosphere where the stakes always seem to be higher. At any rate I was at the edge of my seat, waiting to get a glimpse of what was so damn important and worth saving!

Enter "Calvin". I know by now we all have preconceived notions of what a proper alien should look like, so I'm not going to go down the list of known xenomorphs in every movie I've seen, but I wasn't expecting a sea anemone that would eventually morph into a jelly fish. I thought this creature lacked imagination and creativity, and even giving it a proper name like Calvin didn't for once make me think "how could something with such a cute name become a ruthless, maniacal killing machine?" Instead I was left thinking "Wait, haven't I seen this movie before?"

On a more positive note I found the acting to be excellent. Ryan Reynolds steals the show here, and even though his role is no more than a cameo it left me wanting to see more of him. If Life was produced before Ridley Scott's Alien it would be a block buster movie, but there are so many similarities to Alien that it comes accross as a cheap knock off. If flattery is the sincerest form of compliment we all know how Daniel Espinosa feels about Ridley Scott and the Alien franchise. Yes, you have seen this one before.

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