"Life"- An 'Alien' knock-off for sure... but a decent 'Alien' knock-off. It's appropriately gooey, gory and thrilling and never mistakes itself for being more than it is.

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2017)

You can't keep a good classic down. Nor evidently, can you keep others from trying to replicate the success of a classic for years- even decades- after. This is especially true about the 2017 Sci- Fi/Thriller release "Life" from director Daniel Espinosa. Yes, for all intents and purposes, the film is very much aping off of one of the great classics of the genre... that of course being Ridley Scott's phenomenal 1979 release "Alien." From tone to character to basic structure, Espinosa and the wicked screen writing duo of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick craft a film that is either lovingly paying homage to the iconic Scott picture... or drastically ripping it off. Either way, it isn't the first 'Alien' knock-off... nor will it be the last. The best we can hope for it is that it ended up being one of the better 'Alien' knock- offs...
Thankfully enough... I'd say it is.
Yes, despite a few major problems with the pacing and a few questionable choices with the structure, I found "Life" to be completely entertaining and a lot of fun for what it was. Sure, it won't win any Oscars... but there's nothing wrong with a good, old-fashioned thrill-fest. It's got all the goo and gore you'd expect from a deep-space creature-feature, and boasts a massive budget and top-notch talent on-screen to boot. It honestly reminded me of an old nostalgic favorite in that respect- the Kevin Bacon thriller "Hollow Man", which similarly boasted a big budget and big talent for what amounted to a cheesy slasher movie. A lot of people complained (just as a lot of people are complaining about "Life"), but they seemed to miss the point... these movies are meant to be pure, visceral fun. Not mind-bending or even all that complex. And in that respect, I think "Life" works quite well.
In the near future, a six-person crew aboard the International Space Station intercepts a probe returning from the planet Mars with soil samples for study. Soon enough, it is discovered that a microscopic organism exists within the soil- the first real sign of alien life beyond Earth. After managing to revive the organism (nicknamed "Calvin"), it begins to grow and display signs of intelligence and thought. However, things take a turn for the worse when Calvin escapes his "habitat" and begins to act in an aggressive and defensive fashion... eventually beginning to kill off members of the team in order to feed. And so, the remaining crew must work together to try and kill this martian beast before it is able to reach Earth...
I really gotta hand it to the cast- they all knock it out of the park, despite the film zooming through their establishment a little too quickly. Our leads Rebecca Ferguson and Jake Gyllenhaal are a lot of fun, and both are given just enough motivation to help you care about their characters. Supporting roles by the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnaya are all very well-played and are given just enough quirks and defining features that you actually do kinda feel bad when the creature starts to attack them one-by-one. It's a case of good casting overcoming a few missteps in the narrative.
The script by Reese and Wernick is quite entertaining, and they show that they have a knack for suspense and thrills. I've been seeing a lot of reviews nit-picking the minute details or trying to poke holes in the logic... but you gotta remember: these are the same guys who wrote "Deadpool." If you think they're trying to deliver a hard-hitting and cerebral drama set to the backdrop of a Gothic horror picture, you're clearly not in the right mindset. They know exactly what they're trying to do... pay homage to Sci-Fi classics like the aforementioned "Alien" while delivering as many jumps and disgusting displays of bodily- fluids as possible. It's not tongue- in-cheek per se, but it's also not 100% trying to be overtly realistic. They're crafting a fun movie... not a complex one.
The tones and style that Espinosa injects into the film are incredibly invaluable. It's a very competently made movie, and there's a lot of really fun visual nuances and nifty camera-work on display that lends much to the proceedings. From an opening sequence told almost entirely in a single complex (and breathtaking) shot, to more subtle moments like allowing the camera to linger on the various crewmembers as they cry at their terrible situation in one genuinely touching scene... there's a lot of really smart moves being made in the storytelling thanks to top-notch visual guidance. I'm not overly familiar with Espinosa's filmography... but if he's able to do so much creative and original work with what is essentially an homage-picture, I'd keep my eye on him in the future.
All that being said, however... there's some issues I cannot deny. And they do bring the whole thing down a few points. Despite allowing the story to truck along quickly, the pacing does rob some much-needed moments with the characters and I would have liked to have seen some more development in the supporting roles. A few of the "scares" are telegraphed from a mile away, which annoyed me a bit. And I do think that despite aiming to pay homage to the classics... the film could have subverted expectations a bit more than it ended up doing. It would have helped it stand alone a bit more.
But in the end, for what amounts to a fun-albeit-generic creature- feature in space, "Life" is very much an enjoyable time. It's not going to break new ground and I certainly wouldn't call it a great film. But it's more than adequate and I know I had a lot of fun seeing it on the big-screen. I give it a pretty-good 7 out of 10.