Atrocious

Rating: 1/10 (22 May 2017)

Let's start with the ending: what a big f-you to the audience. It doesn't even work as a twist ending, because the only twist is that they are telling you that what you saw is not what you saw. And that alone makes me angry, not to mention the fact that the ending shatters what little investment we had in these characters, letting us know that although we might have cared about them, the filmmakers did not. The ending is not there for our benefit, but for the benefit of the filmmakers who are clearly out of touch with film as an art form, and even as entertainment.
But let's go back to the beginning: a capsule is flying through space, returning from Mars, and there is a lot of fuss on the space station, since the capsule is off course and needs to be captured through a difficult maneuver. The whole scene has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the film, and is there simply to give the audience an exciting opening. Already then I felt cheated and my expectations for the rest of the film sank.
Then we find out that there was life in the samples from Mars, and life that they reanimate in minutes. Of course, there are no safety precautions, and the governments of the countries involved seem happy to let them play with alien life without any clear agenda or security concerns. The only thing they care about is naming the thing.
Then, through some incredibly lazy writing, they lose contact with earth, and never regain it. Brilliant.
Then, the thing (it's called 'Calvin') grows into a squid that can fly through air without actually propelling itself. You remember the film 'Alien'? One of the potential directors for that film said he'd just buy a liver at the supermarket and that would be the alien. He didn't get the job, but a similar fool got this job. I mean, it's a stupid squid. It's not scary or original.
From then on, in a series of incredibly confusing scenes where the audience spends most of the time trying to figure out what the hell is going on, the characters are killed off one by one. The characters remain cardboard cutouts, nothing but fresh meat for the alien. One of them barely manages to escape, but is then killed off five minutes later, making his escape totally pointless. There is absolutely nothing in terms of payoff in this film. Nothing is set up, and no investment in a character is ever rewarded.
Finally, for some reason, the station falls apart and we get the stupid, confusing ending, which also ends up being a confusing TWIST ending. Genius.
On a positive note, the film has some entertainment value, but not enough to redeem it. It's a failure in terms of screen writing, directing, and editing. And the monster is as stupid as its name.