A fun, predictable space horror film

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2017)

Life is currently playing in cinemas. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Rebecca Ferguson who is known for Mission Impossible Rogue Nation. This film basically plays out exactly the same way as Ridley Scott's Alien. A small group of scientists discover a probe on the planet Mars. On the space station ISS the scientists analyze the creature. It is rapidly growing and starts to get violent really quick to point it out without spoiling anything. What really worked for me was the creature, it was terrifying and mysterious just like the alien and the predator. The acting too is very good, Ryan Reynolds has a lot of charisma and so does Rebecca Ferguson. They really did make me care for them, unfortunately that is the only real detail given to any character. I only cared about Reynolds and Ferguson as they had charisma, Gyllenhaal on the other hand really did let me down. He gives a good performance but his character simply isn't interesting. Unlike 'Alien' which has characters that are like actual real people. 'Life' makes it too easy by just giving the audience two dimensional characters. Some of them have charisma but most of them I fear were plain and dull. The story too is incredibly predictable, you know how everything will play out fairly quickly. This would've been okay if the characters were interesting and likable. Overall this still is a fun sci-fi horror flick with some really scary scenes and charismatic performances. But unfortunately the narrative is too predictable and the characters too uninteresting to be more than a popcorn film.