If Calvin is this bad, imagine what Hobbes would be like!

Rating: 6/10 (13 June 2018)

Continuing the lineage of films such as "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" (1958) and "Alien" (1979), "Life" finds a group of spacefarers dealing with a malignant, and apparently unstoppable, predatory life-form prowling around their ship (in this case, the International Space Station) and gradually thinning out the crew. All of the action is in/around the ISS's 'zero-G' environment, which is very well done, and provides an opportunity for a novel and imaginative creature design. The film has some pacing problems, with interludes of dialogue (about the children's book for example) dulling the mounting tension and there too many plot holes (see 'goofs' section) to get really caught up in the story. The behavior of the alien is inconsistent and its capabilities vague and 'convenient' (for example, it needs oxygen yet can survive in a vacuum when the plot needs it to do so). I also found the tension quickly deflated every time the characters referred to the predatory Martian as "Calvin" (I don't know why the writers indulged in this conceit, can you imagine "Alien" with Ripley and Dallas scouring the 'Nostromo' with flame throwers looking for a 'Calvin'?). Unfortunately, "Life" is like a lot of recent big CGI-driven spectaculars, great to look at as long as you don't think too much about what you are seeing.