A snack before Covenant.

Rating: 4/10 (4 August 2017)

From the get go - Life looks very promising: you have a multi-national crew, you have the plot established, there is some really beautiful exposition of the alien. The mood is established as sharp and professional, something you don't often see nowadays. But... from then on, it goes absolutely down the drain, so, spoilers alert, I'll just list the steps how this movie steadily loses points one part of script after another.
1. Alien reanimation.
Okay, looks like they attended the Prometheus school of "How to be a stupid scientist". Even if the reanimation procedure is, technically, understandable: they can't bring it back before confirming anything, it still doesn't explain why, when there are all the protocols and firewalls - they have so little effect. No way to suppress the testing area, making all the protection it has - being plastic gloves. Really. Even then, the very laboratory, instead of being... well, "isolated"... turns out to be jeopardized by nothing more than a sprinkler. Is that how they are supposed to contain viruses? 2. Alien in space If that was a true Russian astronaut - she would immediately sacrifice herself when faced with the same deal as the movie. A perfect opportunity - alien in space, alien is latched, just detach the tether and push yourself as hard as possible off the side of the station. Maybe even use some Martian Iron Man tricks. Done, roll credits. No, instead we see a Martian-level of stupidity before the airlock, and when the right choice is done... well, it has zero impact, making the whole sequence - a protracted drama.
3. Alien in the safe zone While we clearly see the alien in space, and everything goes according to plan, after another protracted drama, we find that the alien was attached to one of the crew members. Insert Jackie Chan face. For a second I thought - it's another one, a new plot twist, something they haven't foreseen. Nope... It's the same alien, just somehow teleported. And, of course, the good scientist was so selfless that he didn't bother to tell anyone. Mindblown.
4. Interstellar spoof Okay, if spoofing Prometheus and Gravity was not enough, we needed Interstellar spoof, where one "suddenly" mentally disabled crew member decides to pretty much brute force a lockdown door. And, like the previous traitor, this guys is attempted to be saved, against all sanity. And, of course, there is a mandatory ridiculous decompression scene. Guess you can check that out. As for that whole Interstellar spoof... well, it ended pretty much the same as Interstellar. Except for the unparalleled epicness, of course...
5. Freezing scene I saw this scene before. It's the same stupid protraction as in Gravity. You sob, you freeze and then boom! - you find a solution. I literally counted seconds. It was so pointless and clichéd...
6. Finale If there was one more terrible movie to take lessons from(not counting Interstellar) - it's The Mist. Also a movie that was not bad by itself, but the writing and the characters absolutely ruined it, especially the finale. Well, Life is the same. Just worse, of course. You get a choice: a stupid happy-end, Gravity style or... the other thing. Frankly, nothing could be worse than Gravity, and I'd personally prefer a logical, sobby, but happy end. Instead - we get The Mist. In your face. Deal with it. Because this movie - is not getting any sequels.
7. Alien After all, why was this alien so feared. Yes, it's kind of resilient. But it's not mind-controlling. Not replicating. Not innately contagious. It gets out on Earth, the worst you get - is Cloverfield. Even Xenomorph or Zombie viruses can be contained, but this weirdo? Suddenly getting all Ripley about it. Such a waste of ISS...
8. Crew members In the end, one of the crew members "reports" the whole situation, saying that "five other astronauts sacrificed themselves and must be honored". But did they now? The first "corpse" disregarded the protocol and jeopardized everyone. In fact, saving that scientist at the cost of your life - allowed the same mentally disabled scientist to snatch the alien to the safe room, pretty much sacrificing not "himself", but everyone else. The commander, instead of doing the right thing, did the pointless thing, as described above. Not exactly sacrificing. The fourth member went full on Dr. Mann with predictable consequences(only there was no Cooper this time...) And the fifth astronaut... well, you can see for yourself.
Conclusion: Life is not "that" bad. There are definitely worse movies. In fact, it looks like an improved Gravity. Because besides the painful stupidity - you at least get some plot, some thrills, "something", while the premise is almost identical. It can be watched, with LSD and popcorn, but, unfortunately, should not be remembered.