A Surprisingly Good Film If You Don't Look Too Deep Into It

Rating: 6/10 (7 August 2017)

Life is a perfectly adequate movie. I saw it not really not knowing anything about it past it being a thriller/horror film set on the International Space Station involving alien life. If you plan on watching this movie, I recommend you do too. I have heard a lot of different opinions on this movie and I would like to give a comeback to some. There are a good chunk of people giving this movie unrealistically low ratings like a 1 or a 2. I understand the points of view of people who dislike this film, however giving it such a low rating is insulting to the intelligence of anybody reading the reviews of this movie. Even if you hated this movie, you must still admit that there are plenty of things that would elevate this movie above the lowest possible ratings. I will talk about he good, the fine, and the bad about this movie, however the good alone is enough to keep this movie away from cinematic trash like Avatar The Last Airbender and the likes. Also this movie has definite flaws so a 10/10 or even a 9/10 isn't too warranted either, even if you were overjoyed by the movie. Basically I am saying don't listen to either extreme.
Before I get into my lists of positives and negatives, I would also like to address one specific complaint; the professionals act stupid. I personally am the exact kind of person who watches a movie ant thinks, "oh don't go back to save the cat when the ship is about to explode you idiot" or "the chances of that happening are so low it is funny". Hell, when I watched Arrival for the first time (and this isn't really a spoiler because it is literally the opening scene of the film) I thought "oh yay this woman's daughter died of cancer so now they want us to be emotionally invested in the heroine without putting any effort in." And now Arrival is one of my favorite movies of recent memory but I digress. In Life there are plenty of stupid or unrealistic decisions made by people who should know better, but more often than not you have to be actively seeking that kind of stuff to notice it. Unlike many other horror movies where the poor decisions are so blatantly obvious that it could make you laugh (think Prometheus' running in a straight line to avoid a crashing ship when you could run 50 feet to the left or right and be safe) most of the poor decisions made are less obvious. They are certainly there but if you go into this movie wanting to enjoy a movie most will fly right beneath you. Only if you go into this movie looking to actively dislike it will you find the reasons to do so in the first place. The surface stuff is really no more than your average fine to good horror movie.
Now I'll get into the good, the fine, and the bad.
Good: Plot- While the idea of finding alien life and realizing that it doesn't like humans sparking the events of a horror movie is nothing new, however it was done in a new enough manner so I didn't feel as if I was just watching the same movie I have already seen countless times before. Horror- The horror/suspense is actually pretty good. The movie refrains from easy jump scares (there are probably some in there that I have forgotten, however they were never used as a crutch or to the point of being annoying). Back to my point earlier, the suspense and horror mainly derives from the thought of what will happen to our characters. The actors do a fine job of making them likable and if you don't seek to dislike them, you will have an easy enough time attaching to them and worrying for them. Even if you manage to not like the characters, than there is the whole "what happens if this gets to Earth" thing. Effects- There were plenty of special effects in this movie, and at no point did I actively dislike them. Even the big scenes taking place out in space showing the station were good enough to not break my suspension of disbelief. The design of the alien is commendably unique and the effects are enough to do the design justice. The zero gravity was also done very well. Tone- The movie starts off relatively light heatedly enough, showing you the whole "we just found proof of life outside of Earth" elation you would expect. At some point relatively early in the film, there is a scene where it takes the expected turn towards horror/suspense. This particular scene was quite good and it makes that transition feel quite natural. Past that it was pretty consistent.
Fine: Music Pacing Acting Cinematography
Bad: Sound design- There were odd jumps between music and no music, volume got dialed in or back way too quick, and that sort of stuff. At times you couldn't hear what someone was saying and that was quite jarring. Decisions- Some of the more obvious poor decisions made were actually understandable, like under extreme stress, however there were points when characters just did the dumbest stuff without reason.
All in all I would give this movie a 6.5/10 (but IMDb makes me do whole numbers so I will give this movie the befit of the doubt and raise that to a 7). It is a good movie to watch while you are bored on a rainy Sunday. Just don't go into it with any real expectations of it being good or bad and you will get the most enjoyment possible out of it.