Flawed, but still entertaining and horrifying

Rating: 7/10 (10 April 2017)

I went in to LIFE with zero expectations and ended up quite enjoying myself.
No, scratch that. "Enjoying" isn't really a term that can be applied to this movie (unless bleak and horrifying downer scenarios are your fetish), so let's say I was "entertained" instead.
It's your standard 'Alien'/'The Thing' scenario - small group of people stuck in an isolated location with an unpleasant lifeform - That's pretty much it. However, 'Life' doesn't come close to creating the atmosphere or tension of either Alien or The Thing. The reason for this is, I think, in the characters who weren't near as empathic or sympathetic as those in the aforementioned masterpieces. The big flaws here lie in some illogical character decisions and some phoned in acting.
Where Life does succeed, though, is in three areas: 1) It gives us a believable and horrific creature, that thanks to its early introduction scene makes you uneasy every time it appears on the screen. The sense of danger was very palpable and well handle. 'Calvin' had me squirming for sure.
2) Wonderful sfx, most notably an impressive single tracking shot that opens the movie.
3) And this is the big one for me - it dared to do something that even Alien and The Thing didn't do - to not have a happy or even ambiguously hopeful ending. For this I give it major props. If you're wondering if Life should be categorized as a sci fi or as a horror, by the time the credits roll, it's firmly, unequivocally horror.
I'd recommend it to all sci fi horror fans - If you liked Event Horizon, Pandorum, The Blob, Europa Report, Infini, Leviathan, deep Star Six, Deep Rising, Titan Find, Splinter, Sunshine etc. then you're probably going to enjoy this. It's not Alien or The Thing, but fortunately it's not Harbinger Down or Supernova either.