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Reviews for Life (2017) starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds

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A

AmaterasuOni

Banned
Saw it yesterday. It wasn't good, it's mediocre at best. It's a b-movie made with some a-list actors and not-so-good director
with an awesome ending.

Dialogue was horrible, and the plot was full of boring cliches. Life was supposed to be one of the highlights of the year. Bleh!

Why didn't Espinosa use the space station as threat? It's a claustrophobic place and he didn't use it. Espinosa should watch Alien and Carpenter's The Thing to see how these small space horror movies are made. Horrible execution. You could just feel the green screen all the time. It wasn't natural at all.

2/5
 
andythinkpad

andythinkpad

Member
AmaterasuOni said:
Saw it yesterday. It wasn't good, it's mediocre at best. It's a b-movie made with some a-list actors and not-so-good director
with an awesome ending.

Dialogue was horrible, and the plot was full of boring cliches. Life was supposed to be one of the highlights of the year. Bleh!

Why didn't Espinosa use the space station as threat? It's a claustrophobic place and he didn't use it. Espinosa should watch Alien and Carpenter's The Thing to see how these small space horror movies are made. Horrible execution. You could just feel the green screen all the time. It wasn't natural at all.

2/5
Click to expand...

Sound like an overbudgeted Sony movie alright.
 
T

toastyToast

Member
Fairly uninspired outside of a pretty cool looking alien design. There's little if any tension on the space station despite the setting. I was rooting for the alien since it demonstrated probably the most personality out of anyone. The headlines were cardboard cut outs of previous roles. Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds circa Blade Trinity and Jake Gyllenhaal almost like Donnie Darko with a job. I can't recall any memorable lines from the movie and I only watched it a few hours ago.

It's not bad by any means but it adds little to nothing to the genre.
 
D

Dram

Member
Its dumb of me to ask, but does Life tie into the upcoming
Venom
movie in anyway, like some were speculating?
 
T

TokiDoki

Member
Just watched it and think it's quite decent?
Imo the creature was more menacing and threatening during the 1st half of the movie, when it's small and had just a few veins.
 
C

Carcetti

Member
Kinda decent is the word. I enjoyed other, cheaper Thing knockoffs on Netflix a lot more, like Harbinger Down and Blood Glacier.

Life thinks it's a better movie than those but it's not.

It's kinda funny that I noticed other people saying that they too started to root for the creature since it's the smartest organism on the station.
 
J

jack_package_200

Banned
One of my friends saw an early screening and said its basically a hybrid of Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Gravity.

She said its fun but very derivative.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
jack_package_200 said:
One of my friends saw an early screening and said its basically a hybrid of Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Gravity.

She said its fun but very derivative.
Click to expand...
Personally I don't think something being derivative or not doing something new is a bad thing. Although I'd argue combining Gravity's more realistic portrayal of space with alien creature thriller seems way more fresh than most killer alien movies
 
K

kiguel182

Member
Just watched and I enjoyed it. Yeah it's pretty derivative but I think te execution is solid. The monster design was pretty great and I felt tension at several parts of the movie. It worked on me.

It's not a classic but it's an enjoyable movie if you like the genre. I feel the climax was the worst part of it, it didn't deliver there for me and the ending was predictable.
 
T

T.O.P

Banned
Was debating with a bunch of friends between this and Ghost in the shell for this friday

Reading around and i guess Gots it it :/
 
N

Nepenthe

Member
This movie felt like an edgy teenager saw Alien and was like, "That's lame. I can do much better," and it went exactly as expected.

Calvin wore out its presence and stopped being all that scary, the cast has little chemistry, one of the intended setups for tension involving the captain is irrelevant, dialogue is mediocre, and the somewhat likeable characters go first and thus leave no choice but to put in a cliche' ending to stave off that feeling of being dragged along by two bores (had it ended more plainly, I would've been pissed.)

Only things I can say were stand-out were Calvin's debut scene as a monster and the gross-out scene. Other than that, you might as well just watch the original Alien again.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Oh snap. I wasn't expecting much from this movie but if its a good horror movie I know what I'm doing this weekend.
 
T

TheFlow

Banned
Discotheque said:
haha forreal. bubble boy and prince of persia exist.

the idea of a straight up alien remake with a shittier director and aesthetic doesn't sound exciting tbh, but it seems like a flick i'll check out on netflix thanks to reynolds/gylenhaal/ferguson.
Click to expand...
Haha I watched those two as well
 
R

RBelong2Us

Member
*Sorta Spoiler*

The first death is so stupid considering how useless the person that did not die was. Movie went to pretty pointless at that point . Waste of talented actors in my book.
 
H

Hydrogen Bluebird

Member
Yo, this movie man.

Might be the dumbest NASA astronaut crew in recent movie history lol.

But yeah, it's enjoyable. Not terrible in any way. Crazy how
Ryan Reynolds died first. Thought dude would be one of the last remaining survivors.

Also, how did
Jake Gylenhall's pod get to earth? I thought only the girl's pod got hit so Jake G's pod should have throttled off to deep space right?
 
K

kurahador

Member
It's Alien for babies. Prometheus was 3 times better than this movie.

Good: the alien attack were gruesome I love it, all the casts are solid, the ending did something interesting.

Bad: some continuous shot goes on too long while remaining uninteresting, too many instances of "inside" views when interesting stuff were happening outside, not enough alien attack, some inconsistencies and bad editing towards the end.

Hydrogen Bluebird said:
Also, how did
Jake Gylenhall's pod get to earth? I thought only the girl's pod got hit so Jake G's pod should have throttled off to deep space right?
Click to expand...

I'm think it was due to the alien wrangling his hands away from the control
.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
Crosspost from the trailer thread:

It was OK. Pretty derivative, and all of the character development was perfunctory. The eye of the storm moments felt super indulgent, especially the Goodnight Moon part near the end. Did that ever drag. Just show me more of the monster already! If the characters had been established properly, I wouldn't have felt so listless during that scene, I'm sure. I don't mind that kind of thing when it's earned.

Anyway, the alien was entertaining, and I liked the ending a lot. A fairly diverting matinee.
 
A

Arex

Member
just went back from my screening,

Some questionable actions by the astronauts. Why can't we get competent astronauts for once :(
Also I feel the ending makes it your typical horror movie instead of something different. meh

Spoilers discussion allowed here right?
Ryan Reynolds dieing first definitely is a surprise though, and the way he died! should've gone out when Calvin was in the corner there, would've kept him small and quarantined instead of growing big after feasting on him,

Katerina could've just hold Calvin and jumped out of the ISS once she decided that she won't make it back. Although the alien could survive reentry I suppose.

What's with the cut off communication though? was that caused by the alien or just for plot?

Anyway Gravity is more thrilling watch for me XD
 
B

Blue Lou

Member
I liked how the
man with no feeling in his legs had Calvin feed on his legs and not feel it.
It was an interesting development.
 
B

basefree

Member
Just saw this. I actually thought it was a pretty entertaining ride. As others have already said however, it's extremely derivative, predictable, and the characters are stupid yes - but you absolutely shouldn't expect anything more from a genre like this. As long as you are a fan of these sorts of movies, go ahead and watch it.
 
N

Nepenthe

Member
basefree said:
Just saw this. I actually thought it was a pretty entertaining ride. As others have already said however, it's extremely derivative, predictable, and the characters are stupid yes - but you absolutely shouldn't expect anything more from a genre like this. As long as you are a fan of these sorts of movies, go ahead and watch it.
Click to expand...

I mean, we've done this genre much better back in the 70s with shittier tech and standards. Even Prometheus was better than this. I feel like I got little to nothing out of the film, even with the ending:
After Sho died, I checked out because the last two characters weren't compelling or even remotely empathetic to bother rooting for. Jake was a typical misanthrope and the lady existed. I honestly hoped they got killed off because I would've been pissed had the lady got to live, and once the pods switch I couldn't even maintain my satisfaction because neither character was particularly annoying enough to indulge in the Schadenfreude. It was a long a stretch of boredom.
 
B

Brakke

Banned
Thought it was basically bad but had enough good ideas to get me through it. The monster was super dope until they started doing monster-vision camera shots, and then they had to go and fuck the whole thing up giving it a face. Really squandered the thing about the concept that was cool.

Bringing the monster to earth was a fine idea but I wish they did something with it. Movie really needed a Ten Cloverfield-style different genre epilogue. Like just glory in it smashing through a city or something. As it is, we're safe from it. Thing ain't got no bones, just gunna be a beached jellyfish in gravity.

Really was pretty remarkable how they made a movie that straight up isn't about anything at all. Like the moral of the story is simply "don't disobey your quarantine officer". I'll... be sure to remember that next time I'm on a space mission with a quarantine officer.

Arex said:
What's with the cut off communication though? was that caused by the alien or just for plot?
Click to expand...

The alien ate (?) the coolant in the comms system? Or something?
 
N

Nepenthe

Member
Brakke said:
Really was pretty remarkable how they made a movie that straight up isn't about anything at all. Like the moral of the story is simply "don't disobey your quarantine officer". I'll... be sure to remember that next time I'm on a space mission with a quarantine officer.
Click to expand...

I agree. The thematic emptiness was probably the thing undermining the relatively average sum for me. The characters don't have enough elaboration for their attempts at survival and subsequent deaths to mean anything about the human condition. Like, maybe they could've wrangled something out of Reynold's character- the apathetic blue collar dude who was willing to broke protocol and give his life for a colleague- or maybe they could've explored Hugh's ruminations about life and disability and all of that.

The best I've seen someone put the meaning of the film is that "life is about survival which requires destruction" which, I mean, yeah, true, in the broadest, most nihilistic sense. But ultimately this places the story's heart squarely upon Calvin the amorphous octopus starfish thing. It's a pretty cold-ass and ultimately unfulfilling theme, especially when it's undermined by characters that you don't really give a damn about.

Well, at the very least, I can say I like bits of the soundtrack.
 
B

Brakke

Banned
Nepenthe said:
I agree. The thematic emptiness was probably the thing undermining the relatively average sum for me. The characters don't have enough elaboration for their attempts at survival and subsequent deaths to mean anything about the human condition. Like, maybe they could've wrangled something out of Reynold's character- the apathetic blue collar dude who was willing to broke protocol and give his life for a colleague- or maybe they could've explored Hugh's ruminations about life and disability and all of that.

The best I've seen someone put the meaning of the film is that "life is about survival which requires destruction" which, I mean, yeah, true, in the broadest, most nihilistic sense. But ultimately this places the story's heart squarely upon Calvin the amorphous octopus starfish thing. It's a pretty cold-ass and ultimately unfulfilling theme, especially when it's undermined by characters that you don't really give a damn about.
Click to expand...

Totally. They even set a bunch of pieces on the table, but then instead of playing with them they just kinda walked away and got distracted. Like we could've had a conflict between the new father raging at the rest of the loners for tryna make a noble sacrifice but... we don't. We could've had some class resentment between plumber-ass Reynolds and some silver spoon science people but... we don't. There's no interpersonal drama among the crew AT ALL. Nobody functions on any level at all except as scared prey scampering away from the monster.
 
C

Crispy

Member
I saw this yesterday and while I can see why critics wouldn't like it, I enjoyed it very much! The deaths hit hard and there was a brisk pace throughout most of the movie. I also liked the alien design, especially its form in the beginning. Recommended if you like the genre.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Brakke said:
Totally. They even set a bunch of pieces on the table, but then instead of playing with them they just kinda walked away and got distracted. Like we could've had a conflict between the new father raging at the rest of the loners for tryna make a noble sacrifice but... we don't. We could've had some class resentment between plumber-ass Reynolds and some silver spoon science people but... we don't. There's no interpersonal drama among the crew AT ALL. Nobody functions on any level at all except as scared prey scampering away from the monster.
Click to expand...
It's a shame that none of the chemistry that Ryan and Jake have off-screen made it into the movie at all
 
P

pringles

Member
I thought it was pretty good. Sure it was derivative but it was well executed and I thought it still managed to avoid a lot of common tropes and remain suspenseful until the end.
I'm also a little surprised at people saying the crew was stupid, as I thought one of the better things was that the crew seemed competent and several times made the right decisions, made the whole scenario more frightening.

All in all a solid 3/5.
 
F

Fliesen

Member
Just came back from seeing the movie.

It was a decently made space horror thriller.

A few minor - nay, i'd say major(!) nitpicks:

1. Their 'containment' / 'quarantine' system is utter shit. They open doors when quarantine was broken. (Ryan Reynolds) ... Their lab has AIR VENTS connected to the rest of the ship with no filters or anything covering them ...

2. "Calvin needs oxygen to live. If we cut off life support it will go into hibernation" - uhm, did we watch 2 different movies for the last 15 minutes? Where Calvin survived easily in OUTER SPACE?

3. Calvin is super smart (almost sadistically so) when the film requires him to be, yet animalistic and instinct driven at times. Like, why doesn't he just snap Jordan's neck first and hug that oxygen torch later? Why is he so easily baited?

4. Why can an airlock from the outside in not be opened without both people turning some weird dial at the same time? Meanwhile, why can the soyus capsule - that is being sent there to PUSH the space station out of orbit - be opened by Sho, even if it's with a manual crank.

5. When did they decide to use the black scientist as some kind of "bait"? Why did they think this would work?

... overall ... Firewalls, my ass.

Sure, some of these are nitpicks, but these inconsistencies within the film's logic just hurt my enjoyment of the film quite a bit.

Also,
I saw that ending twist coming from a mile away
:/
 
M

More_Badass

Member
2 at least, could be explained by the movie logic/explanation that
it could hold oxygen inside its body to survive in a vacuum for a time.
 
F

Fliesen

Member
More_Badass said:
2 at least, could be explained by the movie logic/explanation that
it could hold oxygen inside its body to survive in a vacuum for a time.
Click to expand...

sure, i guess we could "explain" anything. But why set up 2 such dramatically different plot points.

Again, it's the inconsistency.

Just like the fact that it's completely irresponsible that they decided North should take one of the rescue pods towards Earth? She could've been infected by Calvin - she had an open wound ... It's inconsistent with her being all gung-ho "we all signed the Firewall #3 agreement. The prime directive is to not have the lifeform get to earth" earlier.
 
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