“We were better off alone.”
"A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station whose mission of discovery turns to one of primal fear when they find a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars, and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth."
I had absolutely no intention of seeing
LIFE in theaters.
While a great cast including Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson, it came off as GRAVITY meets ALIEN. Probably even how it got pitched to the studio!
I didn't really seen any need to run out and see it.
But a
Tweet by Eric “Quint” Vespe from AICN made me change my
mind:
Bookmark this tweet: In 5 years you'll be seeing "LIFE is radically underrated" thinkpieces on movie geek sites.
— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) March 27, 2017
And then this reply to
me about whether it was just G meets A:
.@RandyOfAFTimes that's pretty much it, but it has a lively cast, quick pace, fun gore and a hell of an ending.
— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) March 27, 2017
Well, between that and my faith in his
taste being similar to mine, I took a chance and caught a mid-week
show.
And I'm glad I did! (Thanks again, Eric!)
YES, this is GRAVITY meets ALIEN... but the description doesn't give you how it's presented. This is a pretty tight and taught movie. While I look good creepy and scary movies, I am usually out of luck. Not so here; there were two or three genuinely tense sequences here!
One of the things that is classic about
ALIEN is the creature itself. Unlike anything seen prior in movies in
1979, it's influence on creature design in movies, along with Stan
Winston's Hunter from PREDATOR, is immortal. Too much so. More three
and a half decades later, that design remains a touchstone for sci-fi
monsters-and difficult to get away from. The creature here, “Calvin”,
is a really nice design, that doesn't remind me of any previous
creature, as well as not coming off as “evil”. It is an alien
entity, in look and movement. It is creepy, but not malevolent.
Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick do a great job making these smart people trying to deal with a life-or-death situation. No one completely loses it and gets killed or goes over like an avenging angel simply because the writers needed that to happen. They always fall back to the best way to protect themselves, setting up “firewalls” to hold off the creature. I never had any moment of wanting to yell at any of the characters for being foolish. One of the greatest problems with Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS is how stubbornly, aggressively stupid these top-of-their-field scientists act in the face of things. Hell, the truckers from ALIEN made smarter moves than the Weyland team! I'm not sure who was to blame for that, but Damon (COWBOYS & ALIENS, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS) Lindelof sounds like a good place to start. But I digress...
Director Daniel Espinosa brings the GRAVITY aspect, making the complexities of not only making a tight thriller, but also making you believe you are the International Space Station. That's a mix that isn't easy to get right, and he makes it look easy. The action feels naturally and organic to the environment, which is weird for sci-fi tech movie. But the reality is grounded right up front. There are a couple of things I might question and have to look up, but it didn't bring me out of the experience.
LIFE is one of many underrated
movies that Daniel
Espinosa has done. It is a calling card, and I've no doubt some
studio will snatch him for a franchise movie very soon.
Sadly, having been out two weeks now, the movie is under-performing (it came in at #8 this week and has made less than $25 million total) and likely to get lost in the the the lead up for “Pre-Summer” blockbuster season with FATE OF THE FURIOUS in mid April. So if you appreciate good sci-fi/horror, got check out-soon!
Similar to what Eric said, LIFE is
going to be one of those movies that people will find on DVD/Blu,
streaming, or a movie channel and wonder where it came from, how they
wished they saw it in theaters. Well, now's your chance!
NOTE: There is no post-credits scene.
