Life Review

Life combines stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and up and comer Rebecca Ferguson in a sci-fi horror reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s — Alien. We have a crew set tasked with studying samples from Mars. Soon they find out that Mars had signs of life and that some things are best left untouched.

Comparing Life as a mixture of Gravity and Alien is fairly accurate. Life’s visuals were gorgeous. It has nearly half the budget of Gravity, yet it looks fairly similar. It’s also pretty terrifying in the sense that Alien was. The design of the creature (Calvin…yes…it’s name is Calvin) is pretty unique as well. Although, I wish they would’ve done more with it.

The acting was well done. It’s almost weird seeing Jake Gyllenhaal in a role that’s so…normal. He’s gone from such obscure roles to a more grounded one. Ryan Reynolds is just…well…Ryan Reynolds. Same sarcastic humor that you see in every one of his films — yet he doesn’t have an all red suit and samurai sword in this one. That’s not to say he’s not entertaining or that’s a bad thing. I could watch Reynolds crack his witty jabs all day long. My only complaint is that they didn’t use Ryan as much as they could’ve. He’s perfect at cutting tension at the most dramatic moments. Jake and Rebecca Ferguson’s development was really well done as they both shared a fairly good sense of chemistry.

Calvin was a vicious alien. Some of its kills were the most gruesome moments I’ve seen in an alien movie. If we’re to compare it to Ridley Scott’s xenomorphs, Calvin may have done a little more damage at times. A xenomorph kill can be quick in a lot scenes (unless you’re a victim of a chest burst). Calvin will literally tear your insides out. It’s incredibly smart, and will apply logic in order to keep tormenting this crew. Rebecca mentions at some point that it’s just trying to survive — but that’s hard to believe when Calvin keeps coming back for them.

The pacing of the movie was alright. At times it seemed a little quick with a lot of poorly made decisions from the crew. I can’t say I would do it any different though. Panic can have you do some irrational things. The most surprising moment came in the ending. They did such a great job in misleading you in what might happen. And the soundtrack that went along with it was terrifyingly eerie.

I doubt they plan to continue this as a series, but they definitely could if they wanted to and I would definitely be down for more. Life was a good tribute to previous horror sci-fi films. I’d give it a 7.9/10