Life (2017) could be considered a re-imagination of Alien. One in which Mankind is far less able to defend himself.
Life (2017) Synopsis
The world is thrilled by the discovery of extra-terrestrial cellular life in a Martian soil sample, which schoolchildren subsequently name Calvin. Onboard the International Space Station, Calvin develops into a multi-cell organism and attacks the crew after escaping containment. The crisis quickly becomes a deadly game of survival as the crew struggles to destroy Calvin before it figures out a way to descend to Earth.
Snappy Review
It’s hard not to be reminded of classic space/sci-fi horror movies when watching Life (2017).
So many key scenes are obviously homages to those 70s and 80s gems. For example, Calvin’s first rampage and the resulting pandemonium, which mirror the dinner scene in Alien.
Or Ariyon Bakare’s defibrillator scene, which would have you clutching your seat if you remember what happened in The Thing.
Even if you’re not a space horror fan, these scenes would most likely still delight and thrill, on top of compensating for Life’s main shortcoming. This shortcoming being the fact that Life (2017) is entirely without surprise.
To put it in another way, the movie is so fluidly presented it becomes easy to ignore the weak story. You enjoy Life simply by disregarding logic and treating it simply as a movie about a nasty alien with ever nastier ways to kill hapless humans.
By the way, when I wrote “no surprises,” I exclude the ending. In my opinion, the ending is hands-down the finest accomplishment of the show. The horror aside, it reiterates the underlying statement of the movie in the most emphatic way. This being the fact that Man is hardly ready for contact with extraterrestrial species, whether mentally or technologically.
When confronted by aggression, us humans attack and hate. In the face of an equally belligerent species, how well is that going to turn out to be? For some viewers, this statement might feel to be overly preachy for an action movie. Let’s just focus on the killing and shooting, shouldn’t we?
But with the realistic premise of the story, some food for thought is offered. We are also encouraged to re-evaluate current space exploration efforts. And to consider just how ready we are for interplanetary discoveries.
Click here to view the trailer.
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