Life (2017)

Sad Professor

It seems 2017 will be the battle of the space station movies. This will be going up against God Particle (aka Cloverfield 3), which appears to have a near identical plot.

Anyway it looks terrible, like a Alien/Gravity rehash. The trailer is doing that Shallows thing with the JFK voice-over. They also seem to be deliberately fudging who the real lead is.

Bacchus

Looks good. Nice to see the space isolation / first contact movies going strong again... Life, Arrival, Passengers, God Particle, Alien:Covenant... throw in Interstellar, The Martian and Gravity from the last few years and there's been a good stream of them lately.

Slydice

Superbowl Spot! Pause at 14 seconds! What's that?!? :eek:

Links to the full trailer which doesn't have that thing!

Slydice

More of the Alien!

pixelburp

A 2+ minute clip has been released of this; NSFW due to language. Also contains a scientist being somewhat dumb, but the rest of the scene plays out well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoI0-kOubSU

Bacchus

This looks great...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNn1UNRafs4

It might even out-Alien Alien Covenant.

zmgakt7uw2dvfs

I watched it today. Extremely enjoyable and realistic. Highly recommended.

Pierce_1991

Saw this last night and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It puts you on the edge of your seat early and doesn't really let up.

Mr E

Saw it last night too and really enjoyed it. The space station was authentic - not a shiny futuristic thing, and the characters were three dimensional. Calvin was a genuinely scary creation.

Some reviews criticised the ending but I loved it.

nix

Yeah i enjoyed it also, i actually cant point out anything wrong with the film at all, which is rare these days. Not one scene feels wasted or filler and it all feels very real. As its not set in a time frame decades away.

pixelburp

Not a lot of traffic heading this film's way I take it; shame 'cos it's definitely worth seeing and arguably one of the stronger sci-fi horrors in recent years. Suspenseful and tense that ends with a bit of a surprise. Though your enjoyment may hinge on both your ability to tolerate blatant inspirations/rip-offs, and the varying degrees of foolishness people can display in a crisis. To be glib, it's Gravity-meets-Alien, and not apologetic about it either.

But while it did openly crib from Aliens playbook, it at least understood the foundations of what made that film so memorable. Life's crew were a solid bunch of characters with thumbnail sketch personalities, all of whom getting just the right amount of texture to their personas before the xenomorph hit the fan. Nor do I think any of the decisions necessarily fell under the 'Idiot Ball' trope, instead the professional crew behaved about as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

pumpkin4life

Really surprised with the reviews this has been getting. I really enjoyed it tbh.

It's a rock solid sci fi horror movie. Not a classic or anything, but well above average and one of the better movies of its type (sci-fi horror) to come out in the past couple of years.

Outlaw Pete

Was at the Cineworld special screening a couple of weeks back and really enjoyed it. Almost no cliches deployed which was surprising as I was expecting the usual fare from a film set in space starring a group of young Hollywood types... but no, was really good and engaging.

TerrorFirmer

Great movie, so glad now I went to see it in the cinema. I deliberately set out to know as little about it as possible, which I think helped immensely. Very grounded film, very reminiscint of Gravity in a way. There was one cliche though - Ryan Reynolds, as always, simply plays Ryan Reynolds. Which isn't a bad thing, either! Great ending too.

Einstein

Really enjoyed this...My guess the reason the critics were harsh is that I've seen quite a few compare it with the Alien franchise. Its a pity, even though it appears there's no real plans from the original director for a sequel, I think it could be interesting, albeit turning it into a popcorn 'Murica flick...

Fysh

I am so, so glad that I had gone for a pint before watching this film, because that put me in a slightly better frame of mind to deal with the industrial-strength Idiot Ball that most of what happens after the first act relies upon. The first act is pretty nice, but there are a lot of very silly moments and contrivances after that (

Oh, so that Soyuz capsule they fired up to dock was actually intended to push the station out into space? Well, ok, maybe they could have, I don't know, locked the access hatch on their side or something? No, never mind, that would have involved a security precaution against a hazardous lifeform actually having more than half a second's thought put into it

).

It's not often that I watch a film and

am actually on the side of the antagonist

, but this was one such case. Although I would forgive everything if there were a sequel which

was Duke Nukem: The Movie, because that's what Jake Gyllenhall in Calvin's Nest reminded me of

.

pixelburp

Fysh wrote: »

I am so, so glad that I had gone for a pint before watching this film, because that put me in a slightly better frame of mind to deal with the industrial-strength Idiot Ball that most of what happens after the first act relies upon. The first act is pretty nice, but there are a lot of very silly moments and contrivances after that (

Oh, so that Soyuz capsule they fired up to dock was actually intended to push the station out into space? Well, ok, maybe they could have, I don't know, locked the access hatch on their side or something? No, never mind, that would have involved a security precaution against a hazardous lifeform actually having more than half a second's thought put into it

).

I think horror films of this ilk have a very fine line to walk between professionals behaving dispassionately & actually advancing the story. There's only so many unforeseen accidents that can occur in a script before the complaints then become about coincidence and contrivance. Sometimes the only way to drive something forward is for a stressful situation to make someone break - but I think Life did well in that regard, with peoples' breaking points at least feeling somewhat earned or understandable

I actually thought there was very little of the Idiot Ball myself, especially the above example:

the ISS crew-member had no way of knowing the capsule wasn't coming to rescue them, and given how quickly everything escalated, it's entirely reasonable the Soyuz capsule simply didn't have the time to lock the capsule under the presumption that someone would try to get in. To me that seemed like very understandable human error, those behind the emergency protocols never thinking humans might suddenly act,
well, human.

. For me Idiot Ball usually implies when characters simply stop behaving according to previous behaviour or knowledge, or even defying basic survival instinct. Life never really let people go walking into the woods on their own, so to speak.

Even the progenitor to this very film, Alien, rested on an arguably large amount of Idiot Ball , so it's all relative IMO.

Fysh

pixelburp wrote: »

I think horror films of this ilk have a very fine line to walk between professionals behaving dispassionately & actually advancing the story. There's only so many unforeseen accidents that can occur in a script before the complaints then become about coincidence and contrivance. Sometimes the only way to drive something forward is for a stressful situation to make someone break - but I think Life did well in that regard, with peoples' breaking points at least feeling somewhat earned or understandable

I actually thought there was very little of the Idiot Ball myself, especially the above example:

the ISS crew-member had no way of knowing the capsule wasn't coming to rescue them, and given how quickly everything escalated, it's entirely reasonable the Soyuz capsule simply didn't have the time to lock the capsule under the presumption that someone would try to get in. To me that seemed like very understandable human error, those behind the emergency protocols never thinking humans might suddenly act,
well, human.

. For me Idiot Ball usually implies when characters simply stop behaving according to previous behaviour or knowledge, or even defying basic survival instinct. Life never really let people go walking into the woods on their own, so to speak.

Even the progenitor to this very film, Alien, rested on an arguably large amount of Idiot Ball , so it's all relative IMO.

Different mileages, maybe

Ryan Reynolds' character was the closest to someone whose behaviour made sense in the film (particularly him cautioning Science Dude not to get all chummy with a potentially hostile foreign lifeform), but all of them showed repeatedly that they had failed to grasp that the dangers of missions in space might require them to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the mission, except for the moments when the plot allows them to be competent, rather than cretins. But you're sending a capsule up in order to enforce a firewall and prevent the escape of infected humans or hostile lifeforms, and you don't lock the bloody door? That's just amateur hour, no to ways about it. If it was an improvised last minute idea, maybe - but the script falls over itself to keep telling us how this was all planned ahead of time, so we can only conclude it was either planned by idiots, executed by idiots (or people with no training, in which case see "planned by idiots"), or both.

The Martian is a good example of showing people working under stress, being competent and making mistakes sometimes due to that stress. I have an ecer decreasing tolerance for films like Prometheus or Life which seem to be predicated on the idea that people who work in science or high-risk environments don't get any significant training on how to deal with environmental risks, or how to handle the various failure scenarios, and that therefore they will jump at the first chance they get to do something moronic. "Hmm, over a few weeks this lifeform has increased in mass and size by several orders of magnitude, I'd better just keep feeding it instead of checking whether that should in any way change the security protocols I'm following in the lab." "Hmm, the alien escaped from its first contained environment, I'd best barge into the second contained environment rather than, say, draining the air from that chamber and keeping it there." And so on.

Hank Scorpio

Really enjoyed the movie. It's hard to come across well made space exploration horrors but this ticked the box for me!

fluke

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

Really enjoyed the movie. It's hard to come across well made space exploration horrors but this ticked the box for me!

Think I will check out soon!

marklazarcovic

watched today,fantastic surprise i must say

Mike Litoris

Not bad!

I wanted to walk out after 15 mins due to Ryan Reynolds. The CGI annoyed me too as it normally does with middle of the road efforts. But the film was pretty interesting and moved at a great pace. The final third was excellent and the ending was great!

It felt really short though. Not a bad thing either I suppose.

Frank O. Pinion

I really enjoyed this, but is it an origin story for Venom? From Wikipedia...

In March 2017, it was noted that stock footage of a crowd reacting to Spider-Man catching Gwen Stacy from Spider-Man 3's B-roll was used in Life. This announcement led to theories that Life was secretly an origin story for the symbiote featured in Spider-Man 3, a theory made more popular by the announcement of a Venom film for 2018 the day after the story broke, and that Life's screenwriters, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, had previously written a Venom script. While no references to Venom were ultimately made during Life, the film ended with Calvin, the titular alien "life" of the film, transforming into a black goo-like substance that encases David.

El Duda

Life - 5/10

Fairly entertaining forgettable fluff. I actually laughed out loud a few times at just how much of an Alien rip off this is. It's pretty shameless in its plagiarism from start to finish. Ryan Reynolds felt massively out of place at times.

The creature design was laughably bad. It was just flesh coloured Flubber and the creatures 'logic' was non existent for large chunks of the movie.

Two of the surprise 'reveal' moments were predictable and clumsily executed. The ending in particular was the least shocking twist of the year so far, and I've seen Alien Covenant.

The score was really good though, particularly at the end where it really adds some impact to the finale.
Also, the theory of this linking into Venom is one of the dumbest things ever. If that happens I will never watch another Sony film.

DvB

Watched this over the weekend with the Mrs, both of us really enjoyed it. Easily one of the best sci-Fi/horror films i've seen in a long time.
I actually liked the simplicity of the alien life form rather than the OTT stuff we usually get in these things and despite the ending being well telegraphed it didn't really impact my enjoyment of the film. A solid 8/10 for me. Easily a superior film to Alien Covenant.

Ardennes1944

We watched this Saturday and also enjoyed it. Calvin gave us the creeps, but it was good honest edge of the seat stuff in parts.
I like space oriented films and felt this was a better one than most of late.

Skerries

you should try out Europa Report if you liked this film

TerrorFirmer

Skerries wrote: »

you should try out Europa Report if you liked this film

Another great film, sort of slipped under the radar over this side.

AllForIt

El Duda wrote: »

Life - 5/10

Fairly entertaining forgettable fluff.

Agree with this.

The creature design was laughably bad. It was just flesh coloured Flubber and the creatures 'logic' was non existent for large chunks of the movie.

Don't agree with this.

I though it quite a good concept, as it was a basic kind of organism that didn't have eyes or hands or paws or teeth, just general senses and strength. I liked the idea that all it could do was crush things. It was unclear whether the creature formed to suit it's environment ( from unheard of cells) or whether it was part of a species? I think the former, in which case the creatures form was quite well though out imo.

==================================

So this movie was Alien meets Gravity meets Sunshine meets Europa Report etc..

I thought it started off quite promising.

When the creature formed and began it's first attack and killed Reynolds I was like wow, that was a great scene, and it was. But it just went downhill from there on in and nothing particularly original happened after that.

The acting was rather stiff I though especially from both the female protagonists. Jake wasn't too bad but he didn't have much to go with as the dialogue was a bit one dimensional.

I though the final chapter was highly predictable. Movie storylines can often be predicable when one isn't particularity engrossed in it, which I wasn't from the midway point.

I though the movie might have been a little more believable if perhaps it was set a little more in an advanced future as the goings on on the space station wasn't really credible by today's technological standards.

What this movie does for me is reaffirm what a excellent movies Alien 1 and 2 were, when they were made decades ago.

Overall I thought it rather disappointing given the promising trailers.

StringerBell

I saw this last night, with no expectations whatsoever and have to say I enjoyed it. Pleasantly surprised, Calvin is a terrifying prospect and the scene

where he is exploring a way to get in to the pod that the Japanese guy was genuinely tense which is all too rare in sci-fi these days imo

Of course it doesn't manage to keep up the excellent work done in the opening section of the film, but I would say that it keeps your attention, kept me focused which is another rarity these days as I often find myself distracted during films.

The twist could be spotted a mile off obviously but I liked that ending overall.

Not a fan of the "everything turns out ok no matter what hollywood style"

To me, I see nothing in the film to suggest it is a Venom prequel,
but that is not to say they won't simply decide that it was as the Venom project progresses ala Cloverfield Lane.

Would recommend to anybody looking for a good flick to check out anyway.

Though would probably preface it by saying its Alien Lite

Kirby

AllForIt wrote: »

I though the movie might have been a little more believable if perhaps it was set a little more in an advanced future as the goings on on the space station wasn't really credible by today's technological standards.

There was virtually nothing futuristic or goofy sci-fi esque going on here.Everything seen on screen is based on real life technology we have today. The Soyuz, the cupola, the solar arrays and radiators, the lab, the thrusters, etc.

For example, the bit where they trap the alien in with the asian astronaut guy was refferred to in the movie as the "Zarya" module. Thats a real module in the ISS.

The only thing really different about the real ISS and the movie version was how large it was......and you can explain that away by the fact that its modular. You can simply keep adding to it.

Frankly, from a technology point of view, this was the most realistic sci-fi movie I've seen in years.

Also in an unrelated note, what is it with the sudden explosion of use that the term "Idiot ball" is seeing? I always found it a very niche phrase in the past but I'm seeing it everywhere these days.

Ben Gadot

I couldn't remember this film getting much traction so when I settled down to watch it last night, it was more out of killing time on a Sunday rather out of enthusiasm.

While the film follows a certain generic formula, it was full of intensity and genuine scares. When a story like this, which has been told before, is so well executed and acted you can forgive the more idiotic tropes and cliches.

I wasn't quite convinced of Calvin's intellect and intimate knowledge of the human body even as a clump of cells, but its actions veered on the right side of dark comedy that I could forgive its consistently ridiculous oneupmanship of the crew.

The end was a nice twist but one I had anticipated the moment North's lifeboat got smashed by shrapnel and the two lifeboats became pointedly close to each other in their direction.

Slydice

Gave it a watch. Had low expectations because I thought the original reviews were poor.

Thought it was grand. Thought they went too tidy on the space station. The way the creature developed felt new.

pixelburp

Slydice wrote: »

Gave it a watch. Had low expectations because I thought the original reviews were poor.

Thought it was grand. Thought they went too tidy on the space station. The way the creature developed felt new.

I think in the end it was a better Alien movie than the actual, official Alien film released later that year. It's funny how both films were criticised for having 'stupid' characters, yet Life just seemed to have a more ... studied, understandable foolishness than the "we need things to go wrong" idiocy of Covenant.