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LIFE (2017)
The writers of Zombieland and Deadpool hit another bullseye with 2017's Life, an eye-popping, heart-pounding sci-fi thriller that left a few more things unexplained than I would have liked, but large chunks of this movie scared the bejesus out of me.
The film is about a team of scientists aboard an International Space Station who are researching the possibility of legitimate life form on Mars and manage to bring one such life form on board where it is cultivated and cared for and even named (Calvin), but the life form has the crew confused when it's growth process suddenly comes to a halt and when one of the crew has figured out a way to resume its growth process, he creates an outer space Frankenstein that threatens the lives of the crew as well as the entire planet earth.
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have constructed a story that is steeped in a little more realism than their above referenced work and I think that might be one of the problems with the story. These are writers who are very accustomed to telling stories at such a lightening pace and not allowing the viewer time to think that a story that requires a little thought and a little more than imagination might have been foreign territory for them because there is a lot left unexplained here. I was troubled by the revelation that this life form turned on its saviors and the lack of rhyme or reason in its mission was never clear, but the story just didn't give me time to figure any of that out, I just had to go with it, and experienced some serious "Boos" along the way.
Director Daniel Espinoza reveals a gift for the short term "Boo" as opposed to the Alfred Hitchcock form of suspense building, which for this film was OK, because once this life form starts its destruction, this story isn't really about building suspense, it's about genuinely scaring the audience and on those terms, this one delivers.
Espinoza has employed a solid cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds who serve the story and a first rate production team, with film editing and visual effects a standout...the scene of this life form destroying a lab rat is something that's going to be burned in my memory for quite awhile. If you're not big on logic and into geniune scares that will make you jump out of your seat, have your fill here. If you're a fan of the Alien franchise, you will be in heaven here.
The writers of Zombieland and Deadpool hit another bullseye with 2017's Life, an eye-popping, heart-pounding sci-fi thriller that left a few more things unexplained than I would have liked, but large chunks of this movie scared the bejesus out of me.
The film is about a team of scientists aboard an International Space Station who are researching the possibility of legitimate life form on Mars and manage to bring one such life form on board where it is cultivated and cared for and even named (Calvin), but the life form has the crew confused when it's growth process suddenly comes to a halt and when one of the crew has figured out a way to resume its growth process, he creates an outer space Frankenstein that threatens the lives of the crew as well as the entire planet earth.
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have constructed a story that is steeped in a little more realism than their above referenced work and I think that might be one of the problems with the story. These are writers who are very accustomed to telling stories at such a lightening pace and not allowing the viewer time to think that a story that requires a little thought and a little more than imagination might have been foreign territory for them because there is a lot left unexplained here. I was troubled by the revelation that this life form turned on its saviors and the lack of rhyme or reason in its mission was never clear, but the story just didn't give me time to figure any of that out, I just had to go with it, and experienced some serious "Boos" along the way.
Director Daniel Espinoza reveals a gift for the short term "Boo" as opposed to the Alfred Hitchcock form of suspense building, which for this film was OK, because once this life form starts its destruction, this story isn't really about building suspense, it's about genuinely scaring the audience and on those terms, this one delivers.
Espinoza has employed a solid cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds who serve the story and a first rate production team, with film editing and visual effects a standout...the scene of this life form destroying a lab rat is something that's going to be burned in my memory for quite awhile. If you're not big on logic and into geniune scares that will make you jump out of your seat, have your fill here. If you're a fan of the Alien franchise, you will be in heaven here.