Movie 29 - Life (2017), Dir. Daniel Espinosa.
The movie follows six astronauts, David (Jake Gyllenhaal), Miranda (Rebecca Ferguson), Kat (Olga Dihovichnaya), Hugh (Ariyon Bakare), Sho (Hiroyuki Sanada), and Rory (Ryan Reynolds), who are on the ISS and discover a new life form from Mars.
I thought the movie would be a casual sci-fi movie where they run into some technical issues on the space station, like Gravity (2013), or a meteor is headed to Earth and will destroy all life and the space station has to stop it. Even when the miniature version of the alien was shown, I thought it would be a peaceful event for them to do some science stuff and discover new things.
What I did not expect is for this to turn into a full Alien (1979). Holy smokes, it became an absolute horror movie after the alien (named Calvin) absolutely murdered Rory in the most gory way. The blood floating in zero gravity and coming out from everywhere was a shock. From here, the whole movie became a proper horror movie. The death of Kat was also quite horrifying. She drowned in her space suit outside the space station, so her body floats in space forever.
The story is quite exciting and engaging. Since there is a threat for most of the runtime and a hostile alien running around, the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Plot-wise, there is nothing that seems weird.
The acting by the entire cast is excellent, and the writing is on point. The dialogues makes sense and doesn't feel out of pocket.
The fact that Calvin killed four astronauts and is with another one means the Xenomorph has some competition LOL.
Calvin's design is quite unique, and he becomes even scarier every time he becomes bigger. The choice for him to have a face is quite genius and makes him even more terrifying.
The ending, where David and Miranda decide to take two escape pods and one of them will have Calvin. That pod will be launched into deep space, while the other will return to Earth and report honestly, looked like a good and sad ending. David had been in space for over a year and started missing Earth, and now, to have to spend the rest of his life floating in space with an alien is just sad. But the twist that David reached Earth with Calvin, and Miranda is now floating in space forever, was absolutely bonkers.
I saw from reviews online that typical horror movies have the humans winning, but this one flipped the script, making it a much better movie.
As far as the crew's choices go, in high-tense situations, anyone can crack. No amount of training can prepare you for the unknown. This is why I believe they did anything they could and did not hold back.
One thing that bugged me is that there is no indication that Calvin has a heat signature or is a hot-blooded animal, so the thruster scene where they are looking for a temperature change wouldn't work. But staring at the meters and seeing which will change next was still thrilling. Which is why i'll let this slide.
Overall, the movie is an excellent horror sci-fi movie that, once you accept it's similar to Alien (1979), you can watch it without comparing it and enjoy or be frightened by it. It's a must-watch for all the sci-fi and horror fans in the world. 10/10
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My next and final review of the challenge is going to be Leaving Las Vegas (1995).
Check this out on Medium.
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