Life

I'm seeing a few negative reviews for this one that I don't understand. Life isn't a cinematic masterpiece exactly, but it's thrilling enough to hold your attention for one hundred minutes.

The story is simple: something horrible gets on a space ship and wants to waste the crew. We don't know much about it or how it thinks except that it's extremely hostile and needs oxygen. After the very well-paced and beautifully-executed set-up the remainder of the film consists of the humans trying to outwit and destroy this thing.

And that's it. It doesn't get boring. It does the job. It has a couple of pointless moments we don't really need amidst the exciting chaos, and then it rumbles to a slightly weak finish.

You don't except a mind-shattering gourmet meal when you order a cheeseburger and shouldn't get bent out of shape when this isn't Alien or 2001. It's a very solid film. Switch brain off and give a go if you like space stuff.

No much else to say.

"Life" is one of those type of movies that snuck under my radar. I hadn't even heard about it prior to it being released. And I got the chance to watch it by sheer luck. So of course I did so, because I do love watching movies. And with the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds on the cast list, what's not to like?

First of all, I must state that the story presented in "Life" was actually surprisingly good and interesting. It is the type of movie that creeps under your skin and sticks with you, leaving you wanting to see more.

A Sci-Fi movie is bound to have great CGI, especially if it is a movie that is reliant on proper effects, which was the case of "Life". So luckily they had a great budget for the CGI and special effects, and it bore fruit. The CGI was amazing in the movie and it all looked so life-like and realistic, all which definitely contributed to the overall enjoyment and outcome of the movie. Which leads me on to the creature design. Wow. Just wow! I don't know how to explain or detail this, because it is something that has to be seen and experienced with your own two eyes.

"Life" is a very intense movie experience.

Of course they had a rather impressive cast ensemble to perform in the movie. With the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, you know it is going to be good.

This is the type of Sci-Fi movie that combines horror in a nice way, and it is definitely a movie that is well worth investing time and money in, if you haven't already seen it.

I wasn't expecting much from this movie because of the reviews that I've read. But it turned out pretty good. Not a great movie but it's pretty interesting. Some of the intense parts actually had me at the edge of my seat.

I was highly annoyed by the unprofessional and error-prone behaviour of the movie characters. Throughout the movie, you will ask yourself: How can he be so stupid? Why is she not doing the obvious? Why are the astronauts emphasising proper procedures, then five seconds later breaking their own rules? How come a former soldier is breaking the chain of command? There is nothing realistic about the behaviour of these characters. In the end, I just hated them. I do not believe that there is a demographic that likes movies like this. Either the script was written by an incompetent author, or the directors are ignorant of what makes a good movie.

I enjoyed this movie. It has some great jumpy moments at the beginning to pull you into this movie's orbital trajectory.

But to enjoy this movie you do have to suspend your essential disbelief that America and a consortium of other product placement regions, sorry I mean Russia, China and Japan, could spend "well over $200bn" putting a science station in orbit and then man it (or should that be "woman it") with half of a dozen of their most stupid scientists (convincingly played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Rebecca Ferguson). ;-)

If you can do that, you'll love it and even find some of it funny.

And if you've never seen Alien (1979) or Gravity (2013) before you might even find the plot line highly original too. ;-)