(Movie Review) Life - Humans Never Learn

Life (2017)

Sci-Fi, Horror

Directed By: Daniel Espinosa

It's fine to "rip-off" another movie or movies, it really is. Every film is pulling from something that came before it in some way or another, but if you are going to go so far as to market your film with the clear indication that you are going to do so at least have something new to offer the audience. The newest piece of sci-fi horror from filmmaker Daniel Espinosa Life wears its influences on its sleeve like a badge of honor and then fails to bring us anything more than lesser versions of those very ideas. 

To the film's credit, they waste no time getting into the main plot and what we all care about. It opens on the crew of the Internation Space Station (ISS) as they attempt to intercept a capsule returning from Mars carrying a soil sample that could be life-shattering. Within minutes of the movie, the crew is already examining the sample and discovering the first official proof of life beyond our own. It's a creature composed of cells that are both muscle and nerves, it's all muscle and all brain making it the "perfect organism", sound familiar?

This creature grows at a rapid rate and as you can probably guess, finds a way to escape the quarantine and hunt them throughout the station. It's one perfect organism against the crew but unfortunately for this movie, they never take the time to build the characters or the atmosphere and in turn, it's hard to really care who lives or dies or to ever feel any real suspense. The most character building we get is the information that one of the crewmembers wives has just had a baby, that's about as deep as it gets. 

Life brings one new wrinkle to the story, that they are in a zero gravity environment at all times in the space station. This is a cool visual gag that makes for some clever moments, but it's not enough to elevate this film to anything more. The story moves too fast for its own good so even though they are bringing a fairly cool new creature to the table we never get the time to grow scared of it, they take it from cute to deadly with the flip of a switch and expect us to go along with it. 

Centering a movie around an alien means the look of it is crucial and for the most part, the design works here with its weird tentacles giving it the appearance of swimming through the zero-g. The abilities they form out of its design also work well and make for the tensest moments of the film, but once the best gag is used they bring it back repeatedly making it lose its impact. They rush through the discovery of the organism to get us into the action faster but we need that build up to set us on edge. 

The cast of this movie is too impressive for its own good and with little characterization for any of them they don't have many opportunities to "wow" us. The film was sold on Jake Gyllenhall, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds, and they are all certainly in this film. They are each quite good but when the most you get to build off of your character is that he has been in space for too long there is little they can do to just sell this on their presence alone.  

Despite its many shortcomings, I do believe this is a step in the right direction for studio horror. The film uses the R rating to its advantage and clearly lets the filmmaker do what he wants. There are some seriously cool ideas in here but they never grab one and focus in on it. It felt like the writers, Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (Deadpool), kept coming up with clever ideas and then needing to find ways to bring the story back to its center after executing that idea instead of building it into the next step.

A few years back this may have been one of my favorite new horror films. It moves at a mile a minute and features some great effects work, especially the limited practical stuff they did. With the horror landscape the way it is these days, however, this just feels like an uninspired regurgitation of a handful of ideas we have seen done better in recent memory. If all you are looking for is an action packed alien horror film, Life may be just what you want, but don't expect to be given anything new. For me, let's just say I'm happy the new Alien movie comes out in two months.

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on Twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!

MOVIE REVIEW: Arrival

Arrival (2016)

Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Directed By: Denis Villeneuve

The idea of how to handle the first contact with an alien race has been one of our favorite "what if" scenarios to explore in science fiction for as long as the idea has been around. Popular movies like Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind implanted the idea that if aliens were to ever come here, how we try to interact with them will be the most important hurdle to overcome. You can't get through an "alien invasion" movies these days without some form of this scene taking place, but what if you dedicated an entire movie to the reality of what that first contact would actually look like? Denis Villeneuve digs deep into this idea with his latest film Arrival, a realistic as can be alien invasion movie that explores the difficulties and importance of intelligent communication. 

When twelve mysterious UFO's make landing all over the planet the U.S. government enlists renowned linguist Dr. Louis Banks (Amy Adams) to help them create a dialogue with the mysterious aliens to try and find out why they have come here. With the help of theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner)  and a team of other scientists and linguists, they attempt to open a communication that both species can understand in hopes of discovering why they have come here and what their intentions are. 

The film sells itself as an alien invasion movie, which it is, but mostly on the surface. What it turns into by the end is a message to the world about the importance of clear and open communication and how our natural isolationism and nationalism divide us as a race. The film spits in our face, calling us out for all of the truly idiotic tendencies we have all before wrapping it up with a hopeful message that we can still change for the better. 

It's no secret that one of, if not the biggest dividing factors of our people is language. The inability to communicate with someone is a key factor in the division of the world, and it always has been. This proves itself throughout the film as Dr. Banks and her crew is constantly being stonewalled by countries like China and Russia, who have no desire to share information or hear out others opinions on the matter. As you can imagine, this proves to be one of the most difficult obstacles for them to overcome within the movie. 

Villeneuve keeps this film from being a total bummer, however, by keeping the hope alive whenever it all seems lost. Even when the worst happens they somehow find a way back and by the end of the film he has driven home the message he wants us to receive: listen. He begs us to simply just listen to each other and hear out what we all have to say. The sharing of ideas and culture has always been the fastest route to progression for humanity. 

The story, for the most part, revolves around Amy Adams character Dr. Banks and she has never been better. With the movie hinging on her performance it is important her character feels authentic throughout. The way she reacts to first contact and being on an alien spacecraft had to feel real and she sells it in a profound way. Jeremy Renner's Ian Donnelly more or less plays sidekick to Dr. Banks but proves to be the perfect companion for her on this journey. The two leads are also complimented by great performances from Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlbarg as the military men running the show. 

As with all Vllienueve films, we can't get out of here without talking about the gorgeous cinematography on display here. Bradford Young (Selma) captures the massive scale of the film with limited space, as most of it takes place in an open field in Montana, and with just a handful of locations is able to convey worldwide panic. Story aside this is just a gorgeous film to look at for two hours.

Though the story has its twists and turns to make it a compelling and authentic piece of science fiction you shouldn't get too caught up with that as a viewer. Rather than sitting there trying to crack the big twists enjoy what the filmmaker has to say about humanity and how the ideas he puts forth can be used in our actual lives. Focus on all of that and let the clever plot of the story surprise you in the end. If you can do that, I promise you will leave with a ton of ideas and theories to wrap your brain around that focus on much more than just an alien invasion.  

Though you probably won't leave the theater with a smile plastered on your face, Arrival is more or less the movie we need right now. It manages to scare the living hell out of us while also showing us that there is, and always will be, hope for change. What may be broken now doesn't have to be forever and if we can overcome these simple hurdles than we will be far better off as a people. Science fiction is at its best when it holds a mirror up to ourselves in an unlikely situation, showing us how obvious it is that we need to change, and right now we need to change the way we interact with each other.

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!