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Life review: Dir. Daniel Espinosa (2017)

Life Review: Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal meet their match in this new sci-fi space thriller.

Life review by Kat Hughes, March 2017.

Life Review

Space, the final frontier, the only real place that man has yet to fully explore. Ever since the first man went to the moon, cinema has been obsessed with space exploration with the science fiction genre being one of the post popular to feature it. If we’ve learned one thing from all these movies it’s that space is not safe. Anything we encounter up there will likely try to kill us. Sadly our international squad of astronauts within Life find themselves face-to-face with yet another formidable extraterrestrial organism.

Despite featuring two of Hollywood’s biggest names – Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal – Life has pretty much managed to remain under the radar right up until release. The trailer pointed to the same old tried and tested space routine, and whilst it looked like a solid watch, there wasn’t a massive draw. All that changed last week when a conspiracy theory about the film went viral. The clip highlighted that a crowd shot for the Life trailer was part of Spiderman 3‘s B-roll. Combine that with clip screening in cinemas that points to the organism exhibiting symbiote tendencies, and the announcement that the same studio, Sony, are releasing a Venom film in 2018… everyone was proclaiming Life is actually a secret Venom origin tale. Well we’ll put you out of your misery now – it isn’t a backdoor Venom movie. What it is however, is a slick piece of science-fiction that will have you gripping the edge of you seat.

Life Review

Life borrows elements of AlienGravity and Sunshine, fusing them together to create a claustrophobic, intense tale of survival at all costs. Our crew are made up of all the usual suspects, commander, doctor, science officer, Hiroyuki Sanada, but our superb cast play them all with gusto. Ryan Reynolds essentially plays Ryan Reynolds, his character Roy all wise-cracks and light relief. Jake Gyllenhaal is the sensitive hero; Rebecca Ferguson the slippery safety officer with shifting allegiances, and Hiroyuki Sanada really should stop going into space. Seriously, did he learn nothing aboard the Icarus II? It’s Ariyon Bakare‘s character Hugh though that perhaps has the best arc as the conflicted surrogate father of alien life.

Life Review

The cinematography is stunning, from the opening scene of a container hurtling through space, to an expansive ocean shot in the closing moments. The colour palette is at times visually arresting, with the camera working in tandem to create something very special. The camerawork is impressive, its gyroscopic movement drawing you further onto the station. In many ways it feels as if it, like our crew, is floating around the station, shooting them from all manner of angles, including upside down. It’s a little disorienting at times, but then so is being in space. Life is one of those films that really has to be seen on the big screen to truly experience it in all its splendour.

We’re not going to spoil the organism as this really is a film best viewed with little information. We will say that the writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have written an intriguing foe and they have thought up several despicable ways to cull the crew. Clever writing and inventive direction combine in this compelling take on sci-fi survival. Life has all the ingredients to be the sleeper hit of the year.

Life review by Kat Hughes, March 2017.

Life arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 24th March. 

Kat Hughes is a UK born film critic and interviewer who has a passion for horror films. An editor for THN, Kat is also a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic. She has bylines with Ghouls Magazine, Arrow Video, Film Stories, Certified Forgotten and FILMHOUNDS and has had essays published in home entertainment releases by Vinegar Syndrome and Second Sight. When not writing about horror, Kat hosts micro podcast Movies with Mummy along with her five-year-old daughter.

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