costmattia

"Life" is a movie directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick about a team of scientists aboard the International Space Station that discover a rapidly evolving life form, that caused extinction on Mars, and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth. Looking at the plot, it seems very similar, if not equal, to Ridley Scott's Alien. It's very much inspired by it and Cuaròn's Gravity, so it's not really an original film. Is it good? Yes. Let me explain, step by step: 1) Directing: the movie starts with an amazing sequence shot in the Space Station, it's impressive and features every character and the ISS, there are a lot of upside-down shots which are beautiful to watch. The overall directing is very well done, it's one of the best things of this movie. 2) Cinematography: the Oscar-nominated Seamus McGarvey directed the photography of the movie and it was well done, with some impressive shots. 3) Acting: while not featuring any Oscar-worthy acting, it's pretty good, especially Jake Gyllenhaal. 4) Atmosphere: since it's very much inspired from Ridley Scott's Alien, people could expect the same kind of atmosphere, but, sadly, this movie doesn't capture the perfect anxious and claustrophobic atmosphere of Alien and you don't really feel tension in all the parts of the movie like in Scott's masterpiece. 5) Horror & Gore: it's not the scariest movie ever, it wasn't particularly scary, actually, it wasn't scary at all for ME (I've heard people being scared by it so this is subjective). It doesn't feature a lot of gore scenes, but there are a couple of violent scenes. Still not the extreme violence of Alien movies. 6) CGI: I found the CGI pretty believable. 7) Alien Form: while it's not an iconic alien creature like Giger's Xenomorph of Scott's Alien, it's interesting. While it's not an original movie, Espinosa's Life is enjoyable by sci-fi/horror fans. Don't expect a masterpiece and you will probably like it.