Name of film – Life (2017)
Lizard film – 030
Chosen by – Dreyer
Date – December 2018
Director – Daniel Espinosa
Starring – Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, Olga Dihovichnaya
Duration – 104 mins
Genre – Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Summary –
Life is a terrifying sci-fi thriller about a team of scientists aboard the International Space Station whose mission of discovery turns to one of primal fear when they find a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars, and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth.
MASHITER’S SCORE & REVIEW
ACTING – 9
DIRECTING – 9
SCORE/AUDIO – 8
CINEMATOGRAPHY – 9
ENTERTAINMENT – 8.5
TOTAL – 43.5/50 = 87% ****
Life…ohhh life…oohhh liiiifffe…oh life- as Sade once wailed. I was quite excited when Cat Dreyer picked this, particularly as his last Sci-Fi recommendation, Event Horizon, was an excellent one. The two genres of horror and Sci-Fi don’t often make contact but when they do, they are more often than not bloody well done. The ingredients for a successful horror are all there. Nowhere to escape. Mass loneliness with imminent individual madness or mass psychosis a constant bedfellow…and of course, the alien creatures themselves – some of which are so terrifying they make Jonathan Wood, a prostitute’s worst nightmare, look quite passable. Indeed, Wood’s real life dad – Shram from the Terrahawks, was, some would say, the template for many an Alien make-over. The original and best franchise in this hybrid of genres was undoubtably the ‘Aliens’ series of films: haunted house movies in space – tense, claustrophobic and a hell of a lot of fun. So where did ‘Life’ rank with these classics?
For me, Sci-Fi films, particularly those set only in space, have to be incredibly well made. Deep space is the basic scenery and it ain’t going to change much through any film. And the spaceship interior and space suits are always white-a dull contrast to the blackness outside. Why can’t we have just a hint of magnolia or duck-egg blue for a change? Questions on a postcard to NASA. But ‘Life’ passed this test with flying colours, if you’ll pardon the pun. The shots of Earth early in the film are incredible. Images of blood collecting in zero gravity as it was regurgitated by the dying crew were stunning. But it was the bleakness of the setting that allowed the acting to come to the fore and the picture was made hugely believable by some great performances.
The CGI team behind this film ensured that one of the best performances came from the alien life form itself. An organism collected from the surface of Mars which arrived in sample form on a space capsule that had lost its course and had to be caught as it orbited the Earth by one of the astronauts. With what came later, the only man on earth relieved at this scene was Loris Karius as he slid down the ‘Worst catch of the year’ poll after his Champions League antics last May. The creature itself was based on the ‘Alien’ film’s squid like monster but, as you would expect over 30 years later, rather more complex and indestructible than its cousin. It could survive a range of different temperatures and only had one aim – to destroy other forms of life on board – bad news for the crew. Bloody hell – it could even use tools, making it ten times more useful that Jabba was around the student house; although the alien had some catching up to do in the lifesucking department… Any creature in a film has to have its own unique selling point. It’s rate of growth, intelligence and indestructibility made this one a serious customer; as the crew said with dismay, it could have been ruling Mars for hundreds of millions of years.
Predictably, the crew start to die one by one. Again, each death in a film of this nature has to be original and something beyond what your average popcorn muncher has seen before. And again, “Life” did not disappoint.
I liked the musical backdrop; jarring, grating sounds that suited the film matter perfectly but only played a sideshow part; never overwhelming other elements of the film but picking up as the tension increased.
Things pick up at pace half-way through as a deadly game of cat and mouse ensued. With the crew dispersed from one another and the alien creature’s whereabouts unknown, all hell breaks loose resulting in the spaceship disintegrating and two crew members and the alien creature hurtling towards earth’s atmosphere. It becomes apparent that the humans won’t survive entry but ‘Calvin the alien’ will. Time for a plan so cunning you could brush your teeth with it. I won’t spoil it by divulging this plan or it’s subsequent consequences…What I will divulge is that the ending is absolutely brilliant.
I loved this film. The pace was excellent and the feature was just the right length; packing in lots of excitement with surprises thrown in along the way. The cliffhanger ending was, as mentioned, a superb finale to a praiseworthy film and I can’t wait to see what Lizard Jones thought about it. Well done Dr Dre – an inspired choice. Rob J – I think you will love it and urge you to give it a go… and Rob Dreyer, I urge you to watch it too!!!
JONES’ SCORE & REVIEW
ACTING – 7.5
DIRECTING – 9
SCORE/AUDIO – 8.5
CINEMATOGRAPHY – 10
ENTERTAINMENT – 8
TOTAL – 43/50 = 86% ****
Time to get a hard on as my three and a half grand 65 inch TV was about to really kick some ass. LG OLED TVs pride themselves on displaying pure black. I don’t refer to highlights of Yorke and Cole’s 99 season, but the colour black itself, and in this case, the wonderful images of space. I bought “Gravity” in 3D three years back to really test how good my telly is, but as we all know, life passes us by and it’s still wrapped up and on the shelf, still untouched. So as I sat there on the settee, Eric the 10 week old soundly asleep, it was showtime… LIFE!!!
First of all, the sci-fi genre was a welcomed choice from Lizardman Dreyer. A category left by the lizards until now and I think we’ve all had enough of the spy thrillers for a while. So less thinking, more action. As it was my first movie to be watched in months, I was content anyway, even if my strict diet regime meant no popcorn or late night snacks this time round.
As we follow the impressive camera skills through the tight setting on the ISS, it was a tense start from the off. I loved the double reflection of David’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) worried face. I just hoped it was not going to go all Hollywood on me as already it was dicking on the likes of “Arrival”, “The Martian” and “Gravity” (even though still untouched on my DVD shelf, I watched on an IMAX screen on its release).
“Your worry lines are showing.
Yeah, well I get paid by the line.”
Naturally, I was thinking of the classic 1979 film, “Alien” and the five that followed it, when comparing what I was witnessing in “Life”. There were moments of “The Thing” and “The Abyss” too, but the creature in this movie had more dimensions and was more menacing. Yes, it may have started out as scary as a marigold rubber glove which developed into a floating condom terrorising the crew, but by the time it had fully materalised, it was more octopus like and definitely not your typical looking alien used in dozens of throw away flicks in the same genre.
“Hello Calvin.”
On board we have a black Brit, a posh English chick, a serious Jap, a Russian and a few yanks. There might have been more colours than Benetton, but they all had one thing in common – they were nerds!!! Therefore, it felt like a family that gelled together and the casting bizarrely worked. Gyllenhaal was as solid as ever. Has this man ever performed badly? This was his second lizardman film appearance (previously seen in “Prisoners”). Sadly, Ryan Reynolds was a little grating with his typical American characteristics – macho, chiseled good looks and about as funny as Jimmy Carr, the annoying cunt!
Then we have the black dude (Ariyon Bakare) who was getting more attached to “Calvin” as much as Chambers did with any all female house in Ambleside. (Did he ever get in Jill Whalley’s pants? That’s one to discuss another day!)
Rebecca Ferguson’s performance was bang on… (hang back)… bang on mediocre – not a memorable performance. The Russian was actually played by a Russian actress but I was convinced it was an American putting on an accent. Although pleasing on the eye, she got on my tits a little too – slightly wooden. As for the Jap, well compared to Miyavi’s performance in “Unbroken”, it was an Oscar winning performance, but that doesn’t mean Hiroyuki Sanada’s acting was any good – it just reflects how shocking I thought the previously mentioned actor was in Jolie’s war film.
However, even though the acting wasn’t the best we’ve seen, it didn’t have to be and the fact they didn’t act over the top, made this film work better. Yes, at times, I felt the characters were a little too chilled out, even if they were suppose to be trained to act calm and deal with unpredictable scenarios. They were humans afterall so emotions always should come into play and when you’ve got a blood sucking alien floating around you, I think they’d be touching cloth for sure. I would have liked to see this reflected more in the acting. I didn’t feel emotionally attached to any of them.
It was all about “Calvin” – it was the best thing on display. As it was taking over, enduring a mouse quicker than Foster could hand in an essay, who would be the next victim? The bookies had the black guy to go first, and as we all know by now, black men can’t hunt and now discovered, survive a mission in space either. The bookies were right!
Not even trigger happy Rory (Reynolds) with his flame thrower, could do shit to stop “Calvin” and before you knew it, he’s swollen the floating sheath. Whilst it consumed him and blood floats everywhere, I was pondering whether there’s been an on-screen death as beautifully gruesome than this? Now the blood splattered capsule looked more like a scene from “Dexter”. It was a quality moment, a highlight of the film, and the bonus was we had seen the back of Reynolds. In fact, as soon as a character slightly grated on me, they were killed off. Maybe I was controlling “Calvin”?
“Are you sure we’ve lost all communications with Earth?
I’m sure”
The directing from Espinosa was top drawer. He controlled the pace of the film perfectly. It was incredibly fast with three dead before the clock even hit the hour mark. He had pieced everything together nicely to create an impressive modern day classic. Pity about the title. I understand why it was penned “Life” but it was a shit name. For marketing reasons, you have to think outside the box and don’t name your movie the same title as a David Attenborough nature series. What has Espinosa got up his sleeve for next time? Planet Earth? So that would be my only negative in this category, presuming the director had a say in the title of the flick? The camera skills, even if CGI, got a big thumbs up from me, which moves me nicely on to the setting…
“Are you sure we’ve lost all communications with Earth?
I’m sure”
It’s hard to explain why and how I can give a film set in space, full marks for cinematography, afterall, it’s very limited to what you can offer the audience. I think my LG was really coming into its own now as the TV was showboating the black, just like Man City’s Raheem Sterling. It was visually stunning (unlike Man City’s Raheem Sterling). The audience felt trapped on board with the unlucky members and this was down to clever directing but realistic cramped conditions used which for me, made the setting perfect to create the tense feeling throughout most of the film.
“These creatures could have dominated Mars for hundreds of millions of years. But now we know that they hibernate with a loss of atmosphere.”
As the crew had more trouble with firewalls than Dreyer’s PC whilst trying to access porn, would their firewalls be more successful than Robert getting into chickswithdicks.com? It got a little mushy and sentimental for me with 20 minutes to go and I was ready for a conclusion. I sadly wasn’t as committed like the first hour as Ferguson and Glyllenhaal shivered their tits off more than we did in the Winter months at Vicky Wine when none of us had a bean for the electricity meter. Thankfully the two characters came up with a plan.
“I know what I feel is not scientific. It’s not rational. I feel hate. I feel pure fucking hate for that thing.”
David’s final scenes were incredible. They were fantastically made as “Calvin” tortured him as he plummeted through the atmosphere. At least he was still alive when he hit the water. As he pleaded with the earthlings from Asia, “no, no, no!” as he knew the consequences of the capsule being opened, what David probably didn’t realise, the locals had no intention of rescuing him, they just looked at the alien and thought, “Mmmmm, lunch!” – Scruffy twats!
With an impressive but subtle soundtrack to run along the film, “Life” should be regarded as a modern day classic sci-fi. However, for one reason or another, it never got the recognition it deserved. This was probably down to the title as previously mentioned. Maybe “Calvin Slime” would have worked better. I only care about what we three lizards think anyway but I have recommended this movie to a few people since. Well done Mr Dreyer on a fine selection and it would take a brave lizard to select another sci-fi soon to compete with this one. Mars Attack anyone? Anyone? Didn’t think so 🙂
ACTING 82.5%
DIRECTING 90%
SCORE/AUDIO 82.5%
CINEMATOGRAPHY 95%
ENTERTAINMENT 82.5%
TOTAL SCORE 86.5%
(MM – 87% RJ – 86%)
**** LIZARDMAN RATING OF 4 STARS ****
Lizardman Film Club 