NEW BLOOD: LIFE (SPOILER FREE REVIEW)

LIFE
Sony/Columbia
2017 Color
103 Mins. Sci-Fi/Horror
Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson and Jake Gyenhaal star.
Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Directed by Daniel Espinosa
Rated R for language, violence and gore.

Oh Life what a strange beast you are. Modeled after the space horror flicks like Alien and it's 100 ripoffs with some Gravity thrown in for good measure. Life is a slightly confused genre hybrid. The film centers on a space crew that uncovers a living organism taken from a sample from Mars. It of course begins to grow becomes aggressive and will do anything to survive. 

We've seen this movie before many, many times. There's not a lot of new here besides some cool effects and a top notch cast of which I'm unsure about why they signed up. The movie isn't bad but it's execution is puzzling. Nearly every frame of Life presents itself as a PG-13 movie. It's very much on the tame side side stepping any real graphic violence or gore with a bunch of F bombs thrown around in the background. I'm pretty sure the film wasn't gaining the traction they wanted to so they added some stuff in and hoped the more hardcore audience to show up. Which is just a little disappointing because every time you think a scene will allude to a Carpenter's Thing or even an Event Horizon payoff it doesn't leaving us to wonder whether it was stripped and toned down as not to offend anyone. The film isn't smart or clever but it does manage to be adequately entertaining with some tense moments sprinkled throughout.

 The only thing that really separates it from the flock it's imitating and the straight to dvd route is a massive size budget at $58,000,000 which is used splendidly. The film looks gorgeously. Space hasn't looked this good since Gravity. And the A list cast who all give solid performances to underdeveloped parts especially Gyllenhaal and Ferguson who I will have my eye on from now on. Reynolds is hunky and funny as you would expect. The creature design is cool but leaves much to be desired and the rationality of the characters is unintentionally funny at times. I mean their definition of quarantine is just pathetic. Now I'm not gonna get into any spoilers because the film would benefit from being seen with a fresh eye. And it's mostly worth seeing. True it's not very original or smart but it has enough fun stuff throughout some of which had be squeezing my boyfriends hand. In the end it's all very perplexing as to why this movie was even made. Maybe there was a darker screenplay they started with or maybe the rumor about it being a "venom" prequel (yes the character from Marvel) was originally true before it was flushed out. Either way it's worth a watch for us starving horror fans even if it's copying far better films without the same result. ***.5/5