Life's reviews
Media reviews
Entertainment Weekly
Espinosa stages some clever scares and creative kills while the crew make one bone-headed decision after another in their bid to survive (they have a particular knack for opening hatches when they should stay closed). Then again, watching smart people make dumb choices is one of cinema?s deepest pleasures.
The Playlist
It?s a huge technical accomplishment. The movie opens with a single gliding shot through the space station that introduces the characters and sets up the geography for the rest of the film; it?s clearly not as expensive or accomplished as something like ?Gravity,? but the effect of establishing both the characters and the environment, with a combination of dread and awe, is similarly effective.
Variety
Frankly, ?Life? could have used a few more cathartic laughs, although it?s a relief that the entire movie isn?t as self-aware or sarcastic as the writers? reputation-making ?Zombieland.? While that high-attitude approach may have been the right fit for an undead spoof, ?Life? benefits from a certain seriousness of tone.
Time
There probably isn't a single element of Life that you haven't seen before. And like so many movie creatures these days, our little protozoan turned predator owes a debt to Swiss artist--and Alien critter creator--H.R. Giger. What matters more is how Espinosa shuffles and recombines familiar elements, more often stoking slow-burning terror than goosing us with jump scares.
The Guardian
As Calvin gets bigger and bigger and more and more resourceful, the film seems always to be echoing to the sound of doors and pods and hatches being clanged shut, just in time, as Calvin lands on them with an almighty squelch ? or too late, and Calvin slithers through.
Empire
Ryan Reynolds in particular is barely required to do anything more than put on a spacesuit and reprise his BT ad persona. It isn?t nuanced, but it?s welcome as it at least gives us something to latch onto. Gyllenhaal meanwhile does his slightly weird shtick, but keeps his doctor David Jordan several shades more likeable than Lou in Nightcrawler.
The Telegraph
Taken on its entertainingly trashy terms, Espinosa?s film does most of the things you want from it quite well, at least until a gotcha ending which doesn?t getcha: it?s a would-be Twilight Zone-ish sting which needed more time on the drawing board.
Screen Crush
A certain amount of poor decision-making is believable under the circumstances, and I liked the fact that, after the introductory scenes establish the warm relationships between the crew and the trouble starts, the pleasantries and chain of command break down almost instantaneously. But arguably from the moment things go wrong on the ISS, no one onboard makes a single smart decision. Not one.
The Hollywood Reporter
The picture struggles to find a satisfying rhythm as the members of this multinational, co-ed team get slooshed up by Calvin or suffer related lethal mishaps. Each dies valiantly; few enjoy a moment of glory.
Indiewire
From a purely technical perspective, 'Life' hits the market standard for impressive effects work across the board. However, its narrative can?t keep place. The script, by ?Deadpool? writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, makes a few valiant stabs at depth - David?s memories of Syria and a tasteful innovation of Challenger explosion come to mind among them - but it?s also mired by dopier bits.
Rolling Stone
[Daniel Espinosa] He has no talent for laying out the geography of the space station, so we don't know where anyone is at any given minute ? which is hell on a movie that depends on the audience knowing exactly that. The story is further hobbled by a surprise ending that falls flatter than the one in Passengers.
New York Times
The movie, having started so promisingly, quickly settles for becoming yet another clone of ?Alien,? as space travelers play a deadly game of hide-and-seek with a shape-shifting Martian. (Not counting the android in that Ridley Scott 1979 film, ?Life? even has the same number of crew members.)