Hollywood blockbusters in 2017 are basically a steady stream of reboots, remakes and sequels. We've all come to accept that as the business model for the foreseeable future. For better or worse, we're going to see comic book movies for the rest of our lives. With that being said, there's a certain sense of excitement when an original blockbuster comes down the pike during the months of May and September. If you look at the summer movies this year, there are less than a handful of big budget original movies. I actually had high hopes for Life, the 2017 space thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and a host of others. The trailer looked interesting, and it managed to turn Goodnight Moon into terrifying nightmare fuel. By some turn of events, I was unable to get to the theaters to see this one during its original run. I finally had a chance to watch it this past weekend, and the results were... not good.
While Life may claim to be an original film, it's basically a not-nearly-as-good remake of 1979's Alien. There isn't a single original shot in this nearly two hour stink fest. From the title card (nearly identical to Alien's title reveal) to the alien baddy, this movie tries to get away with creating something "new" out of completely used spare parts. The fact that this tries to call itself an original idea is insulting to audiences, critics, and film fans everywhere. I'm glad to see that it fizzled out at the box office and I'm doing my best to see that it doesn't gain an audience at home.
Stop me if you've heard this before... a crew or ragtag astronauts comes across an unknown foreign substance on their mission, and proceed to bring it on board as it grows and kills almost everyone on board. I kept saying to myself, "I can't believe they're trying to get away with this" as the alien made its way through the ship. The alien in this film even bears a striking resemblance to the face hugger from the Alien films. I kept waiting for a climactic scene in an airlock to close this film out (hint: that's pretty close to what happened).
There's not much to like about this one. The effects aren't ground breaking, the cast is average at best, and the story is so predictable it seemed like they took the original Alien script and just changed the names and locations. Please steer clear of this sorry excuse for "original" content. If this is the best that Hollywood has to offer in regards to original blockbusters, then sign me up for Transformers 38 (who am I kidding? I'm already signed up for Transformers 38. I can't quit Michael Bay!).
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