A group aboard the International Space Station discover organic life originating from Mars. It tries to kill them. It quickly evolves into a high-functioning killing-machine. It is Alien. The plot parallels to the seminal Ridley Scott classic are plentiful (when you watch at home, drink every time something is almost directly lifted). Sadly when Daniel Espinosa's film kills off a random crew member, it lacks the impact of a certain chest-bursted man from 1979. To paraphrase Alien, the crew is expendable.
Jake Ghyllenhaal a mostly bland is the space-loving doctor and Ryan Reynolds is a delightful presence as a straight-shooting jokester. Rebecca Ferguson breaks out her acting skills in a scene with Gyllenhaal - who also rises to the occassion - later on in the film. Hilariously, said scene also features a dramatic reading of the children's book Goodnight Moon. Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnaya are also present, with varying degrees of character development. Bakare gets the most as a scientist with a father-love of the organism (dubbed Calvin) and the absence of working legs. Still, when Calvin slaughters a crew member, it's difficult to care much.
The antagonist cell-turned-spider-turned-butterfly/squid makes for a terrifying presence initially, as the tiny creature causes an unholy amount of damage, before becoming a sinister version of the squid baby from Men In Black. The driving force behind the horror and the guttural punches Life throws at the audience come from the gruesome nature of Calvin's victim's deaths, even if the end product isn't the most memorably designed movie monster of recent times.
Functional and enjoyable, but - and I didn't want to be that guy - it doesn't do enough to assert itself as its own film rather than a homage.
THREE STARS. Still better than 1985's Creature.
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