Life

This is a solid C+ movie elevated by a stellar cast, exquisite direction, cinematography, and an absolutely wicked creature. This movie was the Alien successor I so desperately desired even as Ridley Scott has been hellbent on destroying his xenomorph legacy. Granted, this movie apes sequences from Alien almost verbatim, but does so with care and and careful framing. The film's visuals are a treat, before and after the creature's appearance, the zero-g sequences and shots of the space station in particular are stunning. The direction and great cast manages to elevate a pretty cliched script, along with the strength of a fantastic creature design and amazing visual effects. You can glean its intelligence, appraisal, and alien nature from slight motion and movement, survival decisions, prioritization, etc. Unfortunately, nothing else in the script is quite as intelligent as the creature. There is no shortage of space disaster tropes, and supposedly very smart people doing extremely dumb things. But while this movie is far from original, and filled with head-scratching moments from some of its characters; this movie isn't trying to reinvent the wheel or the genre, simply re-skinning it with a very nasty creature, very pretty visuals, and unafraid to go as dark as needs be.

B