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Life (2017 film) is dumb

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KarneeKarnay

KarneeKarnay

Member
I just saw the movie LIFE.

HOW CAN YOU MAKE A MOVIE WITH THIS HIGH A BUDGET, WITH THIS MANY GOOD ACTORS AND FUCK IT UP!

My reaction to the film above if you want to see it.

large_life.jpg


LIFE is a science fiction horror film about a group of scientists on the IIS dealing with a hostile alien life.

AND THEY ARE ALL IDIOTS...

The real horror of this film is not the alien, but how a movie with this much potential turned to crap.

Please discuss. Lock if there is already a thread for this.

EDIT:

Issues I had with LIFE:

  • Who designed a lab that can allow for things to escape in the event of fire?
  • Why did they let someone break containment?
  • Why didn't that one character carry the thing into space?
  • Why did they kill off the most likable characters first?
  • Why did the scientist tell them how to kill it, then save it in the very next scene?
  • Why didn't they tell that guy who was trapped the alien had left?
  • Why did they grow the alien in the first place?
  • Why is the alien able to survive explosive decompression?
  • Why didn't the escape pod adjust for debris?
  • Why didn't it kill Jake?
  • How did it know what the cooling system was for?
  • How did it consume anything without just dying?
 
You gotta give us a little more to work with, dude. "This movie is bad, please discuss" isn't much of a review.

Sounds and looks pretty rough though, will definitely be skipping.
 
look i dont generally watch monster gore movies for the plot

what i want to know is, is it entertaining?
 
i thought this was about the Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawerence flick, and was about to throw down...

carry on.

either im really tired of that (2017) wasn't there.
 
Just to note, the smartest man in the world...

Kills the fucking alien. So his next thought is to electrocute it. Alien comes back and is like, what the fuck. The next person tries to fry it fire.

He was right, all it's trying to do is survive as they spend their entire time trying to kill it.

Alien did nothing wrong
 
KarneeKarnay said:
AND THEY ARE ALL IDIOTS...

Please discuss. Lock if there is already a thread for this.
Click to expand...

This is what pisses me off most about many films aimed at the SciFi genre. Supremely intelligent people do phenomenally dumb things because thats the only way to advance the plot or create tension.

Oh we've landed on an alien planet that has some oxygen. Better remove our helmets pronto.

Lets investigate this planet suffering from time dilation. The woman we sent there 10 years ago will have so much to tell us about it.
 
captive said:
i thought this was about the Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawerence flick, and was about to throw down...

carry on.

either im really tired of that (2017) wasn't there.
Click to expand...

It wasn't.

It seems the mods are big Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence fans themselves.
 
I don't think enough people have seen this movie to be able to chime in OP. Jake Gyllenhaal is fine as hell though. I'd let him start some life inside of me any day.
 
The RLM guys had similar concerns in that the characters go from professional scientists to like 1980s era horror movie teenagers.
 
It's almost like you need to be pretty smart about science and technology to make a smart film about science and technology, and not just budget and pasty white big name actors.

*coughgitscough*
 
DBT85 said:
This is what pisses me off most about many films aimed at the SciFi genre. Supremely intelligent people do phenomenally dumb things
Click to expand...

This has always been the worst take. Y'all never actually met a scientist? Y'all didn't see Ben Carson throughout the 2016 campaign?
 
It's a pretty dumb movie. It's the sort of film where you wish the characters could hear you and would listen to your advice. Almost universally, each one acts stupidly and contributes to the mayhem.

The last 20 minutes or so really tries to highlight the chaos in the station. But it's shot kind of poorly, or else editing badly so it's hard to tell what's going on. There's an amusing twist at the end, but I wasn't really sure if it was set up properly. I had to refer to the Wikipedia entry on the film to understand exactly what had happened.
 
Ehhhh it was allrigth.

The part that really got me was
The scientist that sacrificed her self with the alien attached. Like why the fucking didnt she launch herself. Why did she go to the door to sacrifice herself so the alien can latch to the ship. No fucking launch your self into space grabbing that sucker.
 
Isn't the stupidity of the staff intentional? Every early impression of the movie I've seen says that the poor decisions of the are so frightening because they feel like real errors and not contrived moments of happenstance.

Also, the answer to almost all your questions is "this is a b-tier aliens rip off".
 
Who designed a lab that can allow for things to escape in the event of fire?
Click to expand...
That was pretty stupid
Why did they let someone break containment?
Click to expand...
Scientists are only people, and people do stupid rash dangerous things during emotional situations. And no one let him. He did it impulsively, against the orders of the more rational ones telling him not to break quarantine
Why didn't that one character carry the thing into space?
Click to expand...
True. Didn't matter anyway, as we saw when the body drifted away and it just leaped back onto the station
Why did they kill off the most likable characters first?
Click to expand...
Why not?
Why did the scientist tell them how to kill it, then save it in the very next scene?
Click to expand...
I never got the sense he did it intentionally. He's a paraplegic, no feeling in his legs. I took that scene to assume it used that to sneak in without him or the rest noticing
Why didn't they tell that guy who was trapped the alien had left?
Click to expand...
Weren't communications down?
Why did they grow the alien in the first place?
Click to expand...
Because they were studying it. They had it for over a month just fine in containment. It's not like any rational person would expect that a microscopic organism would know how to use tools and escape.
Why is the alien able to survive explosive decompression?
Click to expand...
Oxygen stored in its body, same way it was able to survive in a vacuum
Why didn't the escape pod adjust for debris?
Click to expand...
Because it's a movie and it was an unpredictable situation
Why didn't it kill Jake?
Click to expand...
For the movie to have that final shot. Although another review I saw thought it was to show that alien was intelligent enough to leave him alive since that would mean other people would open the pod to rescue him
How did it know what the cooling system was for?
Click to expand...
It's a super intelligent killer alien
How did it consume anything without just dying?
Click to expand...
Not sure what you're asking there
 
Both myself and my SO liked the movie a lot. It was entertaining, the first half is intense, and the finale was neat, if highly telegraphed.
 
KarneeKarnay said:
I just saw the movie LIFE.

<bunch of opinions that don't need spoiler tagging>

Please discuss. Lock if there is already a thread for this.

EDIT:

Issues I had with LIFE:
  • <list of shit that should be spoiler tagged>
Click to expand...
You're spoiler tagging shit that doesn't remotely need to be and leaving spoilers untagged.

As for the opinions, it's a horror movie, what do expect except for people to be idiots.
 
DBT85 said:
This is what pisses me off most about many films aimed at the SciFi genre. Supremely intelligent people do phenomenally dumb things because thats the only way to advance the plot or create tension.

Oh we've landed on an alien planet that has some oxygen. Better remove our helmets pronto.

Lets investigate this planet suffering from time dilation. The woman we sent there 10 years ago will have so much to tell us about it.
Click to expand...
People here seemed to LOVE Interstellar when it was guilty of just about all of these offenses.

Interstellar is dumb.
 
How much explicit gore is there in this film? I don't mind gore and guts and all of that, but it needs to be done correctly. If it's needless and excessive just for the shock value and to get the R rating, I usually just roll my eyes and quickly become disinterested.
 
UberTag said:
People here seemed to LOVE Interstellar when it was guilty of just about all of these offenses.

Interstellar is dumb.
Click to expand...

It comes down to how well you hide it. Intersteller hid it pretty well especially with all the PR about how they got that astrophysicist on for consulting. It had the benefit of most movie audiences being unfamiliar with how space actually works, but by this point they're pretty well versed in horror film cliches.
 
It was a fun ride. The first act was good and the movie knew how to build tension. I feel the final act was weaker when it became all about the alien chasing them.

It dropped the ball not because of all that nitpick but more because it was bad at making the last two characters likable and it was pretty predictable too once the final plan was created.
 
I liked it and thought the characters behaved realistically for the most part. You can always nitpick these movies though because if everyone did the right thing the movie would end after 10 minutes.
 
Saw it earlier. Questions I had leaving the cinema:

Why did the alien develop a head and face when it was established that it doesn't need one?

Why could the alien disregard Newton's laws of physics in zero-G and do impossible maneuvers, especially when it has evolved in an environment with gravity?

Why could the Japanese guy so easily reach the soyuz capsule near the end when the docking room was supposed to not have any air at that point?

Did the scientist save the alien by hiding him in his leg? It sure looked like it, but why be so explicit with everything else in the movie except for that?

Why did the shots on Earth look at fake? The fishermen looked like they were clearly shot in a soundstage.

Why did the soundtrack sound like discount Interstellar?

How did they get such big names attached to this movie? It was a really predictable mess and I felt a bit ashamed in the cinema knowing that I paid money to see it. It felt like a mix of Gravity and Alien but with a sum that's far lesser than any of its parts.
 
If you want to see another recent stupid sci-fi movie where supposedly intelligent people act really dumb, watch Morgan.

morgan.jpg


If you want a smarter version of Life, there is always Europa Report.

photo_02.jpg
 
It was entertaining. If you're one of those people where everything in a movie has to make complete logical sense and be completely realistic to real life then I can see why you would hate it. If you can't just accept things as they happen and enjoy the ride it's probably not the movie for you. You're right that there were some pretty big inconsistencies and illogical plot devices but as a space horror popcorn flick it hit it's mark.
 
pringles said:
I liked it and thought the characters behaved realistically for the most part. You can always nitpick these movies though because if everyone did the right thing the movie would end after 10 minutes.
Click to expand...

Yep. You wouldn't have a movie if
they didn't feed the alien and then stupidly resuscitate it. And if it was just a blob that couldn't move again you wouldn't have a movie.

It's a science fiction movie.

I enjoyed it.
 
Thewonandonly said:
Ehhhh it was allrigth.

The part that really got me was
The scientist that sacrificed her self with the alien attached. Like why the fucking didnt she launch herself. Why did she go to the door to sacrifice herself so the alien can latch to the ship. No fucking launch your self into space grabbing that sucker.
Click to expand...

I can't imagine you're going to reach escape velocity by kicking off with your legs all constrained in a suit and everything. Alien's at least as strong as her (in fact, significantly stronger), so maybe it just pushes off her directly toward earth and makes landfall anyway.

Pineapple said:
How much explicit gore is there in this film? I don't mind gore and guts and all of that, but it needs to be done correctly. If it's needless and excessive just for the shock value and to get the R rating, I usually just roll my eyes and quickly become disinterested.
Click to expand...

It's actually ok on this front. There's one really protracted, brutal kill early on that was good for being bizarre and for setting stakes. There's a fair amount of blood and violence after that but nothing really gratuitous.
 
Never seen an ending more divisive in a theater. For every audible gasp there was a loud groan.

This started good and had aspirations to be the "Alien meets Gravity" elevator pitch that I'm sure was used during pre-production, but every character loses their mind in the final act. Couldn't help be the movie was just mean to its characters. I really hope this doesn't get a sequel. #teamgroan

Filmmakers take note: CG gore holds nothing compared to the right practical effect. The theater I was in physically reacted to the shot of
that one guy's hand after the creature broke it in a million places.
 
Inferno313 said:
You gotta give us a little more to work with, dude. "This movie is bad, please discuss" isn't much of a review.

Sounds and looks pretty rough though, will definitely be skipping.
Click to expand...

I've added a list of the most egregious issues.

Poppy said:
look i dont generally watch monster gore movies for the plot

what i want to know is, is it entertaining?
Click to expand...

The ending made me laugh.

shintoki said:
Just to note, the smartest man in the world...

Kills the fucking alien. So his next thought is to electrocute it. Alien comes back and is like, what the fuck. The next person tries to fry it fire.

He was right, all it's trying to do is survive as they spend their entire time trying to kill it.

Alien did nothing wrong
Click to expand...

True. That said,
why did the lady who is meant to be in charge of the security of the place, including the alien, let him? New life form and lets just zap it with electricity and see what happens?

DBT85 said:
This is what pisses me off most about many films aimed at the SciFi genre. Supremely intelligent people do phenomenally dumb things because thats the only way to advance the plot or create tension.

Oh we've landed on an alien planet that has some oxygen. Better remove our helmets pronto.

Lets investigate this planet suffering from time dilation. The woman we sent there 10 years ago will have so much to tell us about it.
Click to expand...

As someone once said, "The writer sure does like his stupid stick."

Haly said:
It's almost like you need to be pretty smart about science and technology to make a smart film about science and technology, and not just budget and pasty white big name actors.

*coughgitscough*
Click to expand...

The part that bothered me the most, is that it pretends to be scientific, but then does stupid stuff that go completely against any scientific method.

MC Safety said:
It's a pretty dumb movie. It's the sort of film where you wish the characters could hear you and would listen to your advice. Almost universally, each one acts stupidly and contributes to the mayhem.

The last 20 minutes or so really tries to highlight the chaos in the station. But it's shot kind of poorly, or else editing badly so it's hard to tell what's going on. There's an amusing twist at the end, but I wasn't really sure if it was set up properly. I had to refer to the Wikipedia entry on the film to understand exactly what had happened.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the last 20 mins is pretty horrifically shot. I had to assume some stuff to work it out.

Thewonandonly said:
Ehhhh it was allrigth.

The part that really got me was
The scientist that sacrificed her self with the alien attached. Like why the fucking didnt she launch herself. Why did she go to the door to sacrifice herself so the alien can latch to the ship. No fucking launch your self into space grabbing that sucker.
Click to expand...

Yep. You could argue flight vs survival, but it does a disservice to her character for it just to jump off. At no point does the alien look threatened, like the humans have a chance. Stuff like that really bores me in a movie.

More_Badass said:
Scientists are only people, and people do stupid rash dangerous things during emotional situations. And no one let him. He did it impulsively, against the orders of the more rational ones telling him not to break quarantine
Click to expand...

About that. Why wasn't the door sealed automatically? To avoid situations like this.

More_Badass said:
True. Didn't matter anyway, as we saw when the body drifted away and it just leaped back onto the station
Click to expand...

True, but if you have the clarity to not let this thing in the first place,
then why not jump away. Maybe flight vs survival, but it would have made her sacrifice more significant to have jumped away.

More_Badass said:
Why not?
Click to expand...

He was the only character with any real character development. The rest of the characters just bored me. Not because of the Actors, but because they were given no time to develop.

More_Badass said:
I never got the sense he did it intentionally. He's a paraplegic, no feeling in his legs. I took that scene to assume it used that to sneak in without him or the rest noticing
Click to expand...

but he saw it. Why not mention it to the others? Why else would he just stand there awkwardly near the hatch. Plus some of the wording, makes it sound like he did intentionally. I'd have to watch it again to be sure.

More_Badass said:
Weren't communications down?
Click to expand...

At that point the creature was locked up. Why didn't they go grab him and tell him?

More_Badass said:
Because they were studying it. They had it for over a month just fine in containment. It's not like any rational person would expect that a microscopic organism would know how to use tools and escape.
Click to expand...

There would be a million and other things that would have to take place before they even attempted that. Instead it sounds like they just go for it. They don't check if they have other samples. They don't study is supposed death. They just electrocute it.

More_Badass said:
Oxygen stored in its body, same way it was able to survive in a vacuum
Click to expand...

The science doesn't make sense to me, but if it works in movie verse...

More_Badass said:
It's a super intelligent killer alien
Click to expand...

Yeah, but then why doesn't it communicate? It must understand English, both written and verbal to have worked out what the communication relay was. Thats too far a stretch in my mind.

More_Badass said:
Not sure what you're asking there
Click to expand...

Shouldn't anything it consumed beyond the glucose been toxic to it?All very well and good eating the sugar, but anything more complex and covered in germs...

Squirrel Killer said:
You're spoiler tagging shit that doesn't remotely need to be and leaving spoilers untagged.

As for the opinions, it's a horror movie, what do expect except for people to be idiots.
Click to expand...

Sorry bro. If you checked, I did spoiler the list. However that didn't work, so I've now spoiler'ed each of the items.

kiguel182 said:
It was a fun ride. The first act was good and the movie knew how to build tension. I feel the final act was weaker when it became all about the alien chasing them.

It dropped the ball not because of all that nitpick but more because it was bad at making the last two characters likable and it was pretty predictable too once the final plan was created.
Click to expand...

True.
 
jonnyp said:
This movie looks Prometheus levels of stupid from the trailer.
Click to expand...

Life was everything Prometheus was supposed to be.

I keep seeing that scientists in the movie were dumb...I don't really see it. They acted human. The hand they were dealt was shitty but noone acted out of turn. Except for
Hugh the parapelegic. It was ambiguous whether he helped Calvin in the end.

Legit one of the most tense/creepy experiences in a movie theater in a while.

Calvin was a fuckin BEAST.

Shame a movie with the balls it had isn't doing too great.
 
Messofanego said:
If you want a smarter version of Life, there is always Europa Report.

photo_02.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeah. Stop rewarding Hollywood for wasting money on poop level movies such as Life when you got superior alternatives already.

I love space movies, love monster movies, I wish to see more scifi in theaters... and I still wish I hadn't seen Life. What a waste of time.
 
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