101.
Life
7/10
The film to fill a void before Alien Covenant hits our screens.
6 astronauts aboard a space shift, recover a sample of life from Mars and proceed to examine it whilst on board. The experiment comes at huge costs, as the crew find out the hard way that this thing is a lot more intelligent that they first imagined. The crew were made of a few nationalities and personalities, between a comic relief, dry British scientist, serious Asian and the rest, there was a good mix to get involved with. We learn about each at the beginning between Ryan Reynolds jokes, the Asian character watching the birth of his child, Jake Gyllenhaal is a guy who has spent a long time in space and enjoys the loneliness.
Our first encounter with the life form is in a small dish in the Quarantine zone of the ship and its shown to be a bacteria, offering different atmosphere to see if it would grow, they soon turned to stimulating it with a short and sharp electrical charge. Wrong choice. Over the time is starts growing, it also becomes more inquisitive towards the objects in it's case. The electrical rod for example, which it's had enough of and snaps in half. Each cell is discovered to be a muscle, brain and sensory organs all in one. By now the thing has grown to the size of a hand and has been named by an American school, for some reason, the kids have chosen Calvin. Hugh, our British scientist has his hands in the box again, and after snapping the rod in half, Calvin has now decided to take a liking to Hugh's hand which it's gripped like a strong hand shake. Slowly getting tighter and tighter as Hugh tries to escape, it ends up crushing his hand into jelly, in a painful 30 second watch and finally lets go with him passed out from the pain. It proceeds to grab the broken rod and pierce his way out of the glove holders and escape into the room. The other crew members decide what to do and Rory, the pilot played by Reynolds, gets into the room to retrieve Hugh but gets trapped as Calvin grabs his leg. We learn that each member has a firewall on their mission. Rory wants to destroy Calvin which is accepted by the Captain and he pulls out a beast of a flamethrower, dousing it al around the room causing Calvin to kick right off and throw itself for cover, anywhere that it can. Once the fuel runs out, it's the Alien's turn to fight back. It heads straight for Rory's mouth, finally silencing his smart mouthed comments, and caries on down his throat, eating him from the inside. The death is truly gory as the weightless environment causes the blood and guts to float around the lifeless body. As Calvin remerges from the body, it has now grown and the crew realise it needs to eat and they are the only organic matter around.
Calvin eerily doesn't make any sound and floats effortlessly around the ship, sometimes flying as fast as a bat o attack, and leaping from surface to surface to move around. It also holds the ability to squeeze through any gap as is shown when it escapes quarantine through a small vent and now effectively takes over the ship as the crew panics, wondering where it will show up next. The unknown is what keeps the film going. How will it be killed? How does it react to heat and cold? What does it actually want and need to survive. The astronauts mission is now beginning to change as now its not about heir survival or the space stations upkeep. They now have to make sure that Calvin never makes it to Earth. They have to sacrifice themselves for the sake of humankind. Calvin is now inside one of the tanks that is causing the ship to malfunction as it is drinking the fluid, so the Captain decided she must go out to release the alien from the tank and make it back inside safely. As soon as its opened, the usual jump scene commences as Calvin throws himself at her and wraps around her leg, slowly squeezing and searching for the oxygen tank on her suit to replenish it's body. Breaking into her suit, it fills her mask with water and she is slowly drowning in her small space, she realises her end is near and as the others try to save her, she locks the door instead to stop Calvin from getting back inside. Pushing herself away from the craft, she takes Calvin with her heading into deep space, but obviously it isn't that easy and at the last possible minute, the little squid like asshole, leap for the ship and gets a 10/10 for the landing.
Another crew member down and we are onto the next. Calvin sets out to re enter the ship through the thrusters, so naturally they decide to use the thrusters to launch Calvin into deep space by himself. Without thinking of the consequences, the try to do this but also knock themselves into an orbit which means they would be entering Earths atmosphere. The Japanese pilot Sho, knows they need to get back to a standard orbit but this would allow the alien back into the station. The crew decide to seal themselves in one module and vent the rest of the station from atmosphere in the hope of killing Calvin off. Now surely this wouldn't make sense for a storyline because the bastard had been coping fine outside the station when trying to find a way back in, attacking the captain and crawling around outside? Massive flaw! So as they are locking all the doors, we see Hugh stare at something floating towards him, but the camera plays the object and then the door slams shut. A little later and he drops into cardiac arrest and as the team revive him they see a little wiggle in his trouser leg, mind the sexual innuendo. Cutting it open, there is Calvin, feasting away on some British calf. Now I'm sure Hugh knew this, because his love for the alien crew whilst first investigating it. He just let him in, and sacrificed himself knowing they would all die anyway. Calvin releases and goes after the rest, Sho heading for the sleeping quarters, locks himself inside, as Calvin head butts the glass to try and get in and yes, Calvin has grown a head by this point, a very creepy one. Miranda, played by Rebecca Ferguson, and David notice that the alien has eaten one of the trackers off Hugh's suit so begin to follow his movements. Using Hugh's body and trail of blood they lure Calvin into another module and deprive it of oxygen, again with that flaw from earlier.
Having received an SOS call, Earth control have sent another spaceship, not for rescue, but a firewall and to nudge the station into deep space, only the remaining female knew this was coming and explains this to David. It joins onto where Calvin is trapped but not knowing the plan, Sho thinks this is a rescue attempt and pushes his way to the door. Once manually opening the door, the alien attacks but also a docking breach is caused, resulting in the detachment of the module and this then crashes through the rest of station. Overall the station has now got failing temperature and oxygen levels and the two remaining survivors realise that the collision has put them back into an orbit which will send them back to Earth. Aware that Calvin could survive re-entry, David remembers the two escape pods that can be used to get back to Earth, he plan is to lure Calvin into one and then do the usual, send it into deep space! He's willing to sacrifice himself whilst Miranda heads home. David leads the alien into his pod by using oxygen sticks because although Calvin could cope outside the station in space, the storyline now needs it to be that he needs oxygen to survive. They all launch and Miranda hits some debris and David struggles in a fight with Calvin to send himself into deep space. As we see the pods going on their courses, the Earth bound one slams into the water and two fishermen head over to help out. Its revealed, although you could see it coming, that David and the Alien have landed on Earth whilst Miranda heads on a lonesome journey through space. David now caught up on a web like structure tries to warn the men but the pod is opened just as others arrive and the film ends.
Overall this was a decent watch and although not too much of a horror, it was a sci-fi that I could watch again. The reason to kill of Reynold's character was right at the time because I don't think his type of humour could work throughout a film of this type. It does question how people would react if his finally did happen in real life. On total destruction in space, I wonder what would be in store if they did take this movie onto the next level with a sequel. We don't know if the shocking at the beginning made the alien hostile and the crew just carried on being their own downfall. The special effects were pretty awesome at times and the design of the alien was done well. Those wanting this type of film, look no further as there is plenty of tension. There are a lot of bad reviews regarding this movie but each to their own.
Our first encounter with the life form is in a small dish in the Quarantine zone of the ship and its shown to be a bacteria, offering different atmosphere to see if it would grow, they soon turned to stimulating it with a short and sharp electrical charge. Wrong choice. Over the time is starts growing, it also becomes more inquisitive towards the objects in it's case. The electrical rod for example, which it's had enough of and snaps in half. Each cell is discovered to be a muscle, brain and sensory organs all in one. By now the thing has grown to the size of a hand and has been named by an American school, for some reason, the kids have chosen Calvin. Hugh, our British scientist has his hands in the box again, and after snapping the rod in half, Calvin has now decided to take a liking to Hugh's hand which it's gripped like a strong hand shake. Slowly getting tighter and tighter as Hugh tries to escape, it ends up crushing his hand into jelly, in a painful 30 second watch and finally lets go with him passed out from the pain. It proceeds to grab the broken rod and pierce his way out of the glove holders and escape into the room. The other crew members decide what to do and Rory, the pilot played by Reynolds, gets into the room to retrieve Hugh but gets trapped as Calvin grabs his leg. We learn that each member has a firewall on their mission. Rory wants to destroy Calvin which is accepted by the Captain and he pulls out a beast of a flamethrower, dousing it al around the room causing Calvin to kick right off and throw itself for cover, anywhere that it can. Once the fuel runs out, it's the Alien's turn to fight back. It heads straight for Rory's mouth, finally silencing his smart mouthed comments, and caries on down his throat, eating him from the inside. The death is truly gory as the weightless environment causes the blood and guts to float around the lifeless body. As Calvin remerges from the body, it has now grown and the crew realise it needs to eat and they are the only organic matter around.
Calvin eerily doesn't make any sound and floats effortlessly around the ship, sometimes flying as fast as a bat o attack, and leaping from surface to surface to move around. It also holds the ability to squeeze through any gap as is shown when it escapes quarantine through a small vent and now effectively takes over the ship as the crew panics, wondering where it will show up next. The unknown is what keeps the film going. How will it be killed? How does it react to heat and cold? What does it actually want and need to survive. The astronauts mission is now beginning to change as now its not about heir survival or the space stations upkeep. They now have to make sure that Calvin never makes it to Earth. They have to sacrifice themselves for the sake of humankind. Calvin is now inside one of the tanks that is causing the ship to malfunction as it is drinking the fluid, so the Captain decided she must go out to release the alien from the tank and make it back inside safely. As soon as its opened, the usual jump scene commences as Calvin throws himself at her and wraps around her leg, slowly squeezing and searching for the oxygen tank on her suit to replenish it's body. Breaking into her suit, it fills her mask with water and she is slowly drowning in her small space, she realises her end is near and as the others try to save her, she locks the door instead to stop Calvin from getting back inside. Pushing herself away from the craft, she takes Calvin with her heading into deep space, but obviously it isn't that easy and at the last possible minute, the little squid like asshole, leap for the ship and gets a 10/10 for the landing.
Another crew member down and we are onto the next. Calvin sets out to re enter the ship through the thrusters, so naturally they decide to use the thrusters to launch Calvin into deep space by himself. Without thinking of the consequences, the try to do this but also knock themselves into an orbit which means they would be entering Earths atmosphere. The Japanese pilot Sho, knows they need to get back to a standard orbit but this would allow the alien back into the station. The crew decide to seal themselves in one module and vent the rest of the station from atmosphere in the hope of killing Calvin off. Now surely this wouldn't make sense for a storyline because the bastard had been coping fine outside the station when trying to find a way back in, attacking the captain and crawling around outside? Massive flaw! So as they are locking all the doors, we see Hugh stare at something floating towards him, but the camera plays the object and then the door slams shut. A little later and he drops into cardiac arrest and as the team revive him they see a little wiggle in his trouser leg, mind the sexual innuendo. Cutting it open, there is Calvin, feasting away on some British calf. Now I'm sure Hugh knew this, because his love for the alien crew whilst first investigating it. He just let him in, and sacrificed himself knowing they would all die anyway. Calvin releases and goes after the rest, Sho heading for the sleeping quarters, locks himself inside, as Calvin head butts the glass to try and get in and yes, Calvin has grown a head by this point, a very creepy one. Miranda, played by Rebecca Ferguson, and David notice that the alien has eaten one of the trackers off Hugh's suit so begin to follow his movements. Using Hugh's body and trail of blood they lure Calvin into another module and deprive it of oxygen, again with that flaw from earlier.
Having received an SOS call, Earth control have sent another spaceship, not for rescue, but a firewall and to nudge the station into deep space, only the remaining female knew this was coming and explains this to David. It joins onto where Calvin is trapped but not knowing the plan, Sho thinks this is a rescue attempt and pushes his way to the door. Once manually opening the door, the alien attacks but also a docking breach is caused, resulting in the detachment of the module and this then crashes through the rest of station. Overall the station has now got failing temperature and oxygen levels and the two remaining survivors realise that the collision has put them back into an orbit which will send them back to Earth. Aware that Calvin could survive re-entry, David remembers the two escape pods that can be used to get back to Earth, he plan is to lure Calvin into one and then do the usual, send it into deep space! He's willing to sacrifice himself whilst Miranda heads home. David leads the alien into his pod by using oxygen sticks because although Calvin could cope outside the station in space, the storyline now needs it to be that he needs oxygen to survive. They all launch and Miranda hits some debris and David struggles in a fight with Calvin to send himself into deep space. As we see the pods going on their courses, the Earth bound one slams into the water and two fishermen head over to help out. Its revealed, although you could see it coming, that David and the Alien have landed on Earth whilst Miranda heads on a lonesome journey through space. David now caught up on a web like structure tries to warn the men but the pod is opened just as others arrive and the film ends.
Overall this was a decent watch and although not too much of a horror, it was a sci-fi that I could watch again. The reason to kill of Reynold's character was right at the time because I don't think his type of humour could work throughout a film of this type. It does question how people would react if his finally did happen in real life. On total destruction in space, I wonder what would be in store if they did take this movie onto the next level with a sequel. We don't know if the shocking at the beginning made the alien hostile and the crew just carried on being their own downfall. The special effects were pretty awesome at times and the design of the alien was done well. Those wanting this type of film, look no further as there is plenty of tension. There are a lot of bad reviews regarding this movie but each to their own.
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