The movie Life just came out in theaters this weekend. What a great title for this movie. Life! The possibilities are endless with a name like that. In fact, the movie is about seven lives, all at different places emotionally, different reasons for being there, and they all have to work together. In the film, the astronauts are trying to prove there is “life” on Mars, and end up trying to saves the lives of billions of people. If you have already seen it or if you are planning on seeing it, here are some things to think about.
1. Special Effects
One thing that is excellent about the movie is the special effects. If you are going to see the movie because of the special effects, then you’re in luck. They really did a great job. From the images of space, the explosions, and our new friend from Mars, “Calvin,” the effects and CGI were one of the best things about the film. I will have to say that I wasn’t expecting much as far as the way the creature looked. In the previews, they do not show very much of the alien. I don’t want to give anything away for those that have not seen the movie yet. I’m sure they didn’t want to give away too much in the trailer. All I will say is from the way Calvin looks in the previews, you’ll be in for a surprise.
2. Story-line
The whole premise of the film was great. Discovering life on Mars. After all, everyone is talking about Mars right now. Scientists are trying to find ways to send people to Mars right now while you’re reading this post. The film was inspired by the movie Alien (1979). Sadly, I think it didn’t reach it’s mark. It was very predictable and had some holes in the continuity of the story structure. There were some surprises and some twists which kind of make up for the fact that you knew how the movie was going to end.
3. Character Development
This is the one point of the movie I think really fell short. In order for us, as viewers, to care about these characters on the screen there needs to be some kind of backstory, or some kind of character development so we can connect with them in some way. They did a good job with two of the characters, Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki Sanada) and David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal). The only thing that we really find out about Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) is that he has a dog. I was worried that he wouldn’t make it home and his dog would be alone. Overall, it seemed a bit in parts. It might have helped if they took some time to let us get to know the characters so we would care if they get killed by an alien life-form.
