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6/10
Pale shadow of the original
6 October 2017
Great opening, beautiful imagery, powerful and emotive soundtrack. What could go wrong? Well...

Pedestrian script. None of the truly existential and thought provoking story from the original. The characters were mostly one- dimensional, never surprising (none like Roy Batty, mass-murderer who in his final moments saves the life of the man who hunted and killed all the people he cared about). To be fair there were some interesting interactions, but they were few and far between.

Where the beautiful scenes of the original were poignant and well paced, the sequel dragged them out to the point of being ponderous. I actually started shuffling in my seat through a couple of the particularly drawn-out ones (note: I NEVER shuffle).

A lot of "huh?" moments - like when Ryan Gosling's replicant runs through a 6-inch thick concrete wall. While they are tough they are still flesh, blood and bone - not the Terminator (for reference Roy Batty stuck his head through a plaster wall that was tiled - still tough, but physically possible). There were a number of other scenes that were not believable or where actions seemed unnecessary (sorry I didn't want to include spoilers).

In a nutshell, it's an "ok" movie that could be drastically improved with some vigorous editing. Unfortunately the mediocre script and story will ultimately stop it from ever becoming a classic like the original.
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Life (I) (2017)
4/10
Good looking movie with unbelievable plot and mediocre characters
23 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The Good:

Believable, big budget special effects. Some decent jump scares and squirm-in-your-seat horror.

The Bad:

The characters were generic and boring. The acting was often spotty and not consistent with the situation (more poor direction than bad acting I think). The Martian creature came from the soil on Mars where it had to hibernate to survive, yet it could survive freezing cold, burning heat, no oxygen, space vacuum and everything else the crew could throw at it. And it pretty much ate everything (including cooling fluid). Lazy science to aid lazy plot sequences.

The Ugly:

Unrealistic behavior from professional astronauts and scientists. Every scene seemed to be a result of a poor decision putting the crew at risk. Everything seemed predictable and there was little-to-no tension.

Unlike the brilliant Alien - where you felt the protagonist (Ripley) and crew did everything right, yet fell victim to a horrifyingly believable alien (except for Ripley and the cat of course) - the crew in Life pretty much seemed to randomly do things, forget things, then remember things, and generally make the worst of the situation, while terrorized by the "super-alien-jellyfish" thing. I spent most of the movie thinking "wait... what? why?". Mediocre film from a mediocre Director.
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