This sci-fi shocker sticks closely to the Alien playbook, down to the intimately acquainted, flatly characterized crew and the scenes of chaos, panic, and overlapping dialogue.

| Mar 26, 2020

It's familiar comfort food for those in need of gory goodness.

| Nov 20, 2017

When compared to the cast of Alien, the ISS team isn't well-textured, developed, or likable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 10, 2017

The recycled plot is very much at odds with Seamus McGarvey's knockout floating cinematography, Nigel Phelps' multi-dimensional space station designs, and (Safe House) director Daniel Espinosa's aptitude for white-knuckle runarounds.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 26, 2017

The pitched battle aboard the ISS becomes a struggle for the fate of humankind, even as the humans in question aren't quite engaging enough to make us care. We don't like their chances. But they also don't necessarily have our sympathies, either.

| Apr 7, 2017

Visually the film is constantly impressive... And the cast is nothing if not interesting. But in the end there's a distinct feeling of let-down, that this is an inferior addition to the genre.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2017

The film is taut and scary; all the spaceship bells and whistles convinced this Luddite, and it contains a couple of the gnarliest death scenes I've seen on film in a while.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 30, 2017

The movie's predictable wind-down and ho-hum twist at the end make this Life hardly worth living. In space, no one can hear you yawn.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 30, 2017

The horror lies in watching the monster grow while dreaming up a variety of grisly attack techniques.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 29, 2017

The movie reduces its fear factor to simple suspense that's not insignificant but is pretty insubstantial.

| Mar 27, 2017

The screenplay's policy of exploring every possible worst-case scenario culminates in a deliciously bleak, if not entirely unexpected payoff.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 26, 2017

Here is a story that knows how to put the nihilism in the vast nothingness of space. If you're into that sort of thing.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 24, 2017

Life has cool effects, real suspense and a sweet twist. It ain't rocket science, but it does what it does well -- even, one might say, with a kind of genius.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 24, 2017

Life will give moviegoers the tremors and jolts they desire as it adds a notch to the rsum of its writers and director. But truth be told, it remains in the shadow of Alien, a tough movie to top, let alone equal

| Mar 24, 2017

Life starts out as one of those hopeful-seeming films, but in thwarting our expectations, it becomes much more dismal - and we realize that it was never really making a point about life so much as the folly of optimism.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 24, 2017

It's okay to cover the classics; practically every musician wants to play around with their idols' work. But Life feels like a strictly subtractive cover of Alien that loses too much of what made it memorable, and doesn't bring enough new to the table.

| Mar 24, 2017

It's Alien for short attention spans, Arrival for non-pacifists, with some remnant of ambition toward something headier. On that count, it falls short, but as a final-girl structured horror film, it has plenty of imaginative moments.

| Mar 24, 2017

Life... a taut, suspenseful thriller that's more enjoyable the less you think about it.

| Mar 24, 2017

If you're looking for a competent Alien knock-off or just a way to kill a couple hours, you could do far worse.

| Mar 24, 2017

We, too, are just collections of cells, and Espinosa plays our nervous system like a flamenco guitar in concert with head-pounding drums and nauseous trombones.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 24, 2017