Although not canonically related to the Alien franchise, Life is an alien sci-fi horror movie that has recently burst its way to Hulu’s Top 10.
If you are wanting to watch an alien movie but aren’t the biggest fan of Alien (honestly, I can’t relate) and want a sci-fi horror thrill ride, it’s time to look at Hulu (or Disney+ in some countries).
Although not Alien-related but definitely adjacent, the world has been taken by storm by Dan Tratenberg’s Predator prequel, Prey. We recommend giving that a watch if you haven’t already.
In spot number four on Hulu’s Top 10 movies, according to FlixPatrol, is Life, bringing us back to 2017 to enjoy the thriller that is pretty brazenly emulating Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic.
Life on Mars
Life, although seemingly unintentional, is a nice blend of Alien, Sunshine, and Gravity, but with a very big emphasis on the former. If you are looking for an experience that is a solid blend of Alien and Prometheus, look no further.
Life sees a team of six astronauts who are scientists aboard the International Space Station that are studying a sample collected from Mars that could provide evidence for extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet. The crew discovers that the sample contains a large, single-celled organism – the first example of life beyond Earth, a rapidly evolving life form.
But things are not always as they seem, and as the crew begins to conduct research, their methods end up having unintended consequences. The life form that they have discovered proves to be more intelligent than anyone ever expected, and may have caused the extinction of life on Mars. Now on the International Space Station bound for Earth, it’s obvious what this extinction-causing lifeform implies for life on Earth.
Credits and Castings
This tense sci-fi thriller was directed by Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinoza who now, unfortunately, has his name attached to the critical and commercial failure that is Morbius, along with producers David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Bonnie Curtis, and Julie Lynn.
It’s no surprise that Life was pretty well loved as it was written by Zombieland and Deadpool’s Rett Rheese and Paul Wernick. It’s always interesting that usually where these two writers go, Ryan Reynolds follows.
Life is no exception, seeing its cast made of Ryan Reynolds acting as Rory Adams, Donnie Darko’s Jake Gyllenhaal as David Jordan, The Greatest Showman’s Rebecca Ferguson as Miranda North, and Sunshine’s Hiroyuki Sanada as Sho Murakami.
Marginal Success
Life is a pretty well-liked movie that has seen marginal success as it has a solid 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics’ consensus being “Life is just thrilling, well-acted, and capably filmed enough to overcome an overall inability to add new wrinkles to the trapped-in-space genre”, with “derivative quality and deficient innovations” creating a “run-of-the-mill outcome”.
It appears that critics agree that the movie, although thrilling, is nothing new as we have seen it many times before throughout the sci-fi genre, and ample times within the Alien franchise alone. Great acting, great directing and great production saved an over-done story and made this movie a thriller.
