Life – Blu-Ray Movie Review

This story is set on the International Space Station where six crew members are on board. The excitement begins when they capture a pod that is carrying soil and rock samples from Mars. Further inspection of the soil samples reveals a dormant single-celled organism. The scientist in charge is able to reanimate the cell and the crew sets about studying this new life form all the while following important protocols that have been put in place to ensure the new species remains quarantined.

This is obviously a movie that follows the traditional pattern of a horror movie and since it is a horror movie in space, it cannot escape the obvious associations with “Alien”. I am not going to compare it to “Alien”. What I will do is to tell you that this is a seriously bad ass movie. The stage is set when the primary scientist who has paralysis of his legs finds a way to bring this organism to life. The creature grows into a multi-cellular animal but one where all the cells are identical, each with the characteristics of muscles, neurons, etc. The scientist is inspired as this may unlock a way for him to be abe to walk one day. So he naturally moves ahead with his observatiions in a bit of a reckless manner. Because they (humans and creature) are all confined in a space station, the stage is set for a white-knuckle thriller.

The special effects are not the greatest with some slightly cheesey CGI. But the sound track and the music especially are spot on. The acting is first rate as well. This all comes together to make for a totally bad ass movie. I highly recommend “Life” for those who like a good horror flick.

This is not a colorful movie. It takes place primarily on the space station (up until the finale to be exact) so the color palette is mired by the ambient light aboard the space station. So it would be easy to find fault with the picture quality. But it is this way for a reason and as such it isn’t “flawed” per se. I did think some of the CGI effects had an unnaturally glossy sheen. But the picture typically held forth with decent contrast and substantial detail by and large.

The audio on this disc is reference quality in every way. And the entire audio presentation is of the highest order. The special effects are so realistic with a discrete surround envelope that places sounds eerily throughout the room. The musical score is first rate with excellent instrumentation that becomes a part of the story telling. Oh, and the bass is deep, clean and forceful with many pants-flapping moments. This is an amazing effort by the production, editing , mixing and mastering team.

This is a single disc package with the Blu-ray and a Digital HD code. Ther are a number of interesting special features on disc – Six Deleted Scenes, Claustrophobic Terror: Creating a Thriller in Space (making-of), Life: In Zero G (interviews), Creating Life: The Art and Reality of Calvin and Astronaut Diaries.