Look! Up in the sky! What is it? A bird? A plane? Another big budget original sci-fi movie with A-list Hollywood actors?
Wait, did you say original sci-fi movie? Do they still make those?
I’ll admit, the trailer for Life genuinely took me by surprise. I knew almost nothing about it, and still feel somewhat dumbstruck that such a high-profile movie flew under my radar. Life comes to us from the writers of Zombieland and Deadpool (yay!) and the director of Safe House (yay?). It follows a team of astronauts who, to the excitement of everyone on board, discover life on Mars. Little do they know that this is a blockbuster sci-fi movie, so of course the cute little single cell organism turns out to be far less cuddly than they had hoped for. A struggle for survival and most likely the fate of the human race ensues.
The most exciting part of this trailer is that it shows how there can still be original movies made in Hollywood. The least exciting part of this trailer is that it sort of seems like several movies we’ve seen before (mix Gravity, The Thing and Sunshine and you’ve got the idea of this footage). It even features Hiroyuki Sanada (Sunshine), who just can’t seem to catch a break when he puts on a spacesuit.
However, the pedigree of these writers and the generally solid output of the director show great promise. Oh, and the stars of the picture aren’t half bad either: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, and Rebecca Furguson are all on board.
Life beams into theaters on May 26th, 2017.
