BEFORE: It's a new month, time to get rolling on the sci-fi and fantasy films again. This month I'm planning to go out to the theater quite a bit, starting with "Avengers: Infinity War" next week (review to follow about 2 weeks later) and then "Solo: A Star Wars Story". I'm going to sneak out tonight and catch another film on the big screen, because it's about to vanish from theaters. But I'm also going to work in some films this month that I've been putting off for a long while, like "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and "War for the Planet of the Apes", and then some films from last year that are on screeners, like "Downsizing", "The Post" and "Stronger". Hopefully it will all make some kind of sense once May is over.
But first, Rebecca Ferguson carries over from "The Greatest Showman", for her fourth film of the year - she's having a strong 2018, for sure. But hey, so is Jake Gyllenhaal, as I kick off another chain featuring FOUR of his films, to add to the two I've already watched this year.
THE PLOT: A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discovers a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars and now threatens all life on Earth.
AFTER: In this film, scientists confirm the existence of life on another planet, and once that happens, everything is fine, really. It's not dangerous or threatening in any way, and it definitely does not want to eat us. Just kidding...
As exciting and entertaining as this film was, I have to wonder why anybody bothered making it, since it's basically just a carbon copy of the original "Alien" film. Oh, sure, there are some minor differences, like this film is set on a space station orbiting Earth, and not in deep space like the Nostromo was. (But this just increases the risk, because if the alien nasty gets loose, it could find its way to the all-you-can-eat buffet that is Planet Earth.) At its core, this is just another "Alien"-like hunt aboard a space vessel as a creature works its way through (umm, in some cases literally) the crew.
Don't we know this drill by now? First the creature gets aboard, then it grows in size and gets into the ventilation system, and then before you know it, it's eating people's faces. It's one of those deals where you can almost predict what's going to happen from the dialogue, they telegraph all the twists and turns in the plot by saying, "Well be fine, as long as THIS doesn't happen..." Like "We'll be fine as long as it doesn't get close to the reactor...." or "We'll be fine as long as it doesn't get past that airlock..." Well, guess what? (I altered the film's dialogue here to avoid spoilers, but you get my drift.)
The goal here, in the event that extraterrestrial life should be discovered, was to keep it aboard the space station, just as a precaution - and then to have a series of "firewalls" should anything go wrong, to triple-prevent any dangerous creature from threatening humans. And they'll all be FINE as long as every one of those firewalls does its job...
The creature here starts as a sort of non-descript multi-celled organism, looking like a tiny liver or pancreas or somethiing, and then has an interim stage where it looks a bit like a clear cellophane starfish. Then its tentacles make it look more octopus-like, so if you don't care for seafood, this may not be the movie for you. Even if slimy seafood doesn't make you queasy, there are still plenty of gross-out moments here. Maybe nothing akin to the alien in "Alien" ripping through that guy's chest, but even still...
Future astronauts should take note, in case the situation ever comes up where they are lucky (?) enough to be among the first to represent humanity when a form of extraterrestrial life is first discovered, because many mistakes were made here, not the least of which appeared to be a failure to have the right kind of food for an alien to eat, so it wouldn't have to eat people's faces. I mean, did they even try giving it chocolate? No, they did not. All they gave it to eat were astronauts, so what the hell did they expect? You've got to bring a lot of different foods and substances on board with you, to prevent the thingy from developing a taste for human flesh! Rookie mistake.
Also starring Jake Gyllenhaal (last seen in "Rendition"), Ryan Reynolds (last seen in "Self/Less"), Hiroyuki Sanada (last seen in "Mr. Holmes"), Ariyon Bakare (last seen in "Rogue One"), Olga Dykhovichnaya, Naoko Mori, with cameos from David Muir, Elizabeth Vargas.
RATING: 5 out of 10 thrusters
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