Life
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: March 24, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
24
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczMar 30, 2017
Director Daniel Espinosa whips up some nail-biting sequences. But the suspense is all by-the-numbers. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherMar 30, 2017
No huge surprises but finely tuned and fun, like the love-child of Gravity and Alien, with added popcorn. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMar 23, 2017
Life toes a line between underwhelming and just-good-enough, but performances help elevate an otherwise generic sci-fi clone with nothing new to add. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMar 23, 2017
Life jolts audiences with relentless ferocity, but it’s not interesting. Read full review
60
Screen DailyWendy IdeMar 23, 2017
While the bracingly bleak climax will come as a surprise to pretty much nobody, it still comes with an efficiently grisly pay off. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 23, 2017
Taken on its entertainingly trashy terms, Espinosa’s film does most of the things you want from it quite well, at least until a gotcha ending which doesn’t getcha. Read full review
60
EmpireJonathan PileMar 23, 2017
Part Alien, part Gravity, just not as good as either of them. But Life whips along at a decent pace and deploys enough engaging action sequences to make it work. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 22, 2017
It’s a serviceable, watchable, determinedly unoriginal film. Read full review
58
ConsequenceBlake GobleMar 23, 2017
Life is like a box of mediocrity. You more-or-less know exactly what you’re gonna get. But for what it’s worth, Daniel Espinosa’s space shocker, while totally born from the same stars as many other films, still lands about half the time. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMar 24, 2017
Life struck me as several cuts above “meh” but never made me jump out of my seat. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerMar 23, 2017
Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds and others float around one another for an intense but spark-free 103 minutes, their characters barely sketched. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 23, 2017
Director Daniel Espinosa’s stylish and at times fantastically gory Life features an A-list, international and diverse cast, a few grotesque surprises and one very cool and labyrinthine spaceship — but eventually crashes and burns due to multiple failures. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMar 23, 2017
As the astronauts contend with airlocks, busted equipment and escape pods, it becomes increasingly difficult to pretend that this isn’t territory where more inventive screenwriters...and stronger visual stylists have gone before. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 23, 2017
Let's hope that Ridley Scott follows his own blueprint better in the upcoming "Alien: Covenant." The dull and derivative Life is no competition. It's DOA. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartMar 23, 2017
For all its CGI showiness, the fact that Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal signed on for this splatterfest is the film’s most impressive feat. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 23, 2017
Part of the problem is that, in trying to convey the chaos of abject fear, Espinosa makes it hard to figure out the architecture of the ship, so we don’t know where anyone’s running. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 23, 2017
Like Life itself, this alien is nasty, brutish, and short. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 23, 2017
The performances are sharp, with the actors getting across fear, intense cold and a range of emotions, from desperate panic to noble sacrifice. It’s just that Life is more inevitable than surprising. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnMar 19, 2017
Life spends its first act building up some big ideas, but eventually unravels into another monster movie in space. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 18, 2017
The picture struggles to find a satisfying rhythm as the members of this multinational, co-ed team get slooshed up by Calvin or suffer related lethal mishaps. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 24, 2017
Given the fact that Life was co-written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who co-wrote the wacked-out “Zombieland” and “Deadpool,” the film’s glum earnestness is doubly disappointing. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisMar 29, 2017
By the end, however, 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. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 23, 2017
For all its flashy trappings, weighty ruminations and zero-gravity floatings aboard the International Space Station, Life turns out to be another variant of “Alien,” though without the grungy horror and grim fun. In space no one can hear you snore. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonMar 22, 2017
A handful of tense moments and some neat Gravity style effects just about keep Life ticking along. But the direction by Daniel Espinosa (he of the dire Child 44) is seriously shoddy – there's a moment towards the end when everything seems suddenly to happen at once, and not in a good way – and the total lack of originality is disappointing. Read full review
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