History YMMV / Life2017

* JustHereForGodzilla: Invoked by the film's marketing itself; amidst lower-than-expected box office projections, the film piggybacked off Reynolds's recent A-list vault from ''Film/{{Deadpool}}'' and put his death scene front and center in commercials with social media pull quotes from moviegoers saying it was the best sequence in the film.

* WhatAnIdiot: [[spoiler: The Vietnamese fishermen at the very end of the film. Language barrier or no, seeing a man who just came from space coated in some kind of strange web material should give anyone pause, but not these guys. They are happy to open up the pod and apparently pull him out.]]

* SoOkayItsAverage: Generally regarded as competently made movie that is held back by a story that is a very standard “humans meet hostile alien” movie with little to differentiate it. It does not help the protagonists are [[IdiotPlot very stupid]] and the antagonist is a boring InvincibleVillain, [[TooBleakStoppedCaring which makes it harder to care what is happening]].

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: If you read spoilers online before seeing this film, you're going to find it hard to care about any of the characters, seeing as [[spoiler: they all die or are implied to have died by the end]]. Coupled with Calvin's InvincibleVillain status (as detailed below) and [[spoiler: the possibility that it's going to destroy the Earth]], this is a film that won't sit well with most people.
* WhatAnIdiot:
** In hindsight, it wasn't such a good idea to provoke an alien life form that you knew nothing about, now, was it? For that matter, also for the scientists never having a plan for what is necessary to kill it in the event it did escape.
** When it attacks Hugh's hand, you'd ''expect them to do something, right?'' Especially since it's now showing hostile behavior. What do they actually do? ''Nothing!'' They just keep watching until it breaks Hugh's hand... which is actually one of the few sensible things they do in the entire film. Hugh was, after all, in a quarantined lab when an obviously hostile organism started attacking him. Breaching this quarantine is the last thing you should do in this situation, although it's still criminal negligence of the highest order that no emergency protocols of any kind were in place, or if they were, that nobody acted on them.
** When the alien amoeba invades Rory's body, what the scientists should have done was jettison Rory into space posthaste. But no, they just acted like dumb, scared children.
** Forgetting that it was electricity that caused Calvin pain, and never use electricity on him again after discovering this important weakness and instead keeping using fire on Calvin when he is clearly immune to it resulting in a loss of fuel and a decaying orbit.
** Ditto for Kat not detaching her own tether and kicking herself away from the station, thus carrying Calvin away, as soon as she realized she was done for. Let another crew member finish the repairs she'd come out to make ''after'' the killer snot monster was safely out of jumping range to return.
** Assuming Calvin is a global threat to Earth and that means luring it back into the station (where it has the best chance of surviving and can do the most damage and kill them all) instead of leaving it outside in the void of space based purely on the assumption that he can survive indefinitely without oxygen and would survive entry into Earth's atmosphere; something which they have no reason to assume. The incinerator Rory used against him (which was obviously harmful enough to make Calvin retreat form it) is nothing compared to the heat, friction, and other effects Calvin would encounter during reentry, or the fact that he would inevitably impact the surface at terminal velocity. (Comparing the two is like comparing a BB-gun to a howitzer.) And since the space station is in a decaying orbit anyway, luring him back into the ship means he's going to fall to Earth regardless, but now Calvin has the entire space station protecting his entry and providing him with oxygen. "Let's see. We can either all survive and have a high chance of Calvin dying on his own with minimal risk to Earth. Or we can make sure we all die while giving Calvin the best odds of survival, while putting the Earth at greater risk than the first plan.")
** The whole plan to use the escape pods at the end. There was very little real reason to think he could survive reentry, whether he rode the station down or not. And certainly not enough to justify allowing him into an escape pod which is specifically designed to allow living things to survive reentry, and risked giving him a first-class trip to Earth if anything went wrong. It's almost like these astronauts want to be killed by Calvin and help him to survive so he can endanger Earth.
** The idiotic Vietnamese fishermen, upon seeing David covered in some unknown alien biomass and desperately shouting at them ''not'' to open up his pod, decide to open it up anyway. The only justification for why they didn't heed his warning is because they likely couldn't understand a word he said- even so, just from his tone of voice and body language it's pretty obvious he's warning them away.
** Even our villain isn't immune here. If it could indeed survive reentry, as the humans speculate about, why didn't it - while it was outside already - just jump right off the ISS down towards Earth, letting some of its cells survive the reentry and grow out again?

* IdiotPlot: Throughout the story, the astronauts act dumb and Calvin's success is directly related to their mistakes and stupidity. This includes, but is not limited to: hyper-intelligent people forgetting their training at inopportune times, protocols being ignored and replaced by bravado, and objectives being hidden from characters, which obviously comes back to bite everyone in the ass, and severely overestimating and making assumptions about the danger Calvin poses to the Earth to the point where the astronauts perform actions that actually end up helping Calvin repeatedly.

* SpiritualAdaptation: With ''Film/AlienCovenant'' following the new continuity established by ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', this film is the closest thing to an actual remake of ''Film/{{Alien}}'', with the bonus point of Calvin starting as the black goo and eventually looking like the Trilobite.

** The idiotic Vietnamese fishermen, upon seeing David covered in some unknown alien biomass and desperately shouting at them ''not'' to open up his pod, decide to open it up anyway. The only justification for why they didn't heed his warning is because they likely couldn't understand a word he said.

** Even our villain isn't immune here. If it could indeed survive reentry, as the humans speculate about, why didn't it just jump right off the ISS down towards Earth, letting some of its cells survive the reentry and grow out again?

* SoOkayItsAverage: Generally regarded as competently made movie that is held back by a story that is a very standard “humans meet hostile alien” movie with little to differentiate it. It does not help the protagonists are [[IdiotPlot very stupid]] and the antagonist is a boring InvincibleVillain, [[TooBleakStoppedCaring which makes it harder to care what is happening.]]
* SpiritualLicensee: With ''Film/AlienCovenant'' following the new continuity established by ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', this film is the closest thing to an actual remake of ''Film/{{Alien}}'', with the bonus point of Calvin starting as the black goo and eventually looking like the Trilobite.
* TheyCopiedItNowItSucks: Virtually all the reviews, even the most positive ones, sport the complaint that ''Life'' is too similar to ''Film/{{Alien}}'' and its many imitators to fully work as its own film, especially given how predictable most of the plot points end up being as a consequence.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: If you read spoilers online before seeing this film, you're going to find it hard to care about any of the characters, seeing as [[spoiler: they all die or are implied to have died by the end.]] Coupled with Calvin's InvincibleVillain status (as detailed below) and [[spoiler: the possibility that it's going to destroy the Earth]], this is a film that won't sit well with most people.

** At the end of the film after fishermen open the pod, we cut to an overhead view and the movie pauses for a ''very'' long time with nothing happening before going to black. With just how everything seems to stop for so long, it almost makes one think Calvin just died on reentry anyway, diffusing any impact the DownerEnding tried to have.

* RootingForTheEmpire: Admit it, you rooted for Calvin!

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: If you read spoilers online before seeing this film, you're going to find it hard to care about any of the characters, seeing as [[spoiler: they all die or are implied to have died by the end.]] Coupled with Calvin's InvincibleVillain status (as detailed below) and [[spoiler: the possibility that it's going to destroy the Earth]], this is a film that won't sit well with most people.

* EpilepticTrees: A fan theory that this movie was a StealthPrequel to ''{{Film/Venom|2018}}'' popped up right around immediately after it was announced that Sony was scheduling a ''Venom'' movie. The fact that a minor shot from ''Film/SpiderMan3'' was reused for this movie added fuel to the fire. While ultimately proven false, Daniel Espinosa ''would'' go on to direct ''{{Film/Morbius|2022}}''.

* EpilepticTrees: A fan theory that this movie was a StealthPrequel to ''{{Film/Venom|2018}}'' popped up right around immediately after it was announced that Sony was scheduling a ''Venom'' movie. The fact that a minor shot from ''Film/SpiderMan3'' was reused for this movie added fuel to the fire. While ultimately proven false, Daniel Espinosa ''would'' go on to direct ''{{Film/Morbius|2020}}''.

** To further elaborate: Calvin goes inside [[spoiler:Rory's]] mouth, despite [[spoiler:Rory's]] horrified expression and futile attempts to stop him. [[spoiler: And then he starts coughing up blood droplets and can't breathe. His face grows more strained with veins present. Then he stops moving. And he just floats there, as huge droplets of blood float out of Rory's mouth. Then Calvin emerges out of his bloodied mouth, appearing much, '''MUCH''' bigger.]]

Viewer: "Astronaut crew: just do nothing. Whenever you do anything, it just makes the entire situation worse for everyone ''except'' Calvin."

** The idiotic Vietnamese fishermen, upon seeing David covered in some unknown alien biomass and desperately shouting at them ''not'' to open up his pod, decide to open it up anyway.

** Assuming Calvin is a global threat to Earth and that means luring it back into the station (where it has the best chance of surviving and can do the most damage and kill them all) instead of leaving it outside in the void of space based purely on the assumption that he can survive indefinitely without oxygen and would survive entry into Earth's atmosphere; something which they have no reason to assume. The incinerator Rory used against him (which was obviously harmful enough to make Calvin retreat form it) is nothing compared to the heat, friction, and other effects Calvin would encounter during reentry, or the fact that he would inevitably impact the surface at terminal velocity. (Comparing the two is like comparing a BB-gun to a howitzer.) And since the space station is in a decaying orbit anyway, luring him back into the ship means he's going to fall to Earth regardless, but now Calvin has the entire space station protecting his entry and providing him with oxygen. It's almost like these astronauts want to be killed by Calvin and help him to survive so he can endanger Earth. "Let's see. We can either all survive and have a high chance of Calvin dying on his own with minimal risk to Earth. Or we can make sure we all die while giving Calvin the best odds of survival, while putting the Earth at greater risk as the first plan.")
** The whole plan to use the escape pods at the end. There was very little real reason to think he could survive reentry, whether he rode the station down or not. And certainly not enough to justify allowing him into an escape pod which is specifically designed to allow living things to survive reentry, and risked giving him a first-class trip to Earth if anything went wrong.

** Viewer: "Astronaut crew: just do nothing. Whenever you do anything, it just makes the entire situation worse for everyone ''except'' Calvin."

** Assuming Calvin is a global threat to Earth and that means luring it back into the station (where it has the best chance of surviving and can do the most damage and kill them all) instead of leaving it outside in the void of space based purely on the assumption that he can survive indefinitely without oxygen and would survive entry into Earth's atmosphere; something which they have no reason to assume. And since the space station is in a decaying orbit anyway, luring him back into the ship means he's going to fall to Earth regardless, but now Calvin has the entire space station protecting his entry and providing him with oxygen. It's almost like these astronauts want to be killed by Calvin and help him to survive so he can endanger Earth. "Let's see. We can either all survive and have a high chance of Calvin dying on his own with minimal risk to Earth. Or we can make sure we all die while giving Calvin the best odds of survival, while putting the Earth at greater risk as the first plan.")
** The whole plan to use the escape pods at the end, and the idea among the crew that Calvin is somehow likely to survive reentry. The incinerator Rory used against him (which was obviously harmful enough to make Calvin retreat form it) is nothing compared to the heat, friction, and other effects Calvin would encounter during reentry, or the fact that he would inevitably impact the surface at terminal velocity. (Comparing the two is like comparing a BB-gun to a howitzer.) In short there was very little real reason to think he could survive reentry, whether he rode the station down or not. And certainly not enough to justify allowing him into an escape pod which is specifically designed to allow living things to survive reentry, and risked giving him a first-class trip to Earth if anything went wrong.

** Viewer: "Astronauts, just do nothing. Whenever you do anything, it just makes the entire situation worse for everyone ''except'' Calvin."

** Assuming Calvin is a global threat to Earth and that means luring it back into the station (where it has the best chance of surviving and can do the most damage and kill them all) instead of leaving it outside in the void of space based purely on the assumption that he can survive indefinitely without oxygen and would survive entry into Earth's atmosphere; something which they have no reason to assume. And since the space station is in a decaying orbit anyway, luring him back into the ship means he's going to fall to Earth regardkess, but now Calvin has the entire space station protecting his entry and providing him with oxygen. It's almost like these astronauts want to be killed by Calvin and help him to survive so he can endanger Earth. "Let's see. We can either all survive and have a high chance of Calvin dying on his own with minimal risk to Earth. Or we can make sure we all die while giving Calvin the best odds of survival, while putting the Earth at greater risk as the first plan.")

** Viewer: "Astronauts, just do nothing. Whenever you do anything, it just makes the entire situation worse for everyone [i]except[/i] Calvin."

** Assuming Calvin is a global threat to Earth and that means luring it back into the station (where it has the best chance of surviving and can do the most damage and kill them all) instead of leaving it outside in the void of space based purely on the assumption that he can survive indefinitely without oxygen and would survive entry into Earth's atmosphere; something which they have no reason to assume. And since the space station is in a decaying orbit anyway, luring him back into the ship means he's going to fall to Earth, but now has the entire space station protecting his entry. It's almost like these astronauts want to be killed by Calvin and help him to survive so he can endanger Earth. "Let's see. We can either all survive and have a high chance of Calvin dying on his own with minimal risk to Earth. Or we can make sure we all die while giving Calvin the best odds of survival, while putting the Earth at greater risk as the first plan.")

** Assuming Calvin is a global threat to Earth and that means luring it back into the station (where it has the best chance of surviving and can do the most damage and kill them all) instead of leaving it outside in the void of space based purely on the assumption that he can survive indefinitely without oxygen and would survive entry into Earth's atmosphere; something which they have no reason to assume. And since the space station is in a decaying orbit anyway, luring him back into the ship means he's going to fall to Earth, but now has the entire space station protecting his entry. It's almost like these astronauts want to be killed by Calvin and help him to survive so he can endanger Earth.

* IdiotPlot: Throughout the story, the astronauts act dumb and Calvin's success is directly related to their mistakes and stupidity. This includes, but is not limited to: hyper-intelligent people forgetting their training at inopportune times, protocols being ignored and replaced by bravado, and objectives being hidden from characters, which obviously comes back to bite everyone in the ass.

*** It might be a bit cheesy, but Jake Gyllenhaal's performance is enough to elevate it a bit, especially hearing his voice crack and cut off into sobs on the line "Goodnight, nobody."

* SpiritualLicensee: With ''Film/AlienCovenant'' following the new continuity established by ''{{Film/Prometheus}}'', this film is the closest thing to an actual remake of ''{{Film/Alien}}''.

** The idiotic Vietnamese fishermen, upon seeing David covered in some unknown alien biomass and desperately shouting at them, decide to open up his pod anyway.