I know that saying "Lifeforce is good because it's got BIG OL' JUGS" isn't the most serious approach to film review, but i think Lifeforce is unique because it's thoroughly a spectacle. Hear me out.
The film is divided into 4 major acts;
Act 1 is the approach to the alien starship. It has a solid Hard Sci-Fi tone and concludes with the shock of finding the bodies in stasis.
Act 2 has a mystery-horror vibe, the body is brought into the lab and they try to find what it is, and then a Monster(tm) is revealed.
Act 3 is the Monster(tm) running rampage in the city, classic 1960s Monster(tm) film with army guys shooting their completely useless weapons at the Monster(tm) and being totally ineffective.
Act 4 .. we don't speak of Act 4. The church and all that horrible special effects stuff that looks more like a Zombie movie than anything else.
The first 3 acts are all very, very well made. The tone is correct, the pacing is fine, the acting and directing is ok, and the film tropes are all nice and lined up ready to pop out as you'd expect them.
And through this spectacle, that could be the spaceship sections, the shooting sections, the mood lighting of the mystery sections, everything is very visually pleasing.
Now, if you've ever watched films of these genre (Scif / Mystery Horror / Monster) of the 60s and 70s, you would know that the Monster plays a very important part; you show the audience the details of the monster you made, (generally a big ugly rubber suit) and they all go OOoooh! Look at the monster !!
And in Lifeforce instead they replaced the Monster with Mathilda May's big lifeforcebags. With her watermelons. Her humongous jars of baby milk.
Eh, it's one way to make a film. It's not the first time that someone thought of gluing your eyes to the screen with a beautiful woman, and i can't blame them, because it sells.
All in all we need to see past May's enormous gazongas, and appreciate the fact that she's the equivalent of a rubber-suit special effect: something to be appreciated for how visually striking it is.
Now .. if they could only re-shoot that horrible ending ...
My vote: a solid 7.5/10 in Director's Cut edition, because nobody can watch Lifeforce and say it didn't have an impact on them.
The film is divided into 4 major acts;
Act 1 is the approach to the alien starship. It has a solid Hard Sci-Fi tone and concludes with the shock of finding the bodies in stasis.
Act 2 has a mystery-horror vibe, the body is brought into the lab and they try to find what it is, and then a Monster(tm) is revealed.
Act 3 is the Monster(tm) running rampage in the city, classic 1960s Monster(tm) film with army guys shooting their completely useless weapons at the Monster(tm) and being totally ineffective.
Act 4 .. we don't speak of Act 4. The church and all that horrible special effects stuff that looks more like a Zombie movie than anything else.
The first 3 acts are all very, very well made. The tone is correct, the pacing is fine, the acting and directing is ok, and the film tropes are all nice and lined up ready to pop out as you'd expect them.
And through this spectacle, that could be the spaceship sections, the shooting sections, the mood lighting of the mystery sections, everything is very visually pleasing.
Now, if you've ever watched films of these genre (Scif / Mystery Horror / Monster) of the 60s and 70s, you would know that the Monster plays a very important part; you show the audience the details of the monster you made, (generally a big ugly rubber suit) and they all go OOoooh! Look at the monster !!
And in Lifeforce instead they replaced the Monster with Mathilda May's big lifeforcebags. With her watermelons. Her humongous jars of baby milk.
Eh, it's one way to make a film. It's not the first time that someone thought of gluing your eyes to the screen with a beautiful woman, and i can't blame them, because it sells.
All in all we need to see past May's enormous gazongas, and appreciate the fact that she's the equivalent of a rubber-suit special effect: something to be appreciated for how visually striking it is.
Now .. if they could only re-shoot that horrible ending ...
My vote: a solid 7.5/10 in Director's Cut edition, because nobody can watch Lifeforce and say it didn't have an impact on them.