Life ★★★½
I LIKE it when a movie just stands and delivers; does exactly what it says on the outside label.
The new sci-fi horror Life is a case in point.
While it has an uplifting title, the MA rating immediately gives away the fact it is an ironic one. You don’t have to look at the rating advice or watch the trailer to know it’s going to be a lot more about death.
Life owes its existence to Ridley Scott’s Alien and doesn’t try to pretend any different. The quality of film-making, particularly the photography and visual effects, means it cannot be considered a poor imitation.
And it contains enough interesting sequences, including the initial five-minute tracking shot, the slow-motion first death by alien and the finale, to make it more memorable than a hundred other knock-offs.
There are six crew onboard the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting Earth. Their main mission is to examine the possibility of alternative life in space and a probe is returning to the station with samples from Mars.
The film starts with the Mars probe being pummelled by an asteroid shower that causes a malfunction and means the probe will be heading towards the ISS much too fast. The flight engineer, played by Ryan Reynolds, must space walk in order to operate a large arm on the exterior of the ISS (still not exactly sure why he had to go outside) that will literally have to “catch” the hurtling probe.
Whether it’s scientifically accurate or not, this is an exciting sequence shot entirely from within the ISS looking out. We are then quickly introduced to the characters before focussing on their examination of what initially looks like a microscopic, leaf-shaped cell with follicles.
They stimulate the cell into life and rejoice at finding the first proof of life beyond Earth. At home the celebrations include a schools competition across America to name the alien. Pretty quickly, the tables are turned and ‘Calvin’ reacts to being awakened from its slumber in a deadly manner.
And so we move into pure horror for the remainder of the running time with the crew seeking to evade and our kill the ever-growing creature. As I said, exactly what you would expect, but done pretty well.
The film also benefits from having a strong cast who help overcome the script limitations. You could argue that talent like Jake Gylenhall is wasted in his role, but then again he chose to do it.
The final 20 minutes are quite intense, underpinned by a relentless soundtrack, although one sequence is extremely hard to see. The last sequence fits well with the genre.
Overall, in terms of where it ranks within the sci-fi horror sub-genre, it’s not Alien or Sunshine, but I would put it on a par with Event Horizon.