Is there life on Mars and if so is it friendly? That is the question that the sci-fi thriller ‘Life’ grapples. Many quality space adventures like ‘Gravity’ and ‘Alien’ have explored the dangers of outer space exceptionally well. Director Daniel Espinosa borrows from these iconic films to deliver chills in zero gravity. It won’t go down in history as one of the best of the genre but it provides enough suspense to keep it in orbit. ‘Life’ wastes no time setting up the storyline. Six astronauts living on the International Space Station just recovered a probe returning from Mars. The scientists are eager to begin experiments on the fresh samples. Before you know it, lead biologist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) discovers a single-cell protozoan under his microscope. The crew is elated that they have discovered the first sign of life on Mars.
The ISS crew includes Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson), Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) and two lesser known actors Olga Dihovichnaya and Hiroyuki Sanada that round off the cast. They stream live from their space station to big screen televisions back on Earth in Times Square. The Martian organism is named “Calvin” by an elementary school that won a contest. The cinematography by Seamus McGarvey (Godzilla) perfectly gives off a foreboding claustrophobic atmosphere in the space station. It sets the tone that there are really not many places to hide in the vessel. As Derry bonds with the little creature, the other scientists are decidedly wary and with good reason. Dr. North who is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to quarantine it. She remarks that Calvin is “all muscle, all brain and all eye.”
At first Calvin is playful until Derry makes a grave error in the lab that awakens the little guy. The creature turns violent and becomes a danger to everyone on board. The film shifts gears from a space drama to a deadly game of survival. The Martian grows into a terrifying starfish looking monster. The real tension is trying to figure out who Calvin will take out first. With an A-List cast, the order may surprise you. The plot takes on greater urgency when it becomes imperative that the creature never reaches Earth. It has the potential to destroy all of humanity. The astronauts soon realize that they might not come out of this mission alive. It seems like every time they have a surefire way of destroying it, the creature displays incredible survival skills. Derry points out, “Calvin doesn’t hate us. He has to kill us in order to survive.”
One of the problems with the characters is that they are not fleshed out enough. There is no backstory particularly with Gyllenhaal’s Dr. Jordan. All we know is that he has spent too much time in space. His colleague Miranda urges him to return to Earth but he tells her, “I like it up here.” He has the same bug-eyed look that he had in ‘Nightcrawler.’ Reynolds gets to do what he does best which is uttering snarky one-liners that slowly vanish as the creature’s ability to outsmart them dumbfounds the crew. It’s only a matter of time when Calvin kills one of them. The way he does it in zero gravity is eerie. Although Gyllenhaal, Reynolds and Ferguson give commendable performances, we don’t get to know them well enough to care when one bites the dust.
The director succeeds at making the space station look realistic and confining. Once they seal an air lock or close a hatch, there seems to be some other way Calvin manages to slither back into the spacecraft. The harsh fact about ‘Life’ is how the alien will go to any lengths for its survival. The story is reminiscent of a classic B monster movie. If you don’t over-analyze the science too much, it is entertaining to find out if the humans will survive this nasty close encounter of the third kind. There are a few plot twists that will keep you guessing to the climax. With Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien: Covenant’ opening in May, some sci-fi fans might decide to wait for ‘Life’ as a rental. ‘Life’ is ultimately a serviceable monster movie that is fun to watch but lacks much depth.
