It’s Alien meets Gravity in this sci-fi thriller. Two great films, and Life has the added benefit of its talented cast which includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds.
Life follows the International Space Station and its crew of six stock characters. They recover a soil sample from Mars that contains an alien cell. Soon, it grows into a pair of Martian Calvin Klein underwear and tries to kill the crew. But really it’s about an alien monster called Calvin.
I mentioned that Life clearly took some inspiration from Alien, but some of you might think it sounds like a rip-off. And you’d be absolutely right. It’s even a bit rich to say it was simply inspired by Gravity. It steals the long opening long take, an astronaut about to beat the longest space flight record, in-helmet POV shots, and various elements of the ending. And while it shamelessly borrows from better films, it brings very little new to the genre.
The opening sequence looks nice but the issue comes later when you realise that it was pointless. As is the next scene when we get a Q&A session between our astronauts and members of the public. Instead of using the time to build character, the film spends time convincing the audience that the discovery of life on Mars is a big deal. Guess what, your audience has chosen to watch a sci-fi film, they’re probably already into aliens. These are all symptoms of the film starting at the wrong point in the story.
After the first act, things start happening, and we mostly don’t care because we don’t really know any of the people who’re in jeopardy. We’re not even sure who to root for because the film fails to establish a protagonist. Think about Alien – we know who each of our characters are, and Ripley bumps heads with a few of the crewmen before the action starts. Those early dramas add up and pay off later. Nothing like that exists in Life. There’s no hero or heroine. There’s no arsehole for them to clash with. They’re all just there, and they’re all pretty dumb, making facepalm-worthy decisions throughout the story.
The biggest disappointment of Life might be that all the acting is really good. You can tell that Gyllenhaal and Ferguson are giving everything in their roles. It’s just a shame that their characters go totally underdeveloped and will be completely forgettable despite their efforts. Even attempts at characterisation are inconsistent. Gyllenhaal plays a guy who prefers being up in space because he doesn’t like people very much. Yet he’s the medical doctor? It was sadder to see these fine performers trapped in a dire script than seeing their characters stuck in a dire situation.
What about the action then? Surely it’s good once it finally kicks off? Well, I don’t know. I didn’t care about it so much. You’re only on the edge of your seat when bad stuff might happen to someone you care about. There were some tense moments for sure, and one scene in particular made me cringe despite it once again being entirely derivative. I like Calvin Klein too. Some thought went into the monster and making it scary, especially with its slimy, serpentile design that taps into our instinctive fears.
Outside the action, the plot is tedious and offers no twists or reveals that aren’t obvious. Again, compare this to Alien, where more than one twist occurs that re-shapes your view of the film. The terror is derived from the unknown – both the immediate alien danger and the mystery surrounding the situation as a whole.
Competently directed and well-acted, Life suffers from a tedious plot and appalling characterisation. One or two decent action scenes along the way aren’t worth the numbing and predictable journey. It may give horror fans a few scares, but it’ll be frustrating to sci-fi lovers.
(GRADES: Both are from 0 to 10. The left is an objective score based on the film’s merit, the right is my personal enjoyment.)
Check out the rest of my film reviews, including my reviews of Ghost in the Shell and Logan. Also read my opinion articles, including my comparison of The Hobbit trilogy and the Star Wars prequels.
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