A sci-fi/horror that is a cross between Alien and Gravity, yet not nearly as good as either, Life is nevertheless an effective and at times inventive thriller that should appeal to fans of the genre.

Premise: The crew of the International Space Station take delivery of soil samples collected from Mars by a remote probe, and soon discover a hibernating single-cell organism. Needless to say, it does not end well…

Verdict:

In many ways, there is not a lot that is new about the premise or plot to Life, and any viewers who don’t think that it’s a bad idea to attempt to revive the hibernating single-cell organism found in a Martian soil sample have obviously never seen a sci-fi horror film before. This film lacks the originality of its spiritual ancestor Alien, or even later entries in the genre like Event Horizon or Sunshine.

That said, what elevates the film from straight-to-DVD territory is the quality of its execution. For one, we have a top notch cast that combines recognisable names – Ryan Reynolds as the American engineer, Jake Gyllenhaal as the American medical officer, and Rebecca Ferguson as the British quarantine officer – together with solid supporting character actors making up the rest of the international crew of the ISS. In fact, the concept of the movie means that the six-person crew on the ISS are the entire cast, but they are able to carry the film between them without difficulty.

“…the plot in ‘Life’ is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness…”

The film is written by the team of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who previously wrote the hugely enjoyable films Zombieland and Deadpool. Given the writers’ previous filmography, it’s perhaps a little surprising that Life is a straight-up, tense and gory sci-fi/horror, with none of the comedic elements that made Zombieland and Deadpool such a success. Still, you can’t blame them for wanting to try something different, and writers shouldn’t be pigeon-holed into a single genre any more than actors should.

But that said, the plot and the writing in Life is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. At times, there are some inventive and surprising developments, some creative and original deaths, and even the order in which the crew get bumped off is not entirely predictable. But on the other hand, there are some occasions where the plot relies too heavily on the characters to make stupid mistakes to move the story forward, which is a real frustration. Just as clichéd and annoying as the “prom-queen-who-can’t-run-away-without-tripping-over” is the “highly-trained-scientist-who-won’t-follow-basic-quarantine-procedures”…

“…the contemporary setting and technology does give the film a more grounded feel…”

The film is directed by Daniel Espinosa, who does a great job of cranking up the tension and maintaining the claustrophobic, moody atmosphere on board the ISS. It’s also interesting to see a contemporary sci-fi/horror, set on board the existing ISS rather than set in the near-to-distant future as most of these genre films are, and this also adds a freshness and a sense of realism (to an extent) to the film. Make no mistake, this is an unapologetically old school space-monster film, and unlike recent films like Interstellar, Gravity and The Martian, I don’t think much of this film stands up to scientific scrutiny (my apologies to any astrobiologists or exobiologists who want to tell me that I’m wrong). But the contemporary setting and technology does give the film a more grounded feel than a lot of the other sci-fi/horror films out there.

In terms of the special and visual effects, the representation of weightlessness on board the ISS is impressive – perhaps not as impressive as Gravity, but that film had a budget of $100m, and Life had a budget of just over half that. The weightlessness adds to the film’s uniqueness amongst its sci-fi/horror peers, bearing in mind that most if not all of the best films in the genre (Alien, Event Horizon, Sunshine et al) have gone down the artificial gravity route.

“…a little too patchy and uneven to be remembered as a classic sci-fi/horror film…”

I’ve deliberately avoided talking too much about the creature – which is given the inappropriately cute name “Calvin” as a result of a PR stunt to allow school children to name the newly discovered single-cell organism – as half the fun with a film like this is not knowing precisely what the crew are going to find themselves up against. Suffice to say, as this isn’t a “viral outbreak” film Calvin does not remain as a single-cell for long, and when it starts to develop, it’s rendered with some fairly impressive CGI that conveys a tangible sense of creepy otherworldliness, and its design makes the most of the opportunities provided by the zero-G environment.

At the end of the day, Life is perhaps a little too patchy and uneven to be remembered as a classic sci-fi/horror film, but if it had just been able to avoid a few more of the genre clichés, and it had relied just a little less of stupid character decisions, it could have been. As it stands, the moments of inventiveness and creativity mean that this should definitely appeal to fans of the genre, and even if it feels a little derivative in places, it’s an enjoyably tense way to spend a couple of hours.