'Life' A Review

Life is a scifi horror film about a group scientists on the International Space Station who are studying samples from Mars. British biologist Hugh(Ariyon Bakare) discovers a cell in the Mars sample and after feeding it glucose and adjusting the atmosphere in its cage it begins to grow. After a month of observation the alien dubbed "Calvin" escapes and begins picking off the crew one by one.

The core cast of six are all wonderful actors. Hiroyuki Sanada as Sho, always a confident, comfortable, magnetic presence on screen. Ryan Reynolds as Rory provides his patented and effective wit. Rebecca Ferguson as Miranda and Olga Dihovichnaya as Katerina both give compelling performances with dimension albeit on little in the ways of script. Jake Gyllenhaal as David is serviceable but is the outlier of the cast in that he feels at points like he's acting, he has moments of presentation which are all the more noticeable given how present and in-the-moment the other cast members are throughout.

Visually the film is crisp and fluid, there's many evocative shots of the crew zipping along hallways in zero g, deep space visible through portholes. The monster design of Calvin is original and interesting, like a space squid with teeth. The only downfall is how rote the plot is. There is nothing new about the monster-in-the-walls beats the film hits, it falls in the long and dark shadow of Alien and doesn't offer anything particularly new. The ending is also a stumble with a twist that is predictable and a final shot that is more run on sentence than exclamation.

Excellent cast, sharp aesthetic, tired narrative.

Rent It.