Review - "Life"

Life - directed by Daniel Espinosa

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Olga Dihovichnaya, Hiroyuki Sanada, Naoko Mori, Ariyon Bakare, Alexandre Nguyen, Camiel Warren-Taylor, Hiu Woong-Sin

Screenplay: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick

Music Score by: Jon Ekstrand

Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey

Edited by: Mary Jo Markey & Frances Parker
Running Time: 104 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R13 - Violence, Profanity 

Two things surprised me about this movie.
Firstly how did it get an R13 rating rather than an R16?
It is loaded with profanity and a pretty decent amount of blood floats around the zero gravity environs of the International Space Station.
I would say enough to warrant the higher rating.
Secondly I am shocked that even though the pre-release trailers show far too much (as they tend to these days) they still fail to accurately capture the tone of this movie.
Sure- you are shown enough to get the gist of it - a small crew terrorised by an alien lifeform but this film is a pretty damned nifty throwback to the likes of "The Thing", "The Blob", "Lifeforce" and very definitely "Alien".
And that means that it aims to be a good old fashioned crowd pleaser.
Which I am delighted to say it certainly is.
"Life" is a wonderfully simple story of a space station, its crew and the rascally little alien lifeform that gets loose amongst them.
It's science-fiction/horror of the sort that we just don't get enough of these days.

Ryan, Rebecca, Jake, Olga, Hiroyuki and Ariyon... brooding around in space

Movie producers and screenwriters must have been rubbing their hands together when the International Space Station was announced.

Not only does the big old orbiting bit of tin provide a terrific location for any number of situations but by definition begs for a multi-national, multi-ethnic cast.
"Life" takes advantage of both things.
The ISS may be removed from Earth but it is still close enough that the idea of a hostile lifeform getting loose on it has added gravity (no pun intended)
And then there is the cast made up of two Brits, Two Americans, a Japanese man and a Russian woman.
So that scorecard then - two genders, four nationalities.
All cynicism about casting for broad worldwide appeal aside (perfectly valid anyway) this does allow for some very interesting casting.
Rebecca Ferguson (so good in "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation") is reason enough for me to see a movie alone.
She is such a strong presence that she frequently threatens to outshine her leading men.
Here she has Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds either side of her.
Reynolds is pretty much what you expect - smart-assed and cocksure.
Likewise Gyllenhaal plays the sort of brooding, hard to figure guy that he has done so well in the likes of "Donnie Darko", "Prisoners" and "Nightcrawler".
Also along for the rollercoaster ride is Russian Olga Dihovichnaya, Japans Hiroyuki Sanada ("The Wolverine", "The Last Samurai") and Briton Ariyon Bakare ("The Dark Knight", "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story")

Now, given the set up we know that not everyone is getting out of this alive so much of the fun in the first half of the film is playing a Friday the 13th-esque game of 'who dies next?'.

Once the preliminary set up is out of the way and the alien microbe is aboard the ISS and has grown to a suitably sized and worrying smart level we are off and running.

It is also about now that the film reveals its true inspirations.

This film was probably eased into production thanks to the likes of "The Martian" and "Gravity" but owes far more to 1980's horror flicks directed by John Carpenter, David Cronenberg and Tobe Hooper.

But it is Ridley Scott's 1979 classic "Alien" that will undoubtedly be in most viewers minds as they watch "Life".

There are frequent shots reminiscent of the crew of the Nostromo fleeing down dark spaceship corridors and even the alien itself seems at least in part inspired by the formidable Xenomorph.

In no small way due to its tendency to get right inside a nice warm, human body and tear it apart.

We get loads of blood- both droplets and torrents floating around the screen.

It is all pretty tense stuff and even though the writing duo responsible also wrote "Deadpool", "GI Joe: Retaliation" and "Zombieland" the humour that is present in the first fifteen minutes disappears pretty damned fast!

It may frequently look like "Gravity" or the "Martian" but "Life" is far more "Alien" and "The Thing" at heart

The less that you know about the alien at the centre of the film the better but I will say that it is wonderfully unique and terrifically creepy and intimidating.

The intelligence that it possesses is manifested in frequently devious ways.

It allows the film to play a fun game of guess where it is and how it got there and the location of the film is never better used when this is happening.

Sleep pods, spacesuits, airlocks and zero gravity are all used as the creature gets bigger and smarter and the tension and bodycount escalate.

I had a great time with this film.

It was exactly the film I was hoping it would be and exactly the one that I was in the mood for.

It wears its sci-fi / horror inspiration with pride as it takes us on an exciting, bloody ride that culminates in a very satisfying ending that owes a debt to one of the most effective moments of "The Silence of the Lambs".

(I will not say how but you will know it when you see it)

I hope that word spreads about this film because it really is the kind of honest to God good time flick that is increasingly rare.

Thirty years ago this would have been marketed as a date flick.

It is far more fun than the trailers would have you believe.

See it before someone spoils it for you.

RATING: 80 / 100

CONCLUSION: A rollercoaster ride that owes more to the work of John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper and Ridley Scott than it does Kubrick or Cuaron. Tense, blood soaked fun.