In Space, no one can hear you sigh when watching the latest space horror flick…
From the creative minds of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Deadpool, Zombieland) comes the film, Life. The duo attempt to tackle a more grounded and serious story that falls short of being able to breathe new life into the familiar space-thriller genre.
Life features an all-star cast with the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Southpaw), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) attempting to carry the film through mediocre dialogue and a familiar premise. However, there is something to be said for charisma and the cast is just interesting enough to keep us in our seats.
Directed by David Espinosa (Child 44), Life follows the story of a group of astronauts who man the International Space Station just on the outskirts of the Earth’s ozone. After an unbelievable stunt with Ryan Reynolds playing baseball with a research probe, the team delve into the soil samples from Mars that may contain life beyond Earth. Fast forward through some banter and mild character development, the soil reveals an organism that becomes hostile after some not-so-safe electrical prodding. The organism, named “Calvin” by starry-eyed school kids, continues to be a threatening presence to the crew. Whilst the name adds some comedy to the film, it detracts from the fear of the creature as you can’t seem to forget that something named “Calvin” is cramming itself into the mouths of the crew and killing them from the inside.
Life attempts to play on the audience’s fear of the unknown, by adding a foreign creature that just loves killing. Sounds familiar? It should because Ridley Scott blew that premise out of the water with Alien in 1979. Where Life fell short in originality, it might have saved itself with the most entertaining ending to a film since The Sixth Sense. You leave the cinema with a sense of hopelessness as you try to comprehend the impact of its twist ending and half-hope for a sequel to show just how screwed the people of Earth are.
You can catch Life in cinemas now before it gets eclipsed by the newly released The Fate of the Furious and check out the trailer below.