Life is intense, if not great
Muddled, rudderless, yet graphically impressive and effectively packed with dismay, “Life” is the science fiction shocker that will do until a better one comes along. Is it great? No. Intense? Definitely.
Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson play crewmembers of a multinational space mission. With three other colleagues, they are returning to Earth with a discovery that could rewrite our view of human history. Their craft is carrying evidence of extraterrestrial life gathered on Mars. That planet is presently extinct, but their microscopic cross section of soil proves at some point we were not alone. It is a revelation that could be, according to your dogma, a very good thing or really bad news. You don’t need the predictive powers of Nostradamus to foresee that, as usually happens when space ships have unexpected passengers, bleak consequences await.
The film’s first chapter sets up the daily routine of living on a gravity-free space station as rather routine in its amazing way. The impressive production design looks convincing. The rocket scientists aboard float through a maze of realistic looking interiors, sharing small talk and specialized information as they cross the ship’s empty high-tech corridors side by side. The talk sounds sophisticated yet human in a balance not enough films achieve. As they approach the end of a successful assignment, there’s a tone of congratulations, with Reynolds in his usual role of the movie’s unofficial wise guy.
Not until act two does “Life” open its metaphorical can of worms. The mission’s scientist in chief, played by Ariyon Bakare, gives their single-celled spec some water to drink and a bit of fresh air, putting it on a rapid path to invertebrate evolution. Back on Earth, there is wide celebration and delighted schoolchildren are featured on the media giving it the lovable nickname Calvin. Aren’t kids adorable? Baby extraterrestrials, less so. As the creature grows it transforms through forms resembling jellyfish, starfish and beyond, ever hungrier. The crew begins to regret giving it a wake-up call, and to understand why there was no visible life on Mars. The film reveals itself as clammy sci-fi on the outside, blood-drenched horror on the inside.
The surprisingly dignified cast of “Life” is excellent at filling in the blanks of shallowly defined characters. As the vessel’s doctor, Gyllenhaal vulnerably communicates growing dread without overblown acting tricks. That level of resonant professionalism is valuable as the movie shifts into nonstop action mode, with shock edits, sudden loud noises, pop-up scares and messy flash floods of gore. As the players are one by one ruptured and smeared, they are missed. Even if they were stuck with dialog howlers like “I have a bad feeling about this” and “This could be the best day of my life.”
We have seen parts of it before. Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (who scripted the Reynolds superhero blockbuster “Deadpool”) offer a story that feels like a Greatest Hits cover of “Alien” and “Psycho,” so that’s a demerit. But those familiar set pieces help clarify a movie in which half of what happens is unexplained, and what questions are answered don’t make much sense, so that’s a plus.
The mysteries could potentially be solved in a sequel, which the climax seems to tease, and I hope doesn’t arrive. I don’t need to know.