Life — ISS crew VS Calvin
Life is a smash-hit hybrid of Gravity and Alien. The new science fiction horror film directed by Daniel Espinosa. He takes parts of above-mentioned successful movies. And he combines them together in the best way possible. If you like one of these movies or both — you will like the Life.
You may enjoy realistic interiors and exterior of International Space Station modules. You may admire stunning outer space, and pleasing visuals. We have seen all this in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. You may empathise for the ISS crew while they experience thrilling suspense and fear. Fear of inevitable gruesome death by a hostile alien monster. Which constantly reduces the number of live crew members throughout the movie. We saw it in the Alien movie directed by Ridley Scott. Most of the action in the film takes place in a tight isolated claustrophobic locations. Which are stuffed with high-tech life-support nodes. And surrounded by a cold silent lifeless dangerous emptiness. These are constant elements of the setting of any science film which takes place in space. On one hand , technical aspects of the movie are made in Gravity style. Such as decorations, camera work, montage, visual-effects. You may detect visual similarities to previous works of top-ranked cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. But it is the Seamus McGarvey responsible for cinematography in Life. Was he trying to copy or it was a deliberate visual homage? I don’t know. On another hand all theatrical aspects of Life we saw in Alien. It includes similar plot, character development, their emotional stress and desperate attempts to survive. The atmosphere of distress on spacecraft Nostromo is carried over to ISS in Life. Same applies to the feeling of isolation and hopelessness. Though alien is still an alien. A little less scary in the aspect of its appearance, but still lethal enough to wipe out every human in his range. And it has a name — Calvin.
Some people say that Life is too secondary and suffers from a lack of originality. I can not argue with that. But take a moment and think about the preponderance of endless sequels and remakes. Life is not less original than for example upcoming Alien: Covenant. “The sequel in the Alien prequel series, the sixth installment in Alien film series”. That’s a quote from Wikipedia. How original is that sequel-prequel bullshit? Not original at all. Despite that Life is not unique on story and setting, I won’t count it as a shortcoming. It is not mandatory for any movie to be original to become a good movie.
The story in Life is quite predictable. Like in every horror movie you may place a bet with your friends about which character will die first and who will be last left alive. The movie finale is strong. There were two possible predictable endings. And I’m glad that Daniel Espinosa has chosen the right one. There is so much evil irony in that ending. You may smack your lips for expressing delight and pure joy while watching it. I hoped to see that specific ending and I got it. Thank you, mr. Espinosa for fulfilling my expectations, it was awesome. I would like to talk more about that ending. But I’m already walking a thin line here trying not to spoil the whole movie for those who didn’t watch it yet.
Last but not least part of the movie that I would like to make a note of is the cast. Jake Gyllenhaal is playing a role of the melancholic medical officer who doesn’t want a return to Earth. Charming Rebecca Fergusson is representing strict and insistent quarantine officer. Ryan Reynolds plays a pilot of ISS. He also takes an extra role of a funny guy and handles all humour elements in the movie. Hiroyuki Sanada takes a role of the system engineer. He is the only character in the movie who has shown no influence to a story development. Great actor, but apparently there was no room in the script for him to show his acting talent. Ariyon Bakare plays a biologist who suffers from paresis of the lower limbs. He adores lack of gravity which allows him to forget about his attachment to the wheelchair on Earth. His questionable methods of exploring an extraterrestrial form of life lead to an emergency. Which worked out as a catalyst for a distress state. Olga Dihovichnaya plays a heroic commander of the International Space Station. There is no traditional character introduction part in the movie. We dive straight to the plot-wise important action scene in the beginning of the film. But later throughout the movie every crew member has few scenes to express his(her)self. So we can decide whether to empathise with character or not.
Conclusion: Life is a solid and definitely worth watching science fiction horror film. It could have a longer duration for a closer acquaintance with the characters. But even with only 103 minutes of screen time story doesn’t feel short or incomplete.