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| Edited By: Bryan Durham |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: Mar 24, 2017, 09:09 PM IST
Film: Life
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada
A group of scientists aboard the International Space Station (ISS) receive a sample that could contain proof of extraterrestrial life from a space probe returning from Mars. As they study the sample (eventually named Calvin by those on Earth… yeah, go figure!), it breaks loose, killing one crew member. As it begins to evolve and grow larger and larger following each kill, you know it’s coming. For everyone. Sooner or later.
We don’t know much about space apart from what we read and see videos of (or of the ISS, for that matter), but we’re inclined to believe that much research went into recreating the interiors of the sets and of the wide expanse of outer space as well. The screenplay (Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick) paces along fairly decently and the treatment also shows Espinosa to have a somewhat assured rein on the proceedings. The cast was picked for their histrionics. Most names here are known ones and some even get the best lines in the brief time they’re up on the screen. The horrors of being in close proximity to a space monster that just grows and grows is too delicious to pass up!
Why do we want to know what’s out there? Why do we want to make ‘Contact’ with ‘Alien’ lifeforms on a ‘Mission to Mars’? As interesting as ‘Interstellar’ travel is, ‘Gravity’ ends up sending the wrong ‘Species’ our way. And as smart as astronauts are on the ISS, why do they unwittingly take on ‘Passengers’ they have no control over? Guess if we knew the answer to that, we wouldn’t have movies like Life. There is an overwhelming sense of derivativeness. You’ve been there, done that, and seen something similar and yet, it does hold your attention to a point. Proving that we’re voyeurs, trying to live another day seeing how to work around a tried-and-tested formula.
Get past the blah, the bluster, the babble and the banter and you’ll have something to get an eyeful of. It’s not always pretty, but it gets the job done. One-time watch.
