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<\/p>\nSome mad movie scientist has spliced together the DNA of Alien<\/i>, John Carpenter\u2019s The Thing<\/i> and Gravity<\/i>, and the result is Life<\/i>, a slick claustrophobic sci-fi thriller. This extra-terrestrial creature feature is familiar stuff and ticks all the right boxes, and it fills a void and will suffice until Ridley Scott unleashes his Alien Covenant<\/i> later in the year.<\/p>\n
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The film is set aboard the International Space Station during the Mars Pilgrim 7 Mission. The space station has an international crew of six, featuring astronaut David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), the chief medical officer, who has just set a record for the most number of consecutive days spent circling the earth. The rest of the crew includes mission leader Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson, from Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation<\/i><\/a>), from the Centre for Disease Control; wise cracking astronaut Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds), scientist Hugh Derry (British actor Ariyon Bakare, from Jonathan Strange & Mr Morrell<\/i><\/a>), Japanese astronaut Sho Murakami (Japanese star Hiroyuki Sanada, from The Wolverine<\/i><\/a>), and Russian cosmonaut Ekaterina Golovkina (Olga Dihovichnaya, from Twilight Portrait<\/i>).<\/p>\n When the film opens, Adams has just completed a spacewalk to retrieve a research vessel returning from a mission to Mars. Inside are soil samples which the crew probe in their laboratory. They discover a single cell entity that offers proof of the existence of life on other planets. They name the entity Calvin. But Calvin soon proves hostile and intelligent and deadly and it starts attacking the crew. It resembles a large starfish, but it seems to grow and evolve with each new kill. It is also fast moving as it makes its way through the crooks and nannies and air vents of the space ship. Soon the race is on to try and find a way to destroy the creature before it destroys them and threatens life on earth should it reach our planet.<\/p>\n Life<\/i> has been written by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, the pair responsible for the wildly entertaining comic book adaptation of Deadpool<\/i><\/a> last year. But here they essentially play it straight with a slick horror thriller set in space. A lot of the technical language and scientific mumbo jumbo will go over the heads of most of the audience, but that doesn\u2019t seem to matter too much. The film also deals with themes of sacrifice and courage.<\/p>\n The biggest problem with Life<\/i> is that we don\u2019t really get to identify with or empathise with the characters, so we don\u2019t really care all that much about them when they meet their demise. Most of the interest lies in trying to identify in which order they will perish. A solid ensemble cast has been assembled and they do what they can with the underdeveloped characters. Gyllenhaal has never made a bad movie in his career, and here he brings a touch of gravitas and integrity to his role as the heroic astronaut. Ferguson has a strong presence and delivers a good performance, while Reynolds is well cast as the wisecracking Adams.<\/p>\n