This is where a movie that has taken great pains in its stunning first act (a bit pokey for genre fans, but impressive in its willingness to give characters like Gyllenhaal’s Syria-surviving space medic a backstory before snuffing them one by one) makes a gradual turn for the worse. It’s Miranda’s job to design firewalls the alien can’t breach, while it appears to be everyone else’s (unofficial) task to create opportunities for Calvin to get out. Hugh can hardly contain his enthusiasm, though there are other crew members on board to take precautions, most notably Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson, the most disciplined character in the motley ensemble), representing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - because nobody knows what Calvin is capable of, even after he’s attacked Hugh and face-hugged one of the other crew members. To celebrate the discovery, horns blare on Jon Ekstrand’s constantly shape-shifting score (one moment, he’s waxing optimistic with low-key strings, the next, he’s amplifying the tension via “Inception”-style foghorns). But when lead scientist Hugh Derry (British actor Arlyon Bakare, buff-upper-bodied but CG-withered from the waist down as a disabled doc who doesn’t need his wheelchair in zero gravity) feeds the organism glycerin, it swiftly multiplies, exhibiting characteristics that are a credit to screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s creativity: every cell has muscular, neural, and photoreceptive properties, suggesting the potential for an incredibly strong, fast-adapting entity. Clearly determined to rival Emmanuel Lubezki’s Oscar-winning work on “Gravity,” DP Seamus McGarvey hovers just over the shoulders of the crew during this opening scene, as they diligently collaborate to recover a Martian-specimen-collecting capsule carrying God knows what.Īt first, the alien being - which is soon christened “Calvin” - appears to be an innocuous, inert single-celled life form, visible only beneath a high-powered microscope.
The six-person ensemble make up the Mars Pilgrim 7 Mission, sardined aboard a claustrophobic space station whose Nigel Phelps-designed floorplan proves positively mind-boggling - this despite a stunning establishing tour, during which, via an “unbroken” (but vfx-assisted) nearly-seven-minute single take, the camera makes the rounds of what will soon be a $200 billion coffin. Working in its favor is an international cast - even more inclusive than “The Martian’s” multi-culti support crew - with the added bonus that everyone, not just white-boy A-listers Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, has an important role to play. Assuming that “Passengers” hasn’t quashed audiences’ appetite for space-station movies, and that sci-fi enthusiasts wouldn’t rather simply wait for Ridley Scott’s fast-approaching “Alien: Covenant,” then director Daniel Espinosa’s mostly-smart, plenty-stylish entry could eke out a nice box-office life.
Still, overlook its inevitable wah-wah ending (cue sad trombone sound effect), and “Life” is far better than the trailers made this me-too outer-space opus look. Why is it that practically every time sci-fi characters discover evidence of extraterrestrial life, they are just as swiftly confronted with creative new ways to die? As “we are not alone” scenarios go, “Life” is no exception, although it’s unusually intelligent for so much of its running time - picture white-knuckle “Alien” hijinks grounded by “Gravity”-strong human drama - that the lame-brained last act comes as a real disappointment (unless you’re determined to read this Sony-released Mars-attacks thriller as an origin story for Spider-Man’s Venom nemesis, which it is not).
0 kommentar(er)
