Daniel Espinosa’s Life delivers more than another Alien rip-off

REVIEW: Life unashamedly fills a stop-gap before the new Alien movie is released, but this sci-fi thriller is stomach-churning in its own right.

Life gets 3.5 stars out of 5. Picture: Columbia Pictures

Life (MA15+)

Director: Daniel Espinosa (Safe House)

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Ariyon Bakare, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dihovichnaya.

Rating: ***1/2

Verdict: When allowing entry is to accelerate exit

You really want to know the meaning of Life?

Don’t ever let it in.

And for cryin’ out loud, if you do happen to let it in ... don’t ever, ever let it out.

A slick, suspenseful and stomach-churning sci-fi thriller, Life is the perfect Alien movie right now for those getting all twitchy waiting for the next Alien movie (Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, which drops in May).

So if you dig the sight of an angry, ugly and hungry extraterrestrial organism sneaking aboard a spacecraft to play a game of hide-and-seek-and-eat, then Life will deliver everything you like in just the right amounts.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Miranda North float through space in a scene from Life. Picture: Columbia Pictures

In fact, what really impresses about Life is that it does not outstay its welcome at any time.

Just as director Daniel Espinosa instinctively knows when to allow tensions to rise, fall or plateau, screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (playing it very straight after their brilliantly jokey work on Deadpool) invariably choose the correct moments to commence or cease creature-versus-crew hostilities.

The setting is the good old International Space Station (ISS), orbiting on its regular trajectory while hosting a six-strong team of scientists and techies from across the globe.

One of them (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) has just broken the record for most consecutive days above Earth. Another (Ryan Reynolds) has just completed a crucial space walk to help reel in an unmanned research vessel returning from a mission to Mars.

Later, while examining a soil sample taken from the Martian surface, the ISS head scientist (Arlyon Bakare) isolates a single-cell entity that is mankind’s first-ever proof that life exists on other planets.

Life is the perfect film for those getting twitchy waiting for the next Alien. Picture: Columbia Pictures

In the interests of keeping proceedings spoiler-free, let’s just say that by the end of the movie, you won’t need a microscope to gawk at this landmark species.

Though Gyllenhaal and Reynolds share top billing, neither actor looms all too prominently over events when compared to their lesser-known co-stars.

Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation) as the chief protocol officer on the ISS arguably has the true lead role here, and definitely exerts a vital dramatic impact in the most important scenes.

Nevertheless, all involved in Life do their fair share of the heavy lifting in terms of keeping things credible.

Especially when their characters are making every face-palming mistake possible when hosting a surprise visit from a disgruntled interplanetary tourist.

Originally published as Daniel Espinosa’s Life delivers more than another Alien rip-off