Dollar Tree Cinema: Life

“Life” (2017)
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Ariyon Bakare, Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dykhovichnaya
Directed by Daniel Espinosa
Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Rated R for language throughout, some sci-fi violence and terror

Imagine my surprise when I popped this into the DVD player and discovered a tense, science fiction horror movie set on the International Space Station instead of a story about Eddie Muprhy, Martin Lawrence and/or Damian Lewis being wrongfully imprisoned.

Look, it was either that or open with a joke about Deadpool and Mysterio in space.

No, I knew exactly what I'd bought for a dollar because of the box in which it came, which was the cause of my major (OK, minor, but blown out of proportion) bone to pick with this movie. But we'll get to that.

I still see this movie on sale for $5 to $8 or more, so finding it at Dollar Tree did my bargain-seeking heart good. I like a good deal on movies. Maybe too much. I wasn't particularly fond of the Channing Tatum-fronted G.I. Joe movie or its sequel with the Rock, but sometimes, seeing them packaged together for $5 at Walmart, I think, “Hm, tempting.”

I'm going to take some space to issue a spoiler warning, not just because of my philosophical stance onspoilers but because I can't say much about this movie without spoiling a lot of it. And while “Life” does have more going for it than these twists, they are fun to experience. The same is true of the 1999 smart sharks movie “Deep Blue Sea,” which I'll also spoil a little as we go on. Oh, and a bit of “Halloween Kills,” although I spoiled it much more thoroughly here.

I don't remember knowing many specifics about “Life” going in, other than that it was in space, scary and starred Gyllenhaal, Reynolds and Ferguson, who I keep getting mixed up with Rebecca Hall, even though the latter has fewer syllables in her last name. I had it in my head that those three were the extent of the cast, but I may have been mixing it up in my head with “Apollo 18,” another space horror movie that I followed just fine despite not having seen Apollos 14-17.

Things start out exciting but kind of relaxed and optimistic as the international, six-person crew of the station receive and begin to study samples retrieved from the surface of Mars. Biologist Hugh Derry (Bakare) discovers a small organism, or collection of organisms, that causes much excitement back on Earth, where a group of students win a contest and decide to name the alien after their alma mater, Calvin Coolidge Elementary School.

Knowing the genre, I kept waiting for something to go wrong as little Elementary – sorry, Calvin – began to grow. An equipment malfunction puts him in some form of hibernation, and a frustrated Hugh decides to use an electric shock to see if the critter is still alive.

Folks, never shock an unknown alien life form.

Turns out Calvin's been learning and soon he's broken Hugh's hand and escaped the enclosure, much to the dismay of CDC quarantine specialist Dr. Miranda North (Ferguson-not-Hall). Frustrated mission specialist Rory Adams (Reynolds) pulls Hugh out but winds up trapped with Calvin himself.

Then, in the first shock of the movie, Calvin kills Ryan Reynolds.

I wondered if this was made before Reynolds hit it even bigger, but it came out a year after “Deadpool” (and was scripted by that movie's writers). I don't know where filming fit with the timeline versus release dates, but IMDb says Reynolds was originally supposed to have a lead role before a scheduling conflict with filming “The Hitman's Bodyguard.” Whatever the reason, knocking off arguably the most recognizable member of the cast was only the first similarity I noted to the aforementioned “Deep Blue Sea.”

The other is the way Calvin's intelligence quickly becomes an apparent threat, even if it doesn't always make sense. Just like I questioned how even really, really smart sharks could figure out the importance of disabling cameras and other tactics. Calvin also starts causing problems on the space station, deliberately, which ratchets up the stakes but still makes me question the logic.

As with “Deep Blue Sea” though, I didn't get stuck in the moment.

The early scenes establish each of the well-cast crew members so you care about them as more than just potential victims of a squirmy space monster, adding emotional depth to the suspense. Sometimes, they show instead of tell a little too well, as a couple details are fuzzy. Or maybe that was just me. The fact that the entire movie takes place in zero gravity is executed so well you really don't think about it. Some bonus features on the DVD give a glimpse of how they pulled it off.

“Life” builds toward an epic climax the DVD box warns “you'll never see coming” – which is pretty much why I saw it coming. I am not always the most observant movie watcher, and if I do predict something correctly, it's often because of factors outside the movie itself. I called the big reveal in “The Usual Suspects” before I'd watched enough to be able to make an educated guess, just because I knew there was a twist and was trying to figure it out. I was still blown away by the ending and what it meant in-story.

And “Life” is well made and thoroughly entertaining, despite some of those logic hiccups or me figuring out the final twist before it twisted. It wasn't telegraphed in the film, but at a point, there seemed only one logical way the ending could really shock me. It did end in a similar fashion to “Halloween Kills,” which we need if for no other reason than to perpetuate suspense in other movies, but I found “Life” much more satisfying as an overall film.