When a Martian wants to hug it out

Rating: 7/10 (20 July 2017)

We know the scenario, but the filmmakers set themselves the challenge of doing it better than we've ever seen it done before - and they almost succeeded.
The movie is set on the International Space Station orbiting Earth. There are six astronauts including Dr David Jordan, Jake Gyllenhaal's character. They are awaiting an unmanned probe returning from the surface of Mars with soil samples. When it arrives, what at first looks like a piece of Martian snot, turns out to be the organism that wiped out life on the red planet. As it grows, it threatens to do the same to Earth if it can get down there.
You can probably guess what happens if you have seen "Alien" or "Apollo 18". However the effects in this movie rock; they would have to be the best ever for a movie like this. I remember back in the 1950's when you could see the fishing line holding up the spaceships - we can thank Stanley and "2001: A Space Odyssey" for the special effects leap to hyperspace; they just got better and better until now you can't believe your eyes - maybe it is proof aliens have visited Earth.
However special effects can't be the whole show; the heart of the story has to be the characters. There are six of them and we get to know them a little before the Martian organism, nicknamed Calvin, starts to pick them off. I must admit I liked these guys a lot more than the crew of the Nostromo in "Alien"; they are a classier bunch altogether and less foulmouthed.
As the Martian entity grows, it hunts the crew down one by one in some truly terrifying scenes. Anyone who has battled an Australian huntsmen spider around their bedroom will identify with the plight of Jake and the guys.
But a film needs to end right for it to be truly memorable, and I don't love the ending of this one. It's a bit tricky and doesn't have the weight of the rest of the film; it would have been fine for an episode of "The Twilight Zone".
Even an ending like the one in another close encounter with Martians, 1950's"Rocketship X-M", gave more satisfying closure. Despite primitive effects and laughable dialogue, it finished with a sense of sacrifice as the surviving crew stoically accepted the inevitable. But maybe that's just me.