Three stars. Rated R. 103 minutes. The film “Life” is a test-tube baby, born from a blend of old-school monster-movie DNA and state-of-the-art digital effects. At times silly — yet surprisingly satisfying — this tale of sci-fi suspense and horror, set in the weightless environment of the International Space Station, gives Emmanuel Lubezki’s vertiginous “Gravity” cinematography a run for its money, with dizzyingly deft camera choreography and long, unbroken takes shot by Seamus McGarvey (“Nocturnal Animals,” “The Avengers”) that may remind viewers of his work on “Atonement.” In this floating environment, an international crew of six astronauts has been tasked with retrieving soil samples collected from the planet Mars, in the not-too-distant future.