How life began, and whether it exists elsewhere remains one of the most fascinating questions in the whole of science -- indeed, you don't need to be a scientist to wonder about this. But we still don't know the answer. We're less optimistic about Mars than our forbears were a hundred years ago. Even if there is life there, it would be nothing more than microscopic 'bugs' of the kind that existed on Earth early in its history--- there is certainly nothing on Mars like the 'Martians' of popular fictions.
