Go see this movie. Don’t wait until its on Netflix, go to the theater and see it. Let me put that plea into a bit of context. Not only is Annihilation an excellent film, but the assholes that run Paramount tried to bury it by dumping it directly onto Netflix after it received poor scores at test screenings (similar to what Universal just did with The Cloverfield Paradox, except this movie is actually good). Thankfully, at least one person at the studio deserves their job and insisted that the film retain its theatrical release in the United States, even though it is going to Netflix in the rest of the world. The studio then provided minimal marketing with the intention of having the film tank and getting it onto Netflix as soon as possible. This is from the people that proudly spent $200 million to make Transformers: The Last Knight, which is basically a 2-hour brain aneurism caught on film. So the only movie so far this year that I really liked is the one that the studio wants to disappear. Of fucking course.
Annihilation is a brilliant sci-fi/horror film from director Alex Garland, whose first film as a director was the excellent Ex Machina and he also wrote Dredd, which is the best comic book movie that nobody has seen. The film is something of a blend between Arrival and The Thing. Something drops from outer space and encloses an area in a wall of strange light called the shimmer. Several military teams have gone into the shimmer to investigate, only to never be seen again. The only person to return is the soldier husband of Natalie Portman’s character, but he clearly aint right upon his sudden reappearance. Portman, a biologist and former soldier, agree to join a team of scientists to go into the shimmer and figure out what’s happening. I won’t spoil anything further, other than to say that the film gradually moves further and further into horror territory once the investigation has started.
I really didn’t know where this movie was going for quite some time, and I mean that as a compliment. Though not entirely original (the notion of “Arrival meets The Thing” is pretty on the nose), I was not expecting this to delve into horror as much as it did. There is some genuinely suspenseful and unnerving shit in this movie and it earns its R-rating (I assumed that it was PG-13 going into it, but some intestine-ripping quickly dispelled that notion). There are specific scenes that I would like to discuss, but I like this movie enough that I don’t want to take away from your experience of seeing it for the first time. The explanation of what’s happening is also revealed in a gradual and clever way, as the scientists must use their expertise to examine their surrounding and figure things out. Annihilation doesn’t assume that the audience is stupid (except for one bit that I’ll get to in a second) and provides a surprisingly coherent scientific explanation for its monstrosities. Perhaps that’s why a studio executive referred to the film as being “too complicated.” Fuck you, Paramount.
The film is also wonderful on a technical level. Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac (best known as Poe in the new Star Wars movies), Jennifer Jason Leigh and the rest of the cast are all excellent. Coincidental side-note: Leigh also stars in the surprisingly decent Amityville: The Awakening, another film that was unjustly stripped of its theatrical release and had to do the cinematic walk of shame onto Netflix. Director Alex Garland has a strong sense of color in his shot compositions and has a great ability to create ambiance. It’s goddamn refreshing to see a film with a director that actually understands the importance of staging and color and doesn’t cut his films together like a 10-year-old that just drank a case of Red Bull.
I do have a couple of nitpicks, but that’s all they are. While the film does make good use of practical effect, I was somewhat disheartened to see that work brought down a bit with augmenting computer effects. It’s not distractingly bad, like in something like Justice League or Transformers. But it did feel a bit out of place in a movie so clearly inspired by The Thing, a film that is perhaps the pinnacle achievement in practical horror effects. There is also a wraparound sequence that feels completely tacked on and screams of being a studio note. I didn’t need Portman explaining what just transpired and this is the only time that the film doesn’t seem to have faith in its audience. Lastly, there is an unnecessary subplot about Portman having an affair that, as far as I could tell, served no purpose and somewhat undermined her character.
My all-time favorite director is John Carpenter and, as much as I hesitate to say this, the work of Alex Garland is starting to feel Carpenter-ish to me. I don’t think I can give the man a higher compliment than that. If you are going to the movies this weekend, don’t buy into the bullshit hype and see Black Panther. Go see Annihilation. While you’re at it, watch Ex Machina and Dredd if you haven’t done so already. Judging by the box office numbers, that means most of you.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation_(film)#/media/File:Annihilation_(film).png
