Annihilation

Annihilation is 2018 film from Alex Garland.  Garland had previously directed 28 days Later, and wrote and directed Ex Machina.  It was released in February and I screened it in March in a Chinatown theater in DC.  Annihilation is by far one of the best visually stunning movies that I have seen in years.  Certainly a movie made for the big screen, and not one that would have the same effect if you were to watch it at home, especially on a computer.

Annihilation's premise of the movie, centralizes, around Natalie Portman's character, a army veteran biologist.  It's sent in a dystopian type world, where her husband returns from the "Shimmer".  The Shimmer is the result of an alien asteroid hitting earth.  It expands and alters the world around it.  While the movie was based on the book of the same name, of the Southern Reach trilogy of Jeff Vandeermer.  This is where the movie was a bit shaky.  Perhaps  Garland's weaker film of his body of work.  Ex Machina was pretty well executed, and I'm not sure if it's because of his ability to write a solid script on his own.  While I haven't read the book, I can't say how true the movie is to the book, or whether or not Garland ruined the concept of the original book.  I am also not sure if the intention is to make the trilogy.  As a downfall of the movie, at times the story-line is a bit muddled and inconclusive.  It's hard to say if this was an issue, or whether or not there is going to be a follow up and finishing of the series.

Annihilation is visually stunning.  It succeeds well in pulling in and captivating the audience with it's visual effects.  Much like Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max Fury Road, the world created in the movie was the driving force, and everything else seemed to fall by the wayside.  Unlike Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max Fury Road, the movie's acting and storyline didn't live up to everything else.  While creating these hybrid creatures, the movie is able to stir in the tension thriller aspect I have been craving solidly all season from my thriller movies.  The CGI wasn't so overly done to make the Shimmer, creatures, or side effects odd.  They all played well and drew the viewer more so into the film.  While the team of women explore the Shimmer, the tension is laid on thick and viewers are drawn drastically into determining and learning about what the ultimate causation is, and Portman's story of working through the Shimmer.  I appreciated the woman dominated cast, especially portraying roles you don't often see women in: science, veterans. 

The acting in the film was a bit short, but I felt it wasn't the mere driving force of the movie.  You frequently forgot how the acting was poor in areas, when something visually stunning like deer with flowering antlers prance around the screen.  The story line had some holes and was a bit hard to follow at times as it jumped around in time with flashbacks.  Despite the somewhat flawed script, this is one of the films I've enjoyed the most this year.  The final 30-45 minutes of the film justified the whole movie going experience with this movie for me.