Skip to main content

Film Review - Annihilation


Alex Garland, writer/director of Ex Machina, delivers another mature sci-fi film, this time about a platoon of scientist-soldiers sent in to investigate an area surrounding some kind of meteorite that is impenetrable to all scans and observations. Natalie Portman leads the all-female cast on a journey into surreal landscapes as they search for whatever lies at the heart of this zone called “the shimmer” and things take weirder and darker turns as the film progresses. I found a lot to like in the writing and the visual design of the film and I would have to say it’s good, but not great.

First of all, I really do love the esthetics of the movie, very colourful and pretty but also very creepy and unsettling sometimes. The film has a nicely strange tone, approximating the constant disorientation the characters are subject to while inside the shimmer, with everything taking on a quasi-hallucinogenic prismatic aura. There is a lot of gory violence but I thought it appropriate to the story which deals with shapeshifting, mutation and metamorphosis.

Also, I quite liked the characters and enjoyed spending time in the movie with them, though they aren’t entirely above cliché. There were some nice moments between each and I had a good sense of who they were and cared about them. However, some choices by certain characters felt a little dubious to me, like I had a hard time believing someone would go off alone despite obvious danger. That is something that always ruins a movie for me, and it happens here.

I loved a lot of the creepy visuals and ideas floated throughout the film, but one or two things were a bit silly even though they were clearly supposed to be eerie or gross. I found the ending, while logical enough, to be rather bland, if not slightly insipid. It could have been better, more interesting, less predictable, but that’s par for the course and the rest of the movie I quite liked, so I’ll forgive it. At least it didn’t insult my intelligence and there is something in it to think about after the film is over.

In my opinion, Annihilation is a well done (if flawed) creepy sci-fi/horror blend with some interesting ideas. I enjoyed the dualistic atmosphere of beauty and dread throughout the journey into the shimmer and found the characters very sympathetic, but I didn’t care much for the ending. Still, there is plenty here to recommend it and I would probably see it again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review: Blade Runner 2049

Denis Villeneuve has succeeded in creating that rarest of films: a very late sequel that respects and improves upon the original. Blade Runner 2049 expands the canvas of the first film with new locations and characters, all of whom feel authentic and true to the tone and themes of 1982’s Blade Runner . I thought it was magnificent in terms of setting and imagery and it packed an unexpected emotional punch which was absent in the first movie. I wanted to see it twice before I wrote my review and I am confident in saying it is superior to the original film while remaining tonally and esthetically consistent. I loved it. Foremost, I loved the story – complex without being hard to follow and never violating any continuity laid down by its predecessor. There were plot twists I could see coming but then the revelation would have more dimension than I was expecting. There were also genuine surprises in a couple of scenes. The cast is wonderful, with everyone well-suited to their roles (...
Post a Comment
Read more

Oscars

For the first time that I can remember, I have seen all but one of the nominees for the Oscars, which were held last week. At the time, I had seen all of them except for The Post and The Shape of Water , which I finally saw after it won best picture. My thoughts on it and the rest of the nominees: The Shape of Water is essentially Splash re-imagined with the Creature from the Black Lagoon instead of a mermaid, but nowhere near as good. I was impressed by the creature design, certainly, but the rest of the movie felt frustratingly underdone. It was a very typical Guillermo del Toro film, in that sense: I think he’s a gifted visualist, but his stories and characters leave a lot to be desired. Get Out is actually my third favourite movie of 2018, behind mother! and Blade Runner 2049 , so if I had been an Academy voter, this is the one I personally would have chosen for best picture. It’s very smart, very funny and very poignant without being preachy. It’s really brilliant,...
Post a Comment
Read more

IPO Statement

This weekly blog is intended (like most people’s) to be a space where I can talk about the things I’m interested in. I’ll be using it to post critical reviews of movies, books and whatever else I might want to unload my mind about. In general, I’m going to keep things as positive as I can because there’s already enough negativity out there and I would rather spend time focusing on the things I like rather than the things that upset me. I am a rational anarchist. I believe nobody has any right to tell anyone else what to do, but that the limits of anarchy make it unworkable in groups larger than a hundred or so individuals. I think with this many people around, impersonal rules are an unfortunate necessity, but I will only respect the ones that seem fair, in my mind. There is no excuse for injustice or abuse of power and as people and populations change, so must the rules that govern us, meaning they should always be challenged or at least suspected. Art and culture are my pass...
Post a Comment
Read more