Annihilation Movie Review

Annihilation  (2018)

Watch Annihilation on Amazon video
Written by: Alex Garland (written for the screen by), Jeff VanderMeer (based on the novel by)
Directed by: Alex Garland
Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Oscar Isaac, Benedict Wong, Tuva Novotny
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
When five women, a psychologist, a surveyor, an anthropologist, a medic, and a biologist, embark on a covert expedition into an area sealed off by the government for decades, they find a wilderness where the laws of nature don't apply.

Verdict
I like the creativity of the world. This is such a wild idea that pushes mood and visuals first. It goes too far in trying to explain the science when it should refrain the attempt. You can easily pick apart the story, unless you subscribe to an unreliable narrator, but that feels like a cop out. Despite the plot contrivances, you're left with the question of what happened and what did I just watch. That will spark a lot of debate.
Watch it.

Review
From the writer/director of Ex Machina (read my review), this is his follow up. He also wrote 28 Days Later and Sunshine, two phenomenal movies. This is another venture into sci-fi.

It's unsettling, almost dream like as you never know what to believe. What is this world and why? It's almost like Arrival (read my review) in that the mystery lingers the duration and we see an alien species unlike our own. I like both movies, but Annihilation doesn't meticulously flesh out the details like Arrival.

Natalie Portman is Lena.

It's easy to pick at the plot. This generates a lot of questions and gripes, mainly due to a focus on creating cool visuals like the plant people. I can give this movie some leeway with the way this world exists, but the movie tries too hard to explain the occurrences to no avail. It could have just been ignored, and on top of that we have an unreliable narrator.
It just seems weird to send in a team of scientists. While the military group didn't pan out, it's too easy of a lead in to the plot. In movies like this you at least send someone in tied to  a rope or somehow prove the characters aren't being reckless.

If you enter the shimmer, will you be able to exit?

Can we trust what we're hearing, when the narrator admits to losing days at a time? We get a flashback of Lena's husband Kane coming back, but that doesn't seem remotely possible. Maybe it didn't happen. The problem with an unreliable narrator is it can be an easy catch all. Anything that feels like a lapse in logic can be attributed to the narrator. Why do plants grow in the shape of people? Because the plants absorbed human DNA doesn't quite cover it.

The shimmer.

The shimmer is a quarantined area where DNA combines. There's no way to apply logic, but the end result are juxtaposed organisms. A vine with multiple species of flowers. A shark fused with a crocodile and much stranger things. One of the first scenes in the shimmer, we're led to believe it's the first morning after camp, but rations show they've been there a week. That's a great set up, but the characters never try to keep notes or keep track of what's happened or what they remember. That could have added an underlying tension as the characters try to reconcile what's happening.
The journal idea could also push the idea that we aren't sure what is actually happening as entries could be jumbled. Are we watching what happened or what characters think happened.

Destruction is an integral plot point. In the very first scene Lena talks about cancer which destroys. From Kane's experience in the shimmer to Lena's, destruction is what pushes the plot forward. I hesitate to bring up 2001: A Space Odyssey, as  it's just a complete class (or four) above this, but in Annihilation destruction is a means of evolution or transformation. While I wasn't as bewildered during Annihilation as I was during 2001, the steps in evolution are remotely linked.

The team of scientists & a medic.

In line with that is the idea of rebirth. These characters have all experienced loss to a degree. I was hoping their experiences of loss would shape their journey in the shimmer, that it was somehow reactive to individuals, but characters aren't developed to that kind of detail. Ultimately only Lena has any kind of revelation.

The ending lacks subtlety. I wish there were clues throughout instead of directly telling us what happened, or what will happen. You could edit the last scene to make it more vague.