Film Review: Annihilation Is A Strange Beauty That Weirds You Out
You ever see a movie, and you do not know whether you loved or hated it? It completely surpasses the basic, human rating system of yes or no. Instead, you try to peel back and analyze what you just saw for meaning and memory. In some ways, Annihilation achieves the impact of its plot-line’s main question: what is happening?
There is no taking away that Annihilation is gorgeous. Even if you only go to see the visuals, it will be worth it because it leaves you sparked in creativity. As I left the theater, I felt like I could go off and dream of new creatures, environments, and altogether images. I am 100% in love with cinematography and graphics. Moreover, the cast is unsurprisingly exceptional. Seeing four intelligent women explore a new world, The Shimmer, is the epitome fierce, but unfortunately, because of the premise, it is suicidal.
From the beginning, you are trying to figure out what is going on, and you do not really find any relief or proper answer, which, again, viewers will love, hate, or not know how to feel. When Oscar Isaac’s Kane shows up you, immediately, know something is off, and the film does well to give you one or two scenes that show this man is a loving, dutiful, and brave HUMAN being. Who/What came back from The Shimmer is vacant, which fuels Natalie Portman’s Lena’s own feeling of duty to find out what happened to her husband. She is joined by Gina Rodriguez’s Anya Thorensen (military surveyor), who is a BAD ASS, and would NOT be friends with Jane The Virgin. She is also accompanied by Tessa Thompson’s Josie Radek (anthropologist) and Tuva Novotny’s Cass Sheppard (physicist), whom add a quiet emotionality and sweetness to their roles that furthers Annihilation as a surprisingly wise film.
Forgetting your mixed emotions of the plot, if you listen to Director Alex Garland’s script, you will be taken aback by its sincere insight on humanity’s relationships with immortality, the environment, and the mere challenges of love and life. Every character, at least once, has a line that throws you out of the film and into a universal discussion. From Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Ventress (psychologist/director), whose stoicism veils a woman eager to connect to “something”, to Portman’s Lena (biologist) who has her own sins she is trying to amend. Annihilation does well to build the reason these characters join this “suicide mission” is because they feel they do not have a life.
Addiction, personal insecurities, and familial deaths, justify why each character enters The Shimmer with, practically, a 100% certainty they will not get out. The 11 expeditions prior ended in death and disappearance, but when you feel like your life is two things anyway, a clear course towards them may not seem like much. It is a powerful notion, especially because every character is so accomplished: smart, lauded by peers, and with enough physical training to be approved for this mission. Yet, as the film progresses, you understand that no one could be prepared for The Shimmer.
The Shimmer is a reality-altering place that warps through each person’s body, mind, and surroundings to make it something “new” but at a cost. As every character struggles to keep their body, mind, and heart in tact, you feel echoes of the original book’s vision, and ultimate questioning how you define yourself. Written by James VanderMeer, the movie changes the plot HEAVILY, which might anger a few loyalists. Yet, it does do well to capture the book’s love of nature and sheer goal to be perplexing.
VanderMeer wrote a novel that admires biology, botany, and befuddlement, and Garland has highlighted all three aspects. Thus, I would recommend Annihilation. It is a strange, visually inventive beauty that will leave you talking, and even investigating what you just experienced. It is Rated R, for violence (WHICH IT GETS BLOODY), and it is 115 minutes.
