Annihilation - Review

Annihilation

Academy Award winning actress Natalie Portman and Oscar nominated actors Oscar Isaac and Jennifer Jason Leigh comprise a strong cast, along with up and coming Director Alexander Garland (28 Days Later and Ex-Machina) who brings author Jeff VanderMeer’s first story in his best-selling Southern Reach Trilogy titled “Annihilation”. A rare combination effort that is equal parts action - adventure, intimate drama, science fiction, fantasy and biological horror film.

In the beginning of the film we see a meteorite falling directly to earth that eventually explodes on impact at a beach directly through the base structure of an old lighthouse. But rather than simply leaving an enormous crater it creates something else referred to “The Shimmer”. A moving kaleidoscope of translucent, purple-tinted bubble mist of energy that oddly crackles like an approaching thunder storm. As time goes by it is obvious that this “shimmer” is starting to slowly swallow up day by day more stretches of the Florida coast line.

The federal government comes in to set up a research facility on the outer edge of the phenomenon called Area X. Unable to ascertain from simply observations what the shimmer actually is, teams of scientist and military soldiers are repeatedly sent in to conduct hands on analysis. The only problem is each time a team has been sent in none have ever returned, accept once when Capt. Kane returns.

Slightly disoriented Army Captain Kane (Oscar Isaac) comes back to his grieving wife Lena (Natalie Portman) who had assumed he was dead. But shortly after his joyous return home Kane starts to experience massive organ failure and is rushed to a military medical facility. It is while he and Lena are at this facility does she learns why her husband could not tell her before he left what his secret mission was about. She also learns that if they can’t find what actually happen to Kane inside the shimmer he will die.

Lena who is a seven-year Army vet herself and currently a top professor at Johns Hopkins in molecular biologist decides to join a new team of scientist (all women) going back in inside the shimmer on the path her husband took only this time lead by a top government researcher named Dr. Ventress, a spooky and aloof woman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who seems oddly to have other motives for going inside the shimmer besides just research. But what will this highly accomplished team find? That is the films major question.

REVIEW: Weird and wild, gorgeous and occasionally disturbing “Annihilation” will bait your intrigue imagination DNA with a prevailing question “what if”. And while the overall arc of the actor’s performances are perfectly subdued and restrained, the plot of the film itself steadily moves along with what feels like a brainy, high-end science fiction film. And for the most part it is. And the other times it’s a total “mind expletive deleted”.

Still to Director Garland’s credit with his “Annihilation” he never allows the typical Hollywood directing norms and protocols compel him to deliver a single scene one could describe as cliché or predictable through it’s its 2:00 hour running time. No, it is a film that is consistently rich with daring plot creativity and intellectual ambitious all the while feeling like something that is oddly natural and unnatural to watch that will keep you glued to your seat wondering what is lurking around the next corner.

But it’s the ending or should I say the last 20 minutes of the film that had me scratching my head. Not out of any personal confusion on my part; oh I get the message in the film. Specifically, instead of watching such a promising smart cinematic journey come to an strong crescendo end, you end up with having just a weird finale that unfortunately seemed  disconnected from everything else that had happen up to the moment. AND YET is still manages to pose some seriously profound questions of our time about human DNA, life on our  planet as humans and the science behind evolution.

Some critics have hailed “Annihilation” as a masterpiece and a few call it a sputtering dud. I am in-between as I genuinely believed it gives its audience a lot to see and a lot to think about and for that I found the film entertaining. The overall story and its questions are definitely good enough to watch, but just remember going in that it’s the picturesque journey that will leave you entertained and not the pulling up to the driveway final destination.

3.00 Stars