Review of Annihilation (2018) by Tor M — 27 Aug 2018

Alex Garland is back after his critically acclaimed "Ex Machina". I never dug that, but it was an interesting film, with nice looks and an original approach.

Natalie Portman is Lena. A girl that has lost her husband to some sort of mission. She is joining in on a similiar mission herself. She enters a weird world, a place that looks capsulated in a thin layer of soapy water - just like soap bubbles. Animals and plants here seem different. They are mixing up DNAs, crossing species that's not even familiar. The group of a scientist, a anthropologist, a paramedic and Lena as the biologist is having a weird time, where everything thay have learned is quite the opposite. All of them are ladies, all of them have faced huge loss or some sort of grief and are slowly self-destructing. This seem to fit the film.

The mentioned area is known as "The Shimmer" and most of the action of the film takes place here. We also have flashbacks and goes ahead in time. This part is quite easy to follow, but the rest of the film is not.

What I really can't cope with is the fact that has borrowed so many ideas from "Stalker" or maybe even the books that the two films are adapted from. The glass on the table, the "Zone", the camera movement and a whole lot more seem very similiar to me, but the creators of the films denies it. I don't get it. Anyhow, this is a hard film to rate. It looks great. The first hour or so is pretty slow and hard to get into for me, but after a while - when I don't follow anything anymore, it suddenly makes a bit more sense - at least my head creates different ideas about the meaning now. It also looks extra lovely with those colory, splashy effects near the end - I don't know why, but it get's away with it. The music is fantastic in certain scenes and the light horror vibe is perfectly present.

So, it does not make that much sense, but it's not THAT stupid for me. Sure, you can kill it with analyzing everything that's not realistic, but then you can't enjoy anything from it. Sure, the mission, and the plan itself is rather sloppy, but that's about it for me. This film is for the abstract, mesmeric experience - not the plot anyhow.

I found the film well acted and well edited and produced. It took some time to get into it, so I'm left interested in giving it another go to catch the scenes in the first half that lost me completely.

I'm agreeing with the people that think it's a shame that it never hit the cinemas - it would have looked great on the big screen with those images and sound. Plusses for visuals, story and atmosphere, minuses for the characters, the pacing and some of the flashbacks. It may grow on me, it may not. I'm not completely sold, but it sure made me write a bunch of words. That's probably a good sign.

8 out of 10 soap bubbles.