Review of Annihilation (2018) by Ken J — 13 Apr 2018

Definitely very deep so the audience score is not surprising as most people rated it low probably without writing a review because they could not make sense of it and like to be able to. I think this is one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time.

If you are a science fiction person and loved the ending of 2001 or better yet, saw the movie Solaris (preferably the Russian version) yu leave Annihilation with something of the same feeling, knowing you have seen something special and thinking of about it for awhile.

It challenges your idea of what is real, quite a good thing to have happen, as you grow from the process. People who reviewed the 1976 Russian version would give this movie a similar rating as they were not watching it because George Clooney was in it and would not have gone to this one because Natalie Portman was in this one.

So, I suppose you have a tendency to project on to a movie like this something of where you go to try to understand what life is about and I lean toward a Buddhist way of thinking and, to me, this movie, probably the book, takes you to a place of wondering a little about how we create our world, how we maintain of equanimity in it, or mental stability.

I suppose if you are a Trump fan you might say "I'm not a scientist, but . . . I just don't what to go there". If you want to see a very unusual movie that is beautiful, eerie and maybe scary, but will challenge you to think deeply about life and even maybe love, you will want to go there and see this.

You might even want to ask what made Natalie Portman choose to have the lead in this. Probably something of the same reason she chose the role in Black Swan, to explore something about her self. Just go see it at a theater, pay good money, as there just needs to be more movies like this.