Review of Annihilation (2018) by Jeff D — 31 Mar 2018

I strongly recommend people go to the nearest theater and see "Annihilation".

You could also use the proxmate chrome extension, select the UK as your region, and watch it on Netflix*.

* Long story short, Netflix bought the rights to the film, but it was marketed for release in the US with underwhelming box office numbers. Ipso facto, you can watch it this way. It probably won't accept your password, so just change it for that visit.

If you've seen the previews, you're probably thinking, why is he recommending an alien SciFi horror flick, will we make it in time, and why did I bring helium instead of air?

Aside from the fact that Natalie Portman is my shalomie homie and can rap better than Post Malone, this movie is intense--visually, suspensefully, and emotionally**.

** Full disclosure: I did watch this movie the first time on 1.0 metric spores of Boomers. 9/10 will do again with 1.0 more just for the visuals.

*** Warning - Slight spoilers ahead, but mostly just framing how the movie should/might be interpreted ***.

Here's the thing--the movie is an allegory for depression. It's loosely based off the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. Some key parts are there, but it largely diverges from the series. The movie is written and directed by the same guy (Alex Garland) that gave us another brilliant piece of SciFi cinematic excellence, "Ex Machina".

Annihilation is, as it's mentioned in the film--self destruction, juxtaposed against an alien/biological "virus". The Shimmer (Area X in the book) is depression. Some fight it, face it, let it consume them (Just when you thought DiCaprio had it bad going against a bear in "The Revenant"), or just accept it as a part of them. The dialogue throughout the movie is very revealing, especially when you think about it abstractly as if you are viewing the depression/shimmer and every character in it from a first person point-of-view with a third person perspective.

What?!

Exactly.

There will be a scene where Lena (Natalie Portman) and Sheppard (Tuva Novotny) are rowing on a boat through the swamp--at this point Sheppard provides all the baggage for every character (an alcoholic, someone suicidal/scarred, someone fighting cancer, someone that's lost someone else, and someone that's lost themself because of a loss). It's very poignant dialogue.

Are there gruesome scenes that might make it difficult to watch? Yes. Of course. It's a SciFi horror flick, you dingus! But you know what? Depression is hard to face and look at, and sometimes you have to have a friend cut you open and show your insides moving around to know that things are changing.

Ultimately, people go into it and never really come out. If they do--are they different, or just fooling themselves and everyone else into thinking they are?