Review of Annihilation (2018) by James F — 06 Mar 2018

Dreamlike. I'll be surprised if there's a better sci-fi movie this year. Much better than the book, Garland took a great idea and made a great film. It owes a lot to Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker which is based on the novel Roadside Picnic.

Annihilation swims in visual effects at the expense of character development. Outside of Portman's character the other roles were props. If the film failed at all it was here, where a film like Alien(s) can define a minor character in a single shot and line of dialog, Annihilation seemed to preoccupied with developing the environment as a character to notice, which ends up being its greatest strength and weakness.