Review of Annihilation (2018) by Aron C — 13 Mar 2018

Alex Garland's follow-up to 2015's fantastic 'Ex Machina' is a fascinating film, even before you sit down and watch it. Firstly, it has had a less than conventional journey to our screens - under the weight of a big budget, and underwhelming test audience reviews, Paramount decided to cut their losses and sell it to Netflix for a fee that doesn't even cover half of it's costs, so sure were they of it proving a box-office bomb. Secondly, Garland refused to bow to pressure and make radical changes to his film, to compromise his vision, in order to ensure studio support. His decision was ultimately entirely justified.

Based on the apparently 'unfilmable' Jeff VanderMeer's novel, Annihilation focuses on a five-strong, all-female, expedition that sets out to investigate a mysterious 'shimmer' that has appeared, killing everyone who has dared enter it, which threatens to expand rapidly and envelop the planet. Each member of the crew, offers a profession or speciality, that they hope can unravel the mystery, and indeed unravelling takes place, but not of the intended kind - Natalie Portman leads the cast, in a performance as good as any in her back catalogue, which is a low-bar I will admit, but this is easily up to her 'Black Swan' best. There is equally fine support from her cast-mates, including a wonderfully understated showing from Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Where the film is a success, is in taking a well established horror formula of having a group of players, picked off one by one by a malevolent force, and using it not as the focus but as a means to an end. The set-pieces are understated and infrequent, though brutal, but necessary to understanding the bigger picture. It is refreshing too, to have a group of characters reacting intelligently to the events surrounding them, and too for a film to have a group of women at it's centre. A rarity for a movie of this type. Yet gender is never referred to throughout. It is not used as a plot device or indeed intended to be some kind of feminist message.

Technically, the film is a marvel. Garland has created a vision that is both of this earth, and yet other-worldly at the same time. With natural elements given mutated optics to create a location that plays into the unease felt by the characters the deeper they venture into it. The final sequence, that runs for a good 20 minutes, devoid of dialogue, is as 'out there' as anything I have seen in a studio picture for quite some time. The accompanying soundtrack by Portishead instrumentalist Geoff Barrow, is something else here, complementing a scene that will serve as nightmare-fuel for this viewer for some time to come, not because of any gore or indeed scare, but for the sense of anxiety it creates.

You can understand why Paramount bailed on the project, especially after the chance they took with last year's 'mother!' which proved to be box-office poison for them, but their loss is ultimately Netflix's gain. A fine addition to their catalogue and easily one of the best films I have seen this year.