Annihilation is the new Big Ideas, serious-minded science fiction film from Alex Garland who previously made the very good Ex Machina. This film is based on a novel I really did not like because it didn’t have any interest in explaining anything or even offering characters with names, backstory, etc. The film rectifies some of this and, even if it had no explanations at all, this kind of nebulous storytelling works better in a movie than a book. And, boy, I’m here to tell you this movie really doesn’t think it owes you much explanation.
The film stars Natalie Portman as a biologist (and ex-soldier) who is sent into a mysterious zone called Area X or The Shimmer. Nothing that goes into this mysterious zone of weirdness ever comes back out…. and the government needs to understand it since its growing, threatening the world.
Portman and her crew (which includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson , and Gina Rodriguez) discover that something is rewriting the genetic code of the plant and animal life in the zone and they need to track down its source before it overruns the world. And themselves. The clever thing about the threat and the title of the movie is that Annihilation isn’t so much about the world but about the self.
I really enjoyed this movie. It isn’t a rocking, rollin’ mile-a-minute type of sci-fi film. It’s slow, deliberate, and sometimes inscrutable. It’s also completely beautiful to look at with really great practical and digital effects showing the changes to nature. It’s color palette is bright and colorful in a genre that is often gray and drab. It has an idea of what it’s doing and its approach is a mix of dream-like fantasia and nightmare-inducing body horror.
The film is pretty inscrutable at times and, if it has one flaw, that it seems to be trying to explain things a bit much. There’s some tin-eared explanations that really amount to someone saying, “So this is what happened?” and the answer is “Maybe” or “I don’t know”. In other words, it knows it isn’t going to provide answers, it knows you have questions, so it acknowledges those questions and then pretty much doesn’t provide answers. It was unnecessary but probably something demanded by the studio.
One problem the adaptation had is that, as mentioned, the book didn’t offer much explanation (or character) so they had to build in what they could. Also, it’s book one of three and I haven’t read the second two but I suspect (hope) we get more story and answers there. This movie doesn’t obviously sequel-bait though. It leaves room for more but it isn’t obviously promising more… and I think they had a balancing act making it feel like a complete story knowing there might be more to come.
This is the kind of head-scratching, head-tripping thoughtful film that maybe should be playing more crowd-pleasing to get those bucks, but really isn’t interested in that. I think its audience will suffer because of it but if you like to think or to just experience some weirdness, it’s a movie for you.
Score: 90