Annihilation Review

After the surprisingly compelling and hauntingly tense sci-fi drama Ex Machina by Alex Garland, the sky was the limit for what he could bring to Sci-Fi cinema.  Enter Annihilation, the film adaptation of the popular book trilogy, following the story of a biologist professor, former army soldier with a group of scientists and a paramedic venturing into Area X called The Shimmer.  It has been getting reactions and opinions on all sides, divided by the meaning of the themes to the visual interpretations present throughout the film.  It also stars up and coming/familiar actors that comprise of the small excavation team we follow for most of the film.  Does it stand out from other sci-fi films of its kind or does it falter in key areas that keeps it from being a classic? Let’s walk through The Shimmer and get right into it with the story for this film.

We follow Lena (Natalie Portman), an army veteran turned Biologist professor that is still disconnected and in grief over the disappearance of her husband Kane (Oscar Issac) as her friend/colleague Daniel (David Gyasi) tries to convince her to move on.  That is until Kane comes back into her life after a year had passed but completely sick and dying with multiple organ failures.  The events bring Lena into contact with Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a psychologist/scientist warden for Area X, an infected area where a lighthouse was struck with a meteor 3 years ago and has grown a force field bubble called The Shimmer.  Lena is informed that her husband went into The Shimmer and came out of it mysteriously, which drives her with a group of other scientists from Josie Radek, a Physicist with suicidal tendencies (Tessa Thompson), Anya Thorensen, a paramedic with a temper and addiction problem (Gina Rodriguez), Cass Sheppard, a geologist/surveyor with nothing to lose (Tuva Novotny), and Ventress to go into The Shimmer to investigate and report on the effects it is having to the land and lifeforms on a physical and genetic level.  What they all discover in The Shimmer will not only change their ideas and perceptions of evolution in life forms and organisms but the very concept of mutation that could very well reshape the world for better or worse.

This is quite a unique adaptation as it seems to have been approached and interpreted differently from the novel akin to Stephen King’s The Shining, only taking characters and certain events to tell the story in a cinematic language.  Having not read the book though, it must be judged on its own merits as a film and it is quite possibly one of the most haunting and uniquely odd sci-fi horror film to come out in some time now.  It is a slow burner in that the time is used to build the suspense of what lies within The Shimmer as well as giving enough character development and traits to know who the team members are and their stories as they set off on this journey.  There is an interesting but a bit distracting at times use of juxtaposition with the scenes that explore Lena as a character and her motivation for her actions and decision to enter The Shimmer.  Despite the female centric cast, gender is not the reason these characters are distinctive or refreshingly human but the great performances as well as steady and well intention writing/direction at work here from Garland.  It is very much a survivalist drama with the steady build of sci-fi elements and themes building to a very violent and ultimately strange climax that is both awe-inspiring and hauntingly engaging to watch.

As they go further into The Shimmer, the creatures become deadly and menacing especially one sequence that may look goofy in the trailers but is a terrifying, harrowing sequence that follows a breakdown of a character that may be expected from this kind of story but showcases Garland’s ability to really create tension from the familiar by making it alienating and creepy.  The overarching theme throughout the film can be summarized in two words, self-destruction and the nature of it down to an organic and genetic matter of life in general to create a new form or way of life that is limitless in direction or form as each character contends with it in their own way but more so with Lena and Ventress especially in the climax.  The last act of the film is where the story comes to a head and shows just how trippy and crazy it gets with elements of H.P. Lovecraft’s psychologically shaped horrors blended with organic sci-fi elements that make it one of the most stunningly entrancing, yet tense finales seen in cinema.  However, the film is driven by its own ambiguity and doesn’t give the answers to you but rather leaves it open for us to interpret on our own terms.

The story is familiar but has one of the most bizarre yet memorizing climaxes seen in a sci-fi horror film.  The familiar comes from most of it being a survivalist drama that only delves into sci-fi as the story goes along and ramps up the oddity to it.  The characters do have well defined traits and conflict within themselves and each other but outside of Lena and Ventress, they are flat and hard to latch onto as they each reach their conclusions within the story.  The themes and ideas the characters explore, discuss, and confront are what makes this film worth sitting through even if most of the characters tend to be plot points or fodder for the wildlife and world of The Shimmer.  It starts off on a slow tempo but picks up eventually and sprints to one of the most memorable climaxes that will be discussed among fans of this film as well as those that enjoy Alex Garland’s work thus far with the genre and his writing.

The cast is all around good to great even, starting with Natalie Portman as the lead protagonist Lena, driven by guilt and determination to find a way to save her husband by any means necessary.  She has the most development of the cast and while the reason for her to join the mission might seem like a creative flaw for the character’s likeability, it makes her prone to mistakes and it ultimately fits with her driven conviction to save Kane by going into The Shimmer.  Portman is reliably good in the lead role to drive the story forward and follow her as a character venturing down the rabbit hole.

Oscar Issac is really a bit player this time around as Kane, an active Army soldier working black ops for the government including the mission to investigate The Shimmer.  Him and Portman have some genuine lovely chemistry with each other and that is good since the conflict of the film is driven by their relationship and ultimately is reshaped by the end of it.  He is just as charming and charismatic as ever despite being in the film for only a limited amount of the time.  

The main cast for the film also involves the team themselves, starting with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr. Ventress.  Her character is essentially the hard as nose sergeant character of the story that is determined to finish the mission at all cost, even at the cost of her own life.  She grows on viewers as a character despite the odd inflections of the performance with Leigh in her first few scenes.  She is unfortunately not given much except the trademarks of the archetype and plays to it well regardless.

We have the other scientists as well with Tessa Thompson as Josie, Gina Rodriguez as Anya, and Tuva Novotny as Cass who fill out the rest of the team and play to their archetypes well enough.  That is the main issue with the film though is the lack of time developing the characters interactions with each other and allowing us to get a sense of their camaraderie and eventual breakdown when it happens.  It keeps the focus on the lead and the team leader as they are the ones who ultimately drive the story forward and to its inevitable conclusion.  The actresses do a great job as they have proven in other films, but they are given very little outside of character traits and conflicts that play to the beats of the survival horror story to really standout.  They either feel underdeveloped or fodder for the dangerous components of the mission.

Let’s get to the technical aspects of the film, starting with the art direction and design in general.  It maintains the look of ordinary life from the school to Lena’s home until we are transported to Area X, the standard looking military secret base outpost outside The Shimmer.  When we get into The Shimmer, that’s when the world becomes more colorful, open, and yet enclosed for the team as they venture into the heavily forested and ruined area.  The look of it is quite a fascinating blend of the mundane with the wilder, apocalyptic visual aesthetics for The Shimmer as if the land itself has consumed it for itself from villages to a military base.  When we get to the climax, the ocean line is a refreshing change as well as a setting that feels straight out of H.R. Giger and the original sci-fi horror film Alien coincidental or not.  The film is varied in its artistic direction and it is in the work behind the scenes where the film truly shines unquestionably.   

We now move towards Cinematography and the editing of the film itself.  It was shot by Rob Hardy and it is quite the gorgeous film with a great use of soft focus as well as manipulation of the light to convey a mysterious dread or tension in a scene for dramatic or action purposes.  There is also a great use of lighting to really sell and make the CGI elements believable despite the lack of high end budget numbers to make it.  There is also some clever and intuitively utilized arrangement of story beats cutting back and forth between the past and present with Lena’s story and her motivations.  It is also in sync with the ambient sounds and music to the visuals skillfully to great effect for those moments that feel tense or strange in the story.  This is yet again, another wonderfully shot film and it matches the visual aesthetics of Garland’s previous work fittingly here.

The CGI/VFX work here is absolutely utilized to great effect as it really creeps you out with the mutations that occurs with the animals as well as the plants themselves throughout the world of The Shimmer in their journey.  Instead of making a ton of the film in CGI, it is a subtle blend of computer and practical effects to really sell these creations to great effect, with both the Alligator and Bear looking extremely terrifying with their contributions to the main action beats of the film.  Most of it deals with the way the lighting is being manipulated correctly to make the CGI seamless as well as those creatures outside of two of them, kept in the dark for most of their time.  It is exceptional work and it proves that skilled and talented artists can make anything possible against a limited budget and creative challenge to make it work on screen.   

Lastly, let’s get into Sound Design from the sound effects to the musical score for this film.  The sound effects from the creatures were surprisingly effective in being creepy and scary to convey how different these animals are from what we know about them.  This is tied in to the musical score of the film done by Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow, with an emphasis on ambience and atmosphere to set the eerie mood of the story.  It works in tandem with the visuals despite being created more for the film than for listening on your own.  It adds to the strange beauty of this film that is captivating and tense to see unfold with a blend of synth and mantra chant to create this dreamscape that makes the familiar different.

Annihilation is truly a great remix of what has come before it in Sci-Fi horror that aspires to explores the very core nature of evolution and the idea of mutation forming something new from destruction within life or an organism.  While the story itself is very compelling and the themes/ideas it explores are sci-fi at its purest form, it doesn’t give enough time to really become ingrained with these characters and they are either underdeveloped or underutilized outside of the lead character.  It is also very much a survivalist drama that ratchets the sci-fi/horror elements steadily until its explosive, captivatingly weird climax with an oddly low key ending that may disappoint viewers.  This is very much a genre film that will divide viewers in its quality and contribution to the genre itself but it is certainly a gorgeous one to look at as well as a refreshingly different take on the familiar, keeping to what the point of the story was all about.  Changing what has come before into something the feels and looks new, and that is what Alex Garland with the cast and crew were able to accomplish with this tense, compelling sci-fi horror drama.

Score: **** out of *****

Annihilation is a cult classic in the making and it is truly a great follow-up from Garland’s previous film Ex Machina, another great sci-fi thriller that takes familiar stories and genre troupes to craft a wonderfully tense and dramatic conflict of ideologies regarding intelligence in life forms from human to machine.  This is yet another quality film from Alex Garland that is intriguing yet tense to sit through.  Its slow, deliberate pacing may turn off viewers looking for something faster paced as well as fleshed out characters as we see the lead and to a lesser extent, Veltress developed from start to finish.  The entire cast gives a great performance as they play to their archetypes with ease and passion for the role despite the thinly developed character material for them to work with in the script.  The story starts off slowly but delivers one of the most exciting and truly memorable finales in a film this year.  It is also a stunningly, beautifully shot film with some top-notch work on the CGI as well as well tuned sound designed that truly makes this one memorable film to see in theaters.  Simply put, this is one film that deserves to be seen on the big screen if you can.