Annihilation

I was captivated by the trailer the other day, I'm not so impressed with the film in the end, but it's still a decent genre film with an excellent idea. Four female scientists, each specialized in something different, go to explore a new area where the laws of nature don't apply and where no one has ever come back alive. It's great idea, but I felt it didn't get as much space as it could have. The film is unnecessarily hampered by flashbacks that aren't very entertaining and it shows in the pacing. There's a great scene with a white crocodile and a mutant bear that wreaks havoc in a cabin and there's one excellent gore scene with a ripped jaw, that really had me going crazy with joy. The final philosophical half hour didn't impress me that much and I found the finale quite confusing. I would definitely add more mutated animals and anything from nature in general to make it more satisfying. The film is definitely worth recommending for the idea, the visuals and the bear, though it’s not great. 70%. (18/03/2018)

I appreciate Garland for one thing: how he is able to seduce critics, through his bloated and, in this case, nonsensical B-movie, to write about sci-fi masterpieces. Which is the case of a film that looks quite bad on television and is vague everywhere where it should be concrete and concrete everywhere where it should be vague. Truly a daring film. (14/03/2018)

Thanks God Garland didn’t make Arrival. Thanks to this, it did not lose its humanistic subtext and rational explanation, something that cannot be said about Annihilation. The surrealistic wandering through fantastic landscapes, decorated with brilliant set design and minimalistic music, is beautiful to watch and listen to, but the story is at times a survival, at times a parade of CGI monsters, and a nondescript finale. Sure, we don't always need a literal interpretation, but if it's WTF, it would kinda sting. Garland is a tinkerer of technology, a master of atmosphere and slow-burn stories about a few characters, but here he gets too wrapped up in the themes. There’re still a few brilliant directorial ideas, though. (14/05/2018)

It’s great that Netflix, as part of its sci-fi mission, shoots stories that are part of the current new weird novel trend. I actually discovered the author of the source novel – Jeff VanderMeer a few months ago in the form of his book Veniss Underground and I was fascinated by his brutal surrealism. In case of Annihilation, it’s not that obvious but still similar. Had Giger been still alive and participated in the creation of this movie like he did in the case of Alien, it might have been a unique work. It’s still quite decent as it is, though. I was ecstatic even though I’d have appreciated more visual ideas in that bubble. (16/04/2020)

A pure and, in places, really terrifying horror with an inconclusive ending. The hypnotic atmosphere of the survey mutating the national park is perhaps disrupted a little inter by the memory sequences, but they are important too. Garland cleverly layers a story full of memory holes and, through hints, sets the scene for a mind-fuck finale, which deserves deeper analysis, not so much of what happened, but more like why. The tricks are sufficient, even if a little unbalanced. The overall visual is just wow. The human trees, moldy bodies and all the other mutants serve to advance the story. The acting was flawless, with Isaac being the most intriguing of all. Another great job after Ex Machina. (14/03/2018)