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peterskb45's avatar

peterskb45

An intense and beautiful sci-fi/thriller with shades of horror. Even though Annihilation is based on a book series and has influences of Tarkovsky's Stalker and Solaris, with a little Alien thrown in, this still feels like a genuinely unique movie.
6 years 1 month ago
Kinchski's avatar

Kinchski

Don't believe the haters, this is a beautiful, challenging, (and flawed) movie. There were things I didn't like about this, but it showed me things that I've never really seen on the screen before. Which is saying something in any genre, but especially SciFi!
6 years ago
Svaneborg's avatar

Svaneborg

Absolutely loved the music!
6 years ago
manwithpetgull's avatar

manwithpetgull

Tried to be Stalker, ended up as It Comes at Night meets Arrival meets The Arrival.
6 years 1 month ago
Cynicus Rex's avatar

Cynicus Rex

Machinegun wielding scientists with short-term memory loss who didn't bother using 5500-year-old technology: writing.
6 years ago
skillwithaquill's avatar

skillwithaquill

Pure sci-fi horror and existential dread. A+
6 years 1 month ago
greenhorg's avatar

greenhorg

Alex Garland's second movie is not as satisfying as his freshman directorial effort, Ex Machina, in large part because the characters are thinly developed and there isn't much emotional resonance.

Unfortunately it wasn't a very cerebral sci-fi either and I found myself agitated over even the basic illogical story elements (... machine guns but not body suits? Are space monsters more plausible than dangerous air?). Some of the artistic choices are more successful, and there are some good scenes, visuals and ideas sprinkled about, but overall it does not work.
6 years 1 month ago
theZeffo's avatar

theZeffo

THAT CAMCORDER STILL HAS BATTERY AFTER 6MONTHS!?!?!??
5 years 12 months ago
aniforprez's avatar

aniforprez

i think a lot of people missed some of the motifs of the film and are not taking too kindly to it. here's one big thing most people have missed when i read talk about this film. spoiler i suggest people who didn't like the movie watch it again and try to pick up more closely on a lot of the themes the story uses especially the "cancer" theme and you might enjoy it more
5 years 8 months ago
Emiam's avatar

Emiam

8/10
Different & Beautiful. What a nice feeling inside my body and mind after I finished it. Good music. Good CGI. Good cinematography. Great suspense. Great acting by Portman. But will I see it again?
5 years 1 month ago
ChrisReynolds's avatar

ChrisReynolds

A bit of a disappointment after the hype and coming off of Ex Machina, but there is a very evocative atmosphere contained in the music and visuals and the concept is used as an interesting meditation on depression and suicide.

One warning: Ex Machina was hard sci-fi where everything makes scientific sense. Annihilation is very soft sci-fi where the events might as well be powered by magic.
5 years 11 months ago
Siskoid's avatar

Siskoid

Annihilation is, on the face of it, similar to Arrival - a female lead (in this case, a female ensemble), a hard sci-fi mystery (though not as procedural a result), unknowable aliens, a flashback structure, and powerful atonal music. In the story, a team of scientists enters a "shimmering" field in which DNA from one organism seems to infect organisms around it, and through by-turns beautiful and horrific encounters, hopes to make it to the center of the anomaly. The film's subtext is how we change throughout our lives, in particular how was are transformed by trauma. Different characters in the piece react differently, whether it's by facing, rejecting, denying, or embracing who they've become. Trauma and loss are at the forefront, so the cancer motif is not surprising. Director Alex Garland does not seek to explain things beyond the metaphorical grounding, and simply leaves what is unknowable as a sensory experience, and lets ambiguity do what it does best - make the audience ask questions and give the film a life of its own once the lights have come up. As with Arrival, I was intellectually engaged, but it kept me at a distance emotionally.
6 years ago
moldypoldy's avatar

moldypoldy

Evolution (2001) without the jokes.
6 years 1 month ago
Forzelius's avatar

Forzelius

bleh, last 20 minutes or so ruined it completely for me. Garland completely messed up imho. Good premise, intriguing journey, terrible ending. Ex Machina any day of the week for me.
5 years 4 months ago
ikkegoemikke's avatar

ikkegoemikke

“Blackwater National Park reported that a lighthouse was surrounded by something they termed “a shimmer.”
One of the wardens went in to investigate.
Never returned.”


image

Let me get right to the point. “Annihilation” isn’t exactly an easy SF. This horrifying SciFi can join the group of “the more intellectual looking SF films” where “Arrival” can be found as well. The more subtle form of SF, where you wonder all the time what is actually going on (just like the protagonists in this movie). And in the end you still have a lot of questions. In terms of imaging, it looks like “Predator” mixed with influences from “Invasion of the body snatchers“. And it all takes place in a giant soap bubble. One moment the group of five women stumble through a jungle where they are attacked by grotesque, mutated predators. The next moment it looks like a fairytale forest with strange, colorful vegetation and exotic flowers. I guess this group of women don’t know exactly what they are looking for. To be honest, they are complete lost and their sense of time and place is off.

It all starts with the impact from a meteorite, close to a lighthouse somewhere off the coast of the USA. And before Lena (Natalie Portman) realizes it, her husband (an American soldier who was MIA) is back siting with her in the kitchen, she’s taken to a military base and she’s informed about the mystery that now exists after the incident with the meteor. After that impact a huge zone has arisen, which they call “the shimmer” and where no one has ever returned from. Except for her husband, who came back in bad shape. This first part is already difficult to get through. It’s terribly slow with a lot of flashbacks. Not exactly easy to follow, but fascinating enough to arouse curiosity.

This is yet another original SF that Netflix tries to launch after “The Cloverfield Paradox” and “Mute“. And this time it’s exclusive for the viewers of Netflix, because you can only see it in a limited number of cinemas worldwide. Maybe that’s a point of discussion. Wouldn’t it be better to watch this movie on a big screen ? Because the scenery looks exceptionally beautiful at times. And it’s also very exciting and super mysterious. The footage they see on a camcorder, looks bizarre. The discoveries they make at the military base are really frightening. No surprise that there are some who want to pack their bags as quickly as possible. The only question is where to go. Disorientation and mutual mistrust aren’t exactly helpfull aspects. And when they start to encounter all kinds of murderous creatures, there’s the obvious comparison with certain action-packed scenes from the “Alien” series.

“Annihilation“, a film directed by Alex Garland who’s responsible for the magisterial film “Ex Machina“, can certainly be called successful. Maybe it’s a tad too complicated and you scratch your hair several times. Yet this film is unique in its way and as a viewer you can interpret it in your own way. I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece though. The group of women who volunteered for this expedition, may look like the jungle version of those that hunted other ghosts in “Ghostbusters“. But this film is of a different level and certainly not as disastrous as the latter. This quirky SF has made me an even bigger fan of the Netflix Originals.

More reviews here
5 years 11 months ago

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