How does one approach a critique of a film like Annihilation? Something that's simultaneously fairly recognizable and like something you've never seen before. Familiar yet unfamiliar. A film where discussing it is like walking a tightrope where losing balance is equated to giving away the tricks it has up its sleeve. While that task is indeed quite daunting, I shall take it on because this film is more than worthy of my attention as well as yours. The first thing I'll say is that it could be the yin to Arrival's yang, so to speak. If Denis Villeneuve expertly displayed the optimism of exploring the unknown in that film, this film does the exact opposite and dives deep into how dreary and existentially horrifying that idea really is.
If I'm going to be frank, all of the acting does feel a little off; but, full disclosure, one gets the sense that this was an intentional choice that's designed to play into the movie's atmosphere. Natalie Portman turns in some solid acting in the lead. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tuva Novotny add depth to characters that essentially serve as exposition delivery services (the former is especially interesting, seeing how her puzzling speech pattern may suggest ). Tessa Thompson continues her recent hot streak with her work here as one of the more rational characters is such an admittedly small cast. Ultimately, Gina Rodriguez ends up being the standout in this lineup. Aside from some moments early on where she gets a little irksome, her performance is pretty remarkable. There's a moment where she absolutely loses what little sanity she was clinging onto at this point in the film and she doesn't miss a beat along the way. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that this scene contained one of the most unsettling movie monsters in a while, I'd say she's the scariest thing in that moment.
Rob Hardy does an outstanding job with the cinematography. The imagery on display here is some of the most stunning I've seen in ages, switching back and forth from being captivating to terrifying in its esoteric beauty. Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury deliver some excellent compositions that thrive on their own versatility, ranging from gentle acoustic guitar medleys to droning vocal echoes to hauntingly cryptic synth notes (there's a musical motif that's been played in some of the trailers that's used quite effectively). Finally, there's Alex Garland's marvelous direction. With his credits consisting of Dredd, Sunshine, and Ex Machina, I think it's fair enough to say that he's one of the best guys currently working on intelligent science fiction pictures at the moment. Especially after seeing this, I'm dying to see what he does with a mainstream franchise property (something like Swamp Thing would be straight up his alley).
Returning to what I said earlier, Annihilation is an anomaly in how it feels completely original while remixing some touchstones of sci-fi horror cinema. There's echoes of Arrival and John Carpenter's The Thing all wrapped in a elegiacal est. It varies drastically from the original novel to a degree where discussing it solely in regards to being an adaptation would be a futile endeavor; however, what I can say here is that it capture the book's spirit almost perfectly (even if it forgoes certain details, significant or otherwise). If you have the opportunity to see this in the theater, I encourage you to take full advantage of that because is one of the best compelling genre flicks to come from a major studio in recent years. What director Alex Garland has crafted here is an adult science fiction horror picture that's not to be missed. To say anymore would almost certainly ruin a journey that's well worth taking.
ANNIHILATION gets a...
FASCINATING HEAD-TRIP out of TEN
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