ANNIHILATION (2018)

Studio:     Paramount Pictures
Director:    Alex Garland
Writer:     Alex Garland
Producer:  Scott Rudin, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Eli Bush
Stars:     Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac

Review Score:

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Summary:

A troubled biologist joins a dangerous expedition to discover what lies at the center of an otherworldly anomaly.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Presumed dead after having disappeared for one year on a covert assignment, military sergeant Kane unexpectedly returns home to his wife Lena, a biologist and professor at Johns Hopkins specializing in cellular research. Kane is curiously unable to recall any details regarding what happened to him.

An ambulance comes for Kane when he suddenly begins hemorrhaging. While en route to the hospital, armed soldiers raid the ambulance to take Kane and Lena into custody.

Lena recovers in a military base codenamed Area X. After asking Lena what she knows about her husband’s operation, psychologist Dr. Ventress shows Lena that the base is positioned near an atmospheric anomaly called “The Shimmer.” Ventress explains that the Shimmer formed when a meteor struck a lighthouse three years earlier. The Shimmer’s gradual growth threatens to further engulf plant and animal life, but no expedition sent into the area has ever returned until Kane, who is now quarantined in a coma.

Lena meets paramedic Anya Thorensen, geomorphologist Cassie Sheppard, and physicist Josie Radek. Lena learns that the three women are preparing to enter the Shimmer for a scientific expedition with Dr. Ventress. Lena chooses not to reveal that her husband is the soldier who returned from the Shimmer.

Lena realizes that Kane went on the dangerous mission because he was despondent over discovering Lena had an affair with her colleague Daniel. Feeling she owes it to Kane, Lena tells Ventress she wants to join the expedition to discover what lies at the center of the Shimmer.

After entering the Shimmer, Lena, Ventress, Radek, Thorensen, and Sheppard lose their sense of time as well as their short-term memories. The five women also discover that multiple plant species have been morphing into singular plant structures, and organic mutations grow more extreme the deeper they go.

A monstrous alligator attacks Radek. The other women rescue Radek and kill the creature. Upon examining the carcass, the women wonder if the alligator somehow crossbred with a shark.

The women make camp at Fort Amaya, an overgrown Army base where Kane’s unit previously billeted. In a bag labeled ‘For Those That Follow,’ Ventress finds a video recording that shows Kane cutting into a fellow soldier’s stomach. Eel-like creatures are seen slithering inside the man’s torso. Thorensen refuses to believe what she sees, although the women then find the man’s corpse mutated further after having bonded with the building.

Unable to sleep because of her flashback dreams, Lena finds Ventress on guard duty outside. The two women discuss self-destruction as human nature in regards to wondering why Kane volunteered for an apparent suicide mission.

A loud noise from the perimeter fence rouses the other three women to join Lena and Ventress outside. A mutated bear suddenly attacks Sheppard and drags her into the dark forest.

Thorensen and Radek express their desire to turn around. Ventress exclaims she is going to the lighthouse no matter what. Lena convinces Thorensen and Radek to continue forward by falsely claiming that the best way out would be to follow the coastline to the other side of the Shimmer.

While scouting alone, Lena finds Sheppard’s dead body as well as another mutated animal species in the woods.

At the next campsite, the four remaining women find plants growing into human shapes. Radek theorizes that the Shimmer has been refracting and assimilating all plant, animal, and human DNA, along with radio waves and other electronic signals too.

Lena notices Thorensen acting strange. Lena tests a cell sample from her mutating arm and realizes her biology is changing.

With her mind cracking from paranoia, Thorensen takes Lena, Ventress, and Radek captive. Having discovered that Kane is Lena’s husband, Thorensen demands to know what other information is being kept from her. Thorensen’s threats are interrupted by what sounds like Sheppard screaming outside the room. Thorensen goes to investigate.

The three captive women hear something attack Thorensen. The mutated bear then enters the room to prowl. From its cries, the three women realize the bear assimilated Sheppard. Thorensen staggers in to shoot the creature. Lena, Ventress, and Radek take the opportunity to free themselves from their restraints when the bear mauls Thorensen. Radek kills the beast before it can attack Lena.

Realizing that their bodies and minds are decaying, Ventress goes off alone hurriedly toward the lighthouse. Radek goes off alone too as her body begins growing strange flowers. Lena loses Radek in a clearing of plants shaped like people.

Lena arrives at the lighthouse to find the beach outside littered with skeletons and crystallized tress. Inside the lighthouse, Lena discovers a video camera whose footage reveals that the real Kane killed himself with a phosphorous grenade while a doppelganger took his place.

Ventress’ voice draws Lena into a hole in the floor. On the other side, Lena enters a cave-like chamber whose walls appear to be alive.

Ventress tells Lena that “it” is inside her. Although she doesn’t know what it wants, Ventress claims it will grow until it encompasses everything. Lena becomes transfixed as Ventress morphs into bright waves of radiant energy.

The energy reforms into a thin humanoid shape. Lena runs back into the lighthouse only to confront another humanoid that mirrors all of Lena’s movements. Lena fights the humanoid. The humanoid eventually assumes Lena’s appearance. Lena places a grenade in her duplicate’s hands and escapes as it explodes.

With its arms ignited, the humanoid intentionally sets fire to everything inside the lighthouse. Outside, Lena watches all of the crystal trees burn and collapse on the beach.

Lena ends up in quarantine back at Area X. After recounting what she remembers for a scientist named Lomax, Lena learns that a team found everything at the lighthouse reduced to ash and Kane woke from his coma once the Shimmer disappeared.

Lena goes to see Kane, even though she realizes he is a doppelganger. Kane asks Lena if she is really Lena, but Lena does not respond. Kane and Lena embrace. The Shimmer is seen inside both of their eyes.

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Review:

Occasionally I’ll read reviews written by people at my peer level and stroke my chin with suspicion that they are only echoing a silently agreed upon angle. Something about writing over their heads will smell of seeing a film from a perspective pushed by pre-release PR or a common critical consensus.

I’m not proposing a conspiracy theory. That’s not what it is. Even after writing hundreds of reviews over a span of several years, I too am still susceptible to feeling a responsibility to be “right.” Professional contrarians purposely pander to hate clicks. But those who wish to endear themselves to studio marketing reps, filmmakers, or the supposed cool kids on ‘Film Twitter’ want to step to the same marching orders as everyone in those circles. They don’t intentionally alter opinions after the fact. They condition expectations beforehand to have a frame of mind befitting popular opinion, often unknowingly.

I’m also not suggesting this notion necessarily applies to Alex Garland’s “Annihilation.” Undermining the movie’s mounds of accolades by implying a significant portion comes from mass “me too” hypnosis would be an arrogant supposition.

I mention this musing because it comes to mind when I exit a film wondering why my take lies outside the apparent norm. Writers from prominent publications crowned “Annihilation” with overwhelming acclaim. Pull quotes praise the sci-fi drama for being intellectually challenging, spectacularly sophisticated, and ripe to be ripped open for academic exploration by generations of cinema students.

Why then, do I find the same content to be dully paced, thematically neutered, and underwhelming as escapist entertainment? Am I too dense, too uncultured, or possess too pedestrian of an analytical mind to grasp heady concepts, richly complex context, or artistically advanced storytelling craft? No, I don’t believe that’s it either. Sometimes, one person’s impressively contemplative sci-fi is simply another person’s superficially padded speculative fiction.

“Annihilation” tells its core tale of five women investigating an atmospheric anomaly entirely in flashback. This immediately puts suspense behind an 8-ball with the revelation that Natalie Portman’s biologist Lena is the only member of her crew who survives. With the only other advantage being a limp way to bridge scene changes through narration, how “Annihilation” benefits from this format becomes the first offscreen mystery.

In between exploring this unusual area called “The Shimmer” and encountering its curiously mutated flora and fauna, conversational interludes cover topics from paths shaped by personal trauma to human nature’s predilection for self-destruction. Engaging, accomplished actresses including Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tessa Thompson chew on wordy ideas that sound meaningful out of the mouth. Once they hit the audience’s ears, the appearance of introspective intellectualism evaporates from the realization that import rings hollow. “Annihilation” seemingly has so much to say, yet little of it resonates with philosophy mirroring onscreen action.

Garland approaches “Annihilation” with a similar style of slow-burn intensity applied to his previous feature “Ex Machina” (review here). Here however, tension ropes don’t pull as tightly because atmosphere isn’t infected with the same sense of dread. Threats hang over every head, but personal secrets as well as scientific discoveries yet to come aren’t oiled with sinister slickness. Drama instead comes across with quietly exploratory calm.

None of these observations intend to imply that “Annihilation” isn’t worthy of a one-time watch. Even the most minor collective effort from the talent assembled here, a label for which “Annihilation” doesn’t even qualify, would demand attention on premise and performances alone. Indeed this is the case, as Garland, Portman, et al. burn enough heat for the film to remain intriguing through valleys as well as peaks.

But to make Kubrickian comparisons while bestowing laurels of masterpiece status is premature at best and loftily ludicrous at worst. Ask for elaboration on any claims of intricately layered cerebral subtext, or search for such substance yourself. Then see how long maddening incompleteness can masquerade as deeply mature material. “Annihilation’s” impact makes a dent. Seeing it as a crater requires an inference of imagination that the movie only meets partway.

Review Score: 55

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