Annihilation (2018) - Review

Director: Alex Garland | Written by Alex Garland | 115m

(Spoilers ahead)

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When her husband vanishes during a secret mission, biologist Lena joins an expedition into a mysterious region sealed off by the U.S. Government.

- Netflix -

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When I first picked up Jeff VanderMeer's magnum opus Annihilation, I was only tangentially aware of the movie it had inspired. Having heard of the upcoming Netflix film starring Natalie Portman, about a mysterious quarantined area where there were strange, horrific goings-on, I decided to check out the book - I had it read within a couple of days whilst holidaying in Majorca (who said the poolside is a chaotic place?), and though the book has since became separated from it's spine and cover, it still sits on my bookshelf as one of my favourite reads of all time.

The movie had a lot to live up to.

I say the movie is only tangentially related because Director Alex Garland (Ex_Machina) has taken a multitude of liberties with the story, which in the book was related as a series of journal entries by an unnamed protagonist about her journey into Area X, along with her team consisting of characters identified only as nouns; an anthropologist, a biologist, etc. Her entries concern little more than the exploration of a structure which has materialised as a result of exposure to the shimmer, a strange phenomenon that is slowly engulfing the coastline. Annihilation (the movie) expands on these concepts, reconciling them with some pretty heady ideas and creating real, believable characters out of the admittedly thin vignettes they existed as on the page.

Annihilation follows the same basic conceit as the book; Lena (Portman) joins a team consisting of Dr Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez), Josie Radek (Tessa Thompson) and "Cass" Shephard (Tuva Novotny) as they enter Area X as a result of her husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) having returned home, almost delirious, after what turns out to be a mission into the same area. That is about where the similarities end. The movie takes a rapid detour into attempting to create an understanding of Area X, whilst it remains broadly a mystery in the book; though Area X is expanded upon in subsequent novel instalments Authority and Acceptance.

The movie is beautiful; Garland carefully crafts images that are at first familiar, but upon closer inspection reveal the alien; focal distortions and chromatic aberrations focus images at the centre, whilst hinting at the overall mystery of the shimmer and how it so brutally contorts reality and mutates matter. Here and there, though, style does overpower the frame; for instance, Garland could have scaled back on the lens flares that all-too frequently hide most everything on the screen. JJ. Abrams did them to death, they could very easily have been left out here.

Where the movie excels is the way it melds science-fiction basics with heady themes; self-destruction, mutation and rebirth are represented as abstract metaphors, even if, towards the end, Garland worries that you've missed them and spells them out in tedious dialogue that belies the subtle genius the rest of the film has set up. But where Ex_Machina allowed Garland to ruminate on the nature of consciousness and identity, themes explored to a lesser extent here, Annihilation allows him to flex some of his horror muscles; there's some delightfully trippy body-horror elements going on, such as a soldier torn apart by a fungus he has been mutated into and by, but it is the infamous 'bear scene' that really gets the heart pounding. Tense, terrifying and featuring a creature that has assimilated the screams of its victims into its own voice, it's ingenious, innovative and truly fresh.

Make no mistake, Annihilation won't be for everyone. Though it occasionally devolves into cheaper, action-oriented thrills, it's a complex, thought-provoking piece that perhaps gets too heady for its own good - combined with characters that, though contextually appropriate and fleshed-out enough to be likeable, are generally uninteresting. Natalie Portman is the standout here, delivering a powerful role that she's deserved for years, and she outshines her co-stars by managing to break from their monotone approach enough to make her believable.

Perhaps it is most fair to describe Annihilation as being more style than substance; excellent direction, cinematography and presentation combined with a deliriously trippy score by Ben Salisbury is enough to satiate most audiences; but looking beneath the surface and issues do shine through. The writing is so-so in places, balanced by scenes with more nuance, and the performances are somewhat lacking in emotional depth. But this is a true adaptation; not beholden to the source material, but sharing in its DNA enough to be recognisable (so as not to offend novel fans) and improving it in some key areas, it's a great horror, sci-fi, drama mashup. More importantly, it's all that - and thought provoking.

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Sam's Score: 6

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Annihilation is available on Netflix.

All images © Netflix