Annihilation is written and directed by Alex Garland, the man behind Ex Machina, and it follows Lena, played by Natalie Portman, a biology teacher mourning the loss of her husband Kane, played by Oscar Issac, who disappeared almost a year ago on a secret military mission. When we're introduced to Lena she's in a quaratined cell being questioned about her expedition into ''The Shimmer'' as one of only two survivors. ''The Shimmer'' is a mysterious and unexplainable expanding landscape that mutates everything within it, Annihilation follows Lena and four other military scientists as they journey inside it in an attempt to discover the truth.
This was a brilliant film! I loved it, it's beautifully directed with stunning visuals, it's very well written with interesting characters and an intriguing premise, the performances are all great, it's extremely original and it's very thought provoking, it's one of the best films I've watched recently! Annihilation's over two hours long but it didn't feel like it, Garland does a great job at pacing the film perfectly, it doesn't feel like any time's wasted, we're introduced to the protagonist, we learn what we need to learn, we're introduced to the idea of ''The Shimmer'' and we're already invested both emotionally and on mere intrigue and their journey of discovery is gripping!
This is definitely my favourite Natalie Portman role, the only other films I can remember her in are the Star Wars prequels though, she did an excellent job, I cared about her character and I believed her! All of the performances were great, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Issac and Benedict Wong who played Errol in 12 Storeys High! I also think it's worth mentioning a point that Jay from RedLetterMedia made about the fact that all the leading roles are played by female actors, and that no one gave a fuck unlike the Ghostbusters remake where that's all anyone talked about, it shouldn't matter and it doesn't here.
I've mentioned the visuals but it's worth expanding, there's visuals in Annihilation unlike anything I've seen before and they're justified within a realm of believable reality. I love all the ideas here and I won't spoil anything but there's a fantastic scene involving a bear, it's just such an amazing idea, that's never been done before! That's what filmmakers should be striving for, something original, something that will inspire people, something that makes you think! I also appreciate Garland not feeling the need to overexplain everything, there's a lot left open to interpretation and I like that, it felt like there was depth to this and it's worthy of discussion.
All in all I would definitely recommend Annihilation to both hard core and casual film fans, it's interesting, it's entertaining, it's gripping, it's very original, it's got an intriguing plot and great characters, I was invested all the way through and there's a lasting impact to it, it's the best film of the year so far and if you haven't seen it, you definitely should. I'm probably going to go and do a little research on it myself now to see how different people interpret it, it's that sort of film! The only other time I felt the need to do research after watching a film was when I watched Enemy! I'm gonna give Annihilation an 8.7/10, watch it!
What did you think of Annihilation?