My favourite Sci-Fi Movie clip of 2018 and maybe of all time:
Annihilation - The Alien Scene
(SPOILER WARNING!)
My favourite moment of Alex Garland’s Annihilation movie is In the Lighthouse scene at the end when Lena (Natalie Portman) faces Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) transform through light and fire into the alien manifestation which was a mesmerising infinite, geometric fractal shape of intelligent (source) energy, emphasised by Moderat's - The Mark (Interlude) brilliant soundtrack in the background to add to it’s powerful impression, it totally tripped me out like a full on dmt trip.
• As Above, So Below.
• The symbology of the Lighthouse, time, consciousness, touch and the source.
• The human subconscious impulse to be self destructive reflected by the alien entity absorbing and reflecting human consciousness good and bad.
• Complex protagonists.
• A profound parable of self reflection.
• The Alien Lair’s similarity to the Alien Spacecraft in Ridley Scott’s Alien (Just incase you were not sure if it was really Alien or not - It was, even though it doesn’t look like your typical Hollywood Alien model, it wasn’t meant to.)
I loved the overall psychedelic look & feel to the movie and the amazingly powerful soundtrack (Barrow & Salisbury's wonderful score) I could go on and on…
In the original books the Aliens i believe took the form of beings of light which makes sense as there is a lot of visual references to light and strange refracted light throughout the movie.
I believe Alex Garland referenced that particular scene as being inspired by a ‘Mandelbulb’ a three-dimensional fractal shape similar to the 2D fractal Mandelbrot’s but are much harder to visualise.
What he created was certainly visually and audibly hypnotic.
Power_8_mandelbulb_fractal_overview.jpg
Was it symbolising a 4th or Higher Dimensional Advanced Alien Entity?
Was it total destruction and annihilation or just changing our DNA and humanity into something new, not simply cancer like alien mutations but a form of biological and spiritual extra dimensional transcendence and evolution of consciousness for all life on Earth.
I am saddened that its worldwide cinema release was cancelled and the film was sold to Netflix for half its budget supposedly because it was far too intellectual for us mere dumb masses to understand, personally I’d like to see a lot more sci-fi like this in the future and a lot less blockbuster brainless thrill rides and superhero nonsense.
Garland offered many different interpretations of the movie’s ending which is great, what is your take on the whole movie and how did you interpret the meaning of the ending?
More Links:
Moderat - The Mark (Interlude)
Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow - The Alien (Edit)
https://soundcloud.com/invadauk/ben-salisbury-geoff-barrow-the-alien-edit
Meet the Mandelbulb
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/meet-the-mandelbulb/
The Mandelbrot set, possibly the world's most famous fractal - Its complicated structure demonstrates what mathematicians mean by chaos.
Zooming into the Mandelbrot set
Rudy Rucker,
As Above, So Below:
A 3D Mandelbrot Set Story