REVIEW | Annihilation (2018)

Somebody snubbed something really special here.

It’s not destroying. It’s making something new.

After discovering that her missing husband is slowly dying from enduring a scientific, covert mission. Biologist and former marine, Lena, learns of a mysterious force field that threatens life on earth as it grows larger. Desperate to save him — she joins a group of researchers and journeys into the quarantined zone to understand what happened during his mission.

Unprepared and unaware of the dangers that await them ahead.

---

*Minor spoilers for Annihilation ahead*

So apart from the fact that I haven’t been able to get my mind off Annihilation even several days after viewing it. I’ve come to realise that Netflix-exclusives don’t exactly play by the rules of cinema releases and screening availability (technically making it theatrically timeless).

ALSO — with the 91st Academy Awards featuring other stream-select specials like Roma and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. You can’t help but wonder, where’s the love for kick-ass, female-led sci-fi stories people??

So with that answering the ‘Why’ to this 2018 time-capsule review —

— let the Oscar-snub spectacular begin!

---

Typically with most movies, you’d be able to get a handle on what it was as soon as the credits roll — right? But the more I thought about Annihilation, the more it escaped my verdict to develop into something more than I could grasp in a single viewing. But here’s what I can tell you.

It borrows a relatively common concept to support the plot, and supersedes that idea with excellent execution and picturesque presentation to deliver an authentic, poetic nightmare. All intensified with a cellular, cerebral story that kept me right at the edge of my seat (sometimes squirming, sometimes sensing, and mostly sunken into the world).

To put it simply — it’s the kind of story that fans of the genre wished they’d come up with it.

It’s tastefully intelligent, insightfully detailed, and an incredible film with philosophical themes and psychological tones rooting itself throughout the film. Proving to be a strong-enough entry for Alex Garland to be among the sci-fi hall-of-fame (to say the least).

---

And with a good story — comes greater sights, sounds, and sequences to strike your senses. I mean, believe it or not, I know that I regularly express how ‘experiential’ a movie is. But Annihilation genuinely feels like it has a beating heart to it.

With such vibrantly exquisite instances set in a visually visceral environment, this film goes the extra mile and cleverly composes every frame with skill and intent to submerge you into this sci-fi sensory spectacle — with shock, awe, and cinematic glory. Not to mention the eerie and entrancing score that layers the film with a strange and suspenseful air.

Annihilation is intense at a glance, and viciously vivid with every subsequent watch. Equally gruesome as it is gorgeous, terrifying as it is transcendent — and terrific in every sense of the word. All while also being cohesively completed with orchestral pacing, no-nonsense dialogue, and seamless storytelling across timeframes and scene-space.

It’s a real mother of a mosaic, messed-up, meta-masterpiece (and you can put that on the box).

---

With its carefully controlled complexity, nothing — not even the trailer, the poster, or even the synopsis (okay, maybe the novel) could prepare you for what this film has in its jaws. Which also gives you the best seat in the house next to the equally-confused and curious characters that are piloting this stunning sci-fi shuttle.

Even if I didn’t mention any of the big names attached to this movie (Academy Award nominees and winners alike), you’d still get a truly engaging performance out of the lot of them. No need for master-class method acting, outlandish charisma, or timeless top-ten portrayals.

All the cast has to do is exhibit just enough character dynamic with the right amounts of ‘human’ for you to connect with them in every scene and sequence. To ultimately strap you right in the boots of its foreign, fearful, and unforgiving world. Yet as unnerving as that sounds — it’s still undeniably worth the trip because of how outstandingly well it’s done.

Seriously, it’s an incredibly phenomenal film when you watch on its terms.

---

As an admirer of the genre — you’ll no doubt agree that there are several significant elements and countless combinations to it that make a memorable sci-fi movie. From fantastic visual effects, to provocative ideas, and philosophical extremes that anchor any film (plus or minus some robots).

But every now and again, you have a movie like Annihilation that comes along and strings all those things together into a carefully-chaotic composition. Presenting an adaptation to film that couldn’t have been better realised in any other fashion — all by absorbing the icons of the genre and enhancing them to unpredictable, unbelievable, and unimaginable degrees.

So if you love sci-fi horror homages to Alien (1979), admire the magnetic mystery that made up Arrival (2016), and crave the thought-provoking themes stitched into Ex Machina (2014) — then Annihilation will be everything you want (and more) in a film.

And if none of that whets your appetite in the slightest, then there’s a strong, strong chance that you won’t have the stomach for this movie.

Cause in-case it wasn’t clear — it leaves quite a remarkable aftertaste.