Annihilation (Alex Garland)

[Henry Gale]

IMDb / Wiki

[Henry Gale]

I thought this was completely, uninhibitedly stunning. The design (both in its storytelling and art direction/FX) tows the line perfectly between being gorgeously imaginative, garishly alien and non-conformingly grosteque (from the palettes of its majestic stuff and its more gruesome bits), often to the point that you have no usual reference point for if something is meant to be smooth or pleasing, because the elements of its story infect the language and visuals of it so suitably. It all plays perfectly into the dichotomy of what's human/familiar/safe in its narrative and what isn't.

All around a beyond worthy and confidently risky follow-up to Ex Machina which almost makes that feel tiny & quaint with its ideas in comparison. It has big and unique ambitions, and obviously it's challenging stuff from a marketing and wide audience perspective, but it's also just so engaging that I can't imagine most people not being along for the ride even if they don't know what to make of it by the end. (Don't quote me when this gets an "F" Cinemascore or something.) The sound and imagery reverberated physically through me as I watched it and have continued to linger in my mind into this morning. I'm not sure streaming it at home would have the same engulfing effect quality-wise, but even still, the film's strengths are likely to be felt in any delivery system, and hopefully discussed and emulated for a long time.

So where I commend them as a studio greenlighting this in the first place and for having full confidence in the similarly great but less weird Arrival, and for simply making mother! at all (and in some ways those might be two of the closest wide release comparions I can make to Annihilation) Paramount are being some real fuckbois for not letting the rest of the world get to see it in theatres (and at the same time devaluing its theatrical profile where it still will be on the big screen). It sends the message that if something isn't testing well they can just banish it to streaming. In some cases that's an understandable scenario (Cloverfield Paradox, perhaps a long-shelved and quietly dumped comedy like Father Figures), but with something like this, they'd really rather take a bundle of money from Netflix to take it off their hands and likely lose box office money from the widespread press that it'll be theatrical-exclusive in only three countries for only three weeks? It's scary to think that anything that worries them can without warning have their intended release revoked.

The best option is to go see it on the biggest screen you can. Both for the prime isolation of the visual/aural experience it provides, and because the more tickets bought for it, the more it sends a message that Paramount (and studios like it) shouldn't back down from making things like it in the first place.

**** / 9.1

[Skitch]

(and in some ways those might be two of the closest wide release comparions I can make to Annihilation)

SO IN.

[[ETM]]

WHAT THE...?! First I heard of the distribution deal, what the hell? This is one of the few things this year that I was really looking forward to seeing in the theatre. I saw the trailer in front of lots of films these past few months...

[Ivan Drago]

e and for having full confidence in the similarly great but less weird Arrival, and for simply making mother! at all (and in some ways those might be two of the closest wide release comparions I can make to Annihilation)

AWWWWWWW SHIT. I'm seeing this tonight and I'm beyond pumped now.

[Ivan Drago]

AWWWWWWW SHIT. I'm seeing this tonight and I'm beyond pumped now.

Sure enough, two people sitting behind me and my friends were noise throughout and it was taking me out of the experience.

But when I wasn't disrupted, holy fuck. This movie really feels like if Andrei Tarkovsky made The Thing. It requires a second viewing to fully comprehend all its ideas and turning points, but the imagery managed to be so haunting, ethereal and meditative all at once while the sound design was so immaculate that by the time I've finished sitting on it, it'll be the only thing I think about for weeks on end and have seen multiple times in the theater.

[Skitch]

Theater crowds are shit. I hope it hits US Netflix asap. I know it sucks, but until they do a better job of booting disruptive people, fuck the US theaters to death.

[Dukefrukem]

I had a 5 year old talking through the entirety of Black Panther last week.

[Winston*]

WHAT THE...?! First I heard of the distribution deal, what the hell? This is one of the few things this year that I was really looking forward to seeing in the theatre. I saw the trailer in front of lots of films these past few months...

Super annoying. Watching movies at home sucks. Destroy Netflix.

[Ezee E]

Theater crowds are shit. I hope it hits US Netflix asap. I know it sucks, but until they do a better job of booting disruptive people, fuck the US theaters to death.

Stop going to full showings, lol.

[Skitch]

Stop going to full showings, lol.

I don't. I can have five people in the theater and they're yelling throughout the whole movie or taking phone calls or letting a toddler run up and down the isles...its not little things. Its really obnoxious stuff.

[Ezee E]

There's certainly an intriguing concept and approach here, but I don't think it really ever hits like it needs to. The secondary characters don't really have much to add to the table, and it really does feel like the beginning of a trilogy, but something we'll never see an end to.

[Ivan Drago]

Had a much better experience the second time, and enjoyed the movie even more as well.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Yeah, this one at once has some truly stilted dialogue, a superfluous B plot about Portman's love life, and a weird lack of wonder at times - when they walk through the Shimmer, there's no being there in that moment, experiencing that awe of entering into the unknown. Just a wide shot, with their backs to us, with them walking in. No reactions, nothing.

Some moments feel like first draft exposition of character desire (you want X, she wants Y, but I want Z), while other moments feature shocking grace and restraint. There's a matter of fact moment of body horror that truly disturbs, and a defining image that can only be described as floral skeletal fresco.

Where the film comes most alive is in the final act, where we get a sense of... not what the Shimmer is, but how it is, and its functions and innate needs. And how it responds to Portman's character had me shifting in my seat from discomfort.

I understand the comparison points of THE THING and ARRIVAL, but for me, in content, this film most resembles THE RUINS and, more notably, Lovecraft's short story THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE. And at its very best, the movie generates that feeling of cosmic dread and helplessness. The sense that we have nothing by which to defend ourselves against forces beyond our understanding.

The irony is that the force destroying these people may not have any understanding at all.


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[Pop Trash]

One of those movies I'm not sure how much I liked on a visceral level (I nearly fell asleep a few times during the first half) but gets so increasingly weird and fascinating, I can't help but appreciate its existence. I'd much rather have one of these flawed but fence swinging flicks than another movie hot off the Hollywood cookie cutter conveyor belt.

At times I was reminded of such disparate films as Arrival, The Mist, The Descent, The Blair Witch Project, Altered States, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Definitely hugs closer to Lovecraftian horror than I expected. I also suspect this will improve on a 2nd viewing.

[Pop Trash]

Yeah, this one at once has some truly stilted dialogue, a superfluous B plot about Portman's love life

Yeah, I really didn't get why this needed flashbacks or flashforwards or flash anythings (ie. dream sequences). These types of movies work best when they get deeper and deeper into "the shit" and that sense of dread is amped up by simply moving the story from A to Z. Examples: Apocalypse Now, Alien, The Thing, and Blair Witch. I haven't read the book, but the only possible explination is that the "Shimmer" is messing w/ their sense of time and reality creating some sort of Slaughterhouse Five hallucinogenic effect. That said, I still think the cinematic experience would be improved w/o all of that jazzed up chronology.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Yeah, I really didn't get why this needed flashbacks or flashforwards or flash anythings (ie. dream sequences). These types of movies work best when they get deeper and deeper into "the shit" and that sense of dread is amped up by simply moving the story from A to Z. Examples: Apocalypse Now, Alien, The Thing, and Blair Witch. I haven't read the book, but the only possible explination is that the "Shimmer" is messing w/ their sense of time and reality creating some sort of Slaughterhouse Five hallucinogenic effect. That said, I still think the cinematic experience would be improved w/o all of that jazzed up chronology.

Other people online have rightly pointed out that the B plot about Portman's love life ties into the thematic idea of self-destruction being an inescapable part of life. Which, okay, I'll concede thematic utility, but I don't think that choice changes much of anything about Portman's emotional state during the A plot (the desperation she demonstrates can be equally attributed to love or guilt - knowing it's one over the other doesn't make a tangible difference to her choices that I can recall).

[Mostly, I think it falls flat on the most basic level of writing and drama. "This was a mistake." etc. which hurts its ability to communicate theme more subtly. Because theming is the only level on which it's functioning.]

The chronology splicing to me feels like a very deliberate and writerly choice to get us to trust Portman's character and her survival so that certain revelations in the final moments can carry extra oomph as a big damn rug pull. If we got that twist without having time to acclimate to her survival - without the flash forwards - it risks feeling cheaper. Maybe.

Another idea might be that if the film means to examine self-identity and annihilation, we as viewers are supposed to be watching her at a remove to be able to meaningfully judge her and her version of events. But that risks dulling empathy (and excitement) by keeping us at that remove.

[It may also just be because the nested/epistolary form in sci fi is fun to play with, and Garland loves dipping into sf traditions.]

But I'm with you in that I don't really think that structural choice improves on more direct storytelling.


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[Dukefrukem]

When you guys describe this as weird. Are you talking JJ Abrams weird or Lars von Trier weird?

[Pop Trash]

When you guys describe this as weird. Are you talking JJ Abrams weird or Lars von Trier weird?

[Pop Trash]

When you guys describe this as weird. Are you talking JJ Abrams weird or Lars von Trier weird?

In all seriousness, it's more like JJ Abrams weird meets David Cronenberg weird. LVT wouldn't tolerate the rather tame sexuality here. Portman doesn't even show her breasticles during a sex scene.

[Ezee E]

One of those movies I'm not sure how much I liked on a visceral level (I nearly fell asleep a few times during the first half) but gets so increasingly weird and fascinating, I can't help but appreciate its existence. I'd much rather have one of these flawed but fence swinging flicks than another movie hot off the Hollywood cookie cutter conveyor belt.

I'll agree with this statement.

I want this to be better than it really is.

Also decided that I hated the guitar in this movie. It sounded like the unwanted guitar of a guy who comes to a party.

[Pop Trash]

Also decided that I hated the guitar in this movie. It sounded like the unwanted guitar of a guy who comes to a party.

[DavidSeven]

This did not work for me. Conceptually, there are definitely interesting ideas here, but it's all framed within a story with very little drama, no compelling characters, and -- surprisingly -- some lackluster technical work.

I agree with DaMu, the film never conveys a real sense of wonder from entering or inhabiting the Shimmer. I actually thought the VFX were kind of embarrassing. Garland's Ex Machina came across as meticulously designed and artfully restrained in its production and VFX elements. The obnoxious garishness of Annihilation now makes me question if that was a deliberate choice in the prior film or just the result of a smaller budget. The parallel domestic story is also lazily conceived and hackey in execution.

More than anything else, I just couldn't buy into any of it. I respect how much it committed to the idea of "dread," but the lackluster story, characterizations, and technical elements make the whole thing a non-starter for me. Even things as basic as casting felt like a second-rate effort here. I like these actors individually, but without the aid of some strong written material, it feels very much like beautiful movie stars playing roles that aren't well-tailored.

[Dukefrukem]

Stop going to full showings, lol.

This shouldn't be the answer to why theater viewings are shit.

[MadMan]

I have not had a bad theater experience in ages. Either I am lucky, or I pick the right times to go.