Annihilation is the new science fiction film by writer and director Alex Garland. Alex Garland's first film Ex Machina is still one of my favorite movies of recent years, so I was incredibly excited when I heard he was making a new movie that would be releasing in early 2018. The film follows Natalie Portman who plays a biologist named Lena. Lena's military husband Kane (played by Oscar Isaac) disappeared for about an entire year while on a secret mission and Lena has been unable to move on with her life. Following a series of events, Lena is taken to a compound where her husband's mission took place near a disaster area. The disaster area is known as "The Shimmering" because of the shimmering light that surrounds it's entirety. Those who enter this area seem to never come back out, but it holds the answers to Lena's questions about her husband. Lena and four other women start an expedition to figure out just what is causing the shimmering light and what happened to the missing soldiers. Needless to say, the expedition leads to some startling discoveries.
The thing that stood out the most from this film were it's incredible visuals. It's just a really amazing looking movie that keeps your attention with it's great cinematography and unique settings. The visuals really help the atmosphere of whatever is happening in the movie, elevating the wonder that the characters feel with their surroundings and also the uncomfortable moments they feel as well. There are moments of true beauty and moments of true horror where the visuals, music and acting come together for some amazing moments in film. I want to see this movie again after just watching it just to admire the visuals again and pay more attention the the details that the film makers used. There really are some amazing moments in the film that kept my eyes glues to the screen and shocked and confused me (in a good way).
The story itself is also very good, though a bit of a slow start. It's a movie that moves along slowly, but gets more and more intense and interesting as it goes on. As the crew of women venture further into "The Shimmering", the movie gets more intense and starts to feel creepier and creepier. There are questions you want answered and that curiosity keeps building as the story continues. This leads to an incredibly intense and uncomfortable ending that felt unlike anything I've really ever seen. I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen for those final moments and it definitely left an impact.
If you are looking for a smart, strange, unique and interesting science fiction story then I don't think you can go wrong with this film. I definitely recommend this to any fan of science fiction out there, it's worth the watch in the theaters, just for the visuals alone. If science fiction isn't your thing, then you may not enjoy it as much as I did. As I said before, it is a bit of a slow start, but once it picks up it just gets better and better. I honestly might try to make time to watch it again before it leaves theaters and I hope more people give it a chance too.
Overall Grade: B+
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