BY EMMERSON LAYNE

Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland, is a sci-fi, cosmic horror adaptation released back in 2018. At the box office, it wasn’t a great success, with a budget of $40 – 50 million it grossed $43 million worldwide. The movie stars Natalie Portman as Lena, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr. Ventress, Gina Rodriguez as Anya Thorensen, Tessa Thompson as Josie Radek,and Tuva Novotny as Cass Shepard.

We follow a group of women, consisting of Lena, Dr. Ventress, Anya, Josie, and Cass as they enter Area X also known as The Shimmer, an area along the US coastline that is afflicted with a mysterious phenomena, They embark on an expedition to discover the cause of the phenomena, and for Lena to find out what happened to her husband, Kane, after he mysteriously returned home, previously being presumed dead. Along their journey, they find that the wildlife is heavily mutated the deeper they go. They find that they have large gaps in their memory, constantly forgetting how long they’ve been in Area X. The group begins to turn on each other, losing their sanity from being exposed to The Shimmer. They find out that there were dozens of expeditions before theirs, but not one person has returned.

A great movie with decent visuals, primarily from the visual depiction of the Shimmer. The Shimmer throughout the movie is depicted as a shimmering mass of lights and colors, similar to how a soap bubble might look or shimmering spilt gasoline.Which is a fine representation, it is a typical depiction for unknown alien forces, similar to the Color out of Space. The acting was fine as well, though in scenes like when Anya begins to turn on the group and threatens to kill them, the acting seems a bit comical in retrospect, especially when she had time to tie up the group and threaten to kill them, somewhat acting like a cartoon villain when they’re in a situation where things beyond their comprehension is mutating their DNA. What really stands out in the movie is its plot. With themes of past regrets and the consequences of isolation, intertwined with the incomprehensible cosmic horror, makes a great and layered movie. Though, from the many online reviews, people found these concepts confusing or subpar due to the main alien/force having no clear motive and The Shimmer being difficult to understand. My rebuttal is that the Shimmer isn’t meant to be fully understood or, from the context clues from the movie, was the Shimmer ever meant to have contact with Earth-like environments. The way the movie explained the Shimmer was that it refracts DNA into different forms, like radiation but at a more rapid and dramatized scale. It was also stated at the end of the movie by Lena, is that the Shimmer didn’t really have a motive, it just being an indifferent force at an alien place, i.e. Earth. 

While Annihilation isn’t the same cup of tea to everyone, I found it to be enjoyable and a bit of a mind chew. 

7.5/10.