Annihilation

Name: Annihilation
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery
Released: February 23, 2018
Duration: 115 min
Rating: 79
Cast: Benedict Wong, Cosmo Jarvis, David Gyasi, Edward Mannering, Gina Rodriguez

2018

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 51 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 987 Ratings

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7.1

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7.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 987 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: February 23, 2018 | R

Starring: Benedict Wong, Cosmo Jarvis, David Gyasi, Edward Mannering, Gina Rodriguez, Honey Holmes, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Schwab, Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny

Summary: Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband inside Area X - a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline. Once inside, the expedition discovers a world of mutated landscape and creatures, as dangerous as it is beautiful, thatLena (Natalie Portman), a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband inside Area X - a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline. Once inside, the expedition discovers a world of mutated landscape and creatures, as dangerous as it is beautiful, that threatens both their lives and their sanity.… Expand

Director: Alex Garland

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 115 min

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Critic Reviews

100

The Telegraph Tim Robey

May 12, 2018

Portman’s high-tension acting, her inability to relax, suits the material down to the ground. It’s one of her best performances, moving through credible grief and bewilderment, but facing up bullishly to her fears by the end, and finding some kind of exhausted resolve to interrogate them. Read full review

Clint Worthington

Feb 22, 2018

It’s one of the most arresting, affecting science fiction movies of the last few years, and certainly one of the best films to see release in 2018 thus far. It’s ambitious and haunting, which makes its international streaming release all the more tragic. Read full review

Justin Chang

Feb 21, 2018

Its most impressive achievement may be how easily it welds the mechanics of genre and the cinema of ideas. Garland's movie has its grisly flourishes, but unlike so many thrillers that preoccupy themselves with spectacles of death, it's more interested in pondering the strange, inextricable link between creation and destruction. Read full review

Tasha Robinson

Feb 23, 2018

Annihilation is a portentous movie, and a cerebral one. It’s gorgeous and immersive, but distancing. It’s exciting more in its sheer ambition and its distinctiveness than in its actual action. Read full review

The Guardian Benjamin Lee

Feb 21, 2018

Annihilation is more than mere visuals and it will shock, fascinate and haunt whatever screen it’s watched on. Read full review

Jim Vejvoda

Feb 21, 2018

Annihilation isn’t always as consistently well-executed or involving as it might have been, and it’s told in a manner that robs the story of some much needed life-or-death suspense, but overall it’s a bold undertaking that doesn’t play it safe and features some strong performances. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Feb 22, 2018

Thinking people also like a little drama with their science fiction. On that score, Annihilation comes up short. Read full review

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User Reviews

joylit

Feb 23, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. "Annihilation" is based on a novel of the same name by Jeff Vandermeer, a writer specialized in a sci-fi/fantasy sub-genre known as "Weird Fiction". This book is the first from a trilogy: the "Southern Reach Trilogy"; however, director/screenwriter Alex Garland ("Ex Machina") wrote this adaptation before the next two books were even published. "Annihilation" follows the story of a Lena, a biologist with military background, whose life has been shattered by the disappearance of her soldier husband who had gone on a secret mission into an ecological disaster area presumably harboring by an alien presence. At the beginning of the movie, we witness the return of the hubby, who unexpectedly comes back home in a confused mental state, soon becomes ill and is taken to a secret facility together with his wife. The place is a scientific research installation, built on the vecinity of an ever growing quarentined site known as "Area X", which comprises a coastal area and its adjacent forest, permanently enveloped in a phenomenon called "the shimmer"; this is an iridiscent wall of light that enshrouds the entire area, disconnecting it from the external world, which originated years prior when a meteorite hit a nearby lighthouse. Little is known about what is going on on the other side of "the shimmer", since several expeditions have gone missing and its members are presumably dead. Lena will meet doctor Vendress, a psychologist and authority figure, who explains to her that her husband is in the facility, suffering from multiple organ failure and massive bleeding. Both women agree that Lena should be part of the next expedition to Area X (it is argued she might be able to find a cure for her ailing husband), an all-female team that includes the rather obscurely motivated psychologist, all of whom seem to have very little to lose appart from their own lives. The movie weaves different timelines in a very seamless way: the very beginning is an interrogation scene where Lena is being inquired by a scientist about her experience in the Area X and the fate of her party; the second timeline kicks off with the husband's reappearance and continues with Lena meeting the members of the expedition and departing into the unknown. There are also flashbacks of Lena's immediate past with her husband, which provides information about their relationship that is crucial for establishing the dramatic core of the story. Alex Garland shows an assured hand with the complex narative, a combination of economy and elegance that that is both elocuent and easy to follow; this allows him to introduce different layers of meaning within the narrative (psychological, scientific, philosophical), and to tackle big themes without becoming pretentious or obtuse. The movie has memorable dialogue not included in the original novel and the characters are much more fleshed out (the conversation between the biologist and the psychologist about the nature of self destruction is a highlight, and a pivotal moment in the film).
As someone who have read the books, I have taken notice of the multiple changes that have been introduced by Garland, and even though a favorite character and storyline from the novel have been eliminated, and some elements have traded background/foreground places, I appreciate the way the director has made this story his own, taking enough from the book to make the story recognizable, but at the same time making his own interpretations and connections, expanding on its themes and characters. There is much wonder, weirdness and visual poetry to be found in the beautiful and exceptionally well crafted film, and to my surprise there is also plenty body horror and sudden outbursts of gnaly monster action, with one scene being particularly brutal and effective. This is a film where you can clearly appreciate the simbiotic relationship between these two highly imaginative thinkers, maybe the best collaboration since Kubrick and Arthrur C. Clarke in "2001: An Space Odyssey"). "Annihilation" represents the type of reflexive science fiction that ponders about our place in the cosmos, our intrinsic mutability, and the horrors this conjures; it amounts to a surreal, sciency phantasmagoria about desintegrating identity, deeply rooted in cosmic horror. It is the rare high concept movie that is both extremely entertaining and dazzingly thought provoking. And I have no words to describe that climax apart from saying it left me in complete awe. This is for sure a new sci-fi classic that consolidates Garland as one of the major sci-fi visionaries of our time.… Expand

25 of 45 users found this helpful2520

Oddomatic

Apr 11, 2018

Annihilation is a dark, beautiful, and thoughtfully made film. It's conceptually rich and well-acted, with stellar performances delivered by the entirety of the cast, particularly the team of five that the movie focuses on; they all fit their roles quite well. Some might say it's too slow,Annihilation is a dark, beautiful, and thoughtfully made film. It's conceptually rich and well-acted, with stellar performances delivered by the entirety of the cast, particularly the team of five that the movie focuses on; they all fit their roles quite well. Some might say it's too slow, or the plot's too simple, or accuse the characters of being shallow, but I would argue the contrary. Sometimes a lot can be communicated with fewer words; the lead characters' pasts are implied through concise and fitting dialogue, the pace careful and contemplative, and the plot as complex as it needs to be. The true strength of Annihilation is in the visual and audio experience it provides. Like in the detailed forest park set pieces, unnaturally overgrown with vibrant, almost otherworldly flora. The stillness, the quietness, always humming with the subtle movement of bizarre wildlife. The woods, as beautiful as they are dangerous, won't hesitate to plunge you into an atmosphere of fear and unease. This film contains truly effective horror, the kind that gets a real reaction from me. It had me shifting in my seat, unable to rip my eyes away from the unsettling imagery before me. It's not just frightening, but thought-provoking, giving enough hints for you to get a grasp on what you need to know, but not so much that there is no uncertainty or tension left. Easily one of my new favorite films.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

bfoore90

Feb 28, 2018

This isn't a movie for everyone, it's a hugely thought provoking and terrifying in the sense that you don't know what's going on once they enter the environment.The performances are all very good and the direction and shots are all insanely good. It's a rare film, thats saying the least.

6 of 12 users found this helpful66

Meth-dude

Feb 23, 2018

Although the dialogue was most of the time very cliché, the characters were stereotypical and the movie was predictable, it was still surprisingly enjoyable. The acting was quite good, the CGI effects weren't that bad and the movie was entertaining. Sure, the movie had it's problems, butAlthough the dialogue was most of the time very cliché, the characters were stereotypical and the movie was predictable, it was still surprisingly enjoyable. The acting was quite good, the CGI effects weren't that bad and the movie was entertaining. Sure, the movie had it's problems, but it's still a more than decent sci-fi movie.… Expand

2 of 7 users found this helpful25

TrevorsView

Mar 8, 2018

As it starts, Lena, a biologist, sits in a glassy room, questioned by a scientist in protection equipment who stands over her. She says she has no recollection on whatever just happened, compelling the viewer to remember events as she does. After photos in Lena’s sepia-tinted home illustrateAs it starts, Lena, a biologist, sits in a glassy room, questioned by a scientist in protection equipment who stands over her. She says she has no recollection on whatever just happened, compelling the viewer to remember events as she does. After photos in Lena’s sepia-tinted home illustrate her husband’s army life, he returns, devoid of previous recollection himself as to how he returned. Outside her own awareness, a comet strikes a lighthouse, warps its sense of shape or texture, then sets off an expanding rainbow bubble, its shimmery wall set to mutate cell reproduction.

Paralleling scene number one, Lena questioning her husband’s activity in war reverses her interrogation; she stands over him slumped in his seat. Once seated across each other at the table, held hands reflected backwards behind a water glass, his blood appears in said glass, the first sign of his multiple organ failure. Any focus on their eyes throughout this crisis implements whenever they witness obliteration, up until the last frame addresses all you need to know and all you wish to know.

I love underseen independent films like Annihilation, those following nontraditional narrative conventions to take creative liberties in discussing the inner human condition. Alex Garland already perfectly accomplished his breakout art-house feature Ex Machina, so now he brings out another visual delight in his second project, thus far the only movie of 2018 I’ve anticipated the release of!

Garland conveys his actors’ own bent genes, each performance almost appearing alien in a series unevenly blank appearances. Of the talented cast members, Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina, Inside Llewyn Davis) happily sells it best as Lena’s husband. His illness deflects his voice to transparently reveal the sad lack of identity in his eyes: a slow, troubled, very real war veteran. It’s easy to see why Garland works well off Mr. Isaac!

Besides Garland’s attentive direction, the work by production designer Mark Digby (Ex Machina, Slumdog Millionaire) symbolically suggests a DNA strand’s deconstruction and reconstruction. You always seem boxed inside a different world larger than life in the Shimmer’s chaotic colors chosen to suggest self-destruction in a stark contrast against Lena’s boxy interrogation room. Inside the void grows beautiful yet strange flowers living together on a single branch, despite being of diverse species, alongside some technicolor moss and man-shaped bushes. These outlandish mutations hold beauty, although plenty of gruesome, supernatural appearances never shy away from any bodily imagery in its graphic detail that catches you off guard.

But honestly, Alex Garland has got room for improvement, particularly in helping the typical viewer care about the story. The on-the-nose dialogue said by such cold characters also tosses out more expositional information than the average viewer could handle, especially in the first act, all writing the names in the script out to model figures of altered chromosomes rather than well-fleshed out people.

This excess of information attempts to counteract the lack of sincere emotion with a cliché catalyst of Lena’s husband leaving her alone, a plot device done rather weakly compared to other similar scripts. Further validating the cliché, Lena cheats on her husband, in turn making her less sympathetic—would you root for some unfaithful whore? I sure wouldn’t! Especially since Lena expresses few tangible opinions about her team of four other women in their mission through the Shimmer, older viewers might not embrace something as absurd as this journey into the unknown.

However, Annihilation still meets the expectations of art cinema lovers in Alex Garland’s near-horror approach. In each disorienting time narrative beneath the Shimmer, suspense eliminates clear signs of what happens next. Soon, after several attacks by a creature shrouded in darkness, a horrific faceless bear’s roar mixed with a woman’s screams leaves both everything and nothing to the imagination. These are not the types of images you’re able to forget easily, regardless of whether you want it to.

With these brave woman leaders who willingly face up to such horrors previously unimagined, they warn us all, of our eventual end as we watch their individual paths to insanity inside the Shimmer. Likewise, this alternate future’s continental board steers clear of personal demolition, suggesting that the damaged male leaders in the United States wrongly believe women are the true unidentifiable Extra-Terrestrials in the foreign land that is masculine privilege. Considering Hollywood’s confused gender equality nonsense, it deserves some compliments when a motion picture like this one empowers women without devaluing men; they remind us that if equal treatment to both sides is achieved, we have no need to fear an annihilation.… Expand

2 of 6 users found this helpful24

DamnedThing

Mar 20, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Another one of those what ifs that could have been so much better with a more experienced director. One of the problems with Garland is that he's idolised as a voice of a generation and so carries a weight of expectation on anything he puts his hand to. Along with that, there's more a hint of fawning from British reviewers - so knock at least a star off Empire and Guardian reviews.

Ex Machina was relatively tight, set in a confined space with few characters, it did pose some good questions on AI, humanity, and ego, before setting them aside to focus on manipulation and thrills.

Annihilation is broader in scope but less interesting, less well structured, and confused about what it wants to be; tonally it shifts all over the place. It begins with a meteorite hitting earth. It carries a life form that replicates and mutates across species, as well as between plant and animal. Its effects are spreading outwards from the point of impact at an increasing rate, and the edge of its area of influence can be seen as a shimmer. Teams of people have gone into the 'shimmer', but none have ever come out.

Then one man does, except there's something wrong with him: he's bleeding internally and apparently close to dying. His wife joins up with a team going into the Shimmer in order to get to the source in the hopes that she'll find something that will help.

This is all standard fare for Science Fiction - it's kind of The Andromeda Strain meets War of the Worlds meets Contact meets Alien meets Deliverance; the basic set up could be told in minutes, but it takes forever to get its arse in gear. That's a big part of the problem, the film can't decide what tone to take - it starts off as a drama, then tries to switch up gears to being an adventure into the unknown before switching gears again to survivor horror before going for something trippy.

It just doesn't gel as a whole story, it's more a collection of influences strung together in a manner that's less than the sum of its parts.

Natalie Portman does well with a character who has to be strong enough to survive but who seems too often to be asked to play her part as over-wrought. She's fearless bringing down sharkgator, but that moment is the only one where she seems in command of herself.

Jennifer Jason Leigh rasps her way through things with scene stealing disinterest, which is at least notable. Everyone else is cardboard thin so that by the time they start disappearing one by one, as people in these things are wont to do, it's impossible to care either way.

Aside from Sharkgator there's a Cowbear auditioning for a sequel to the Revenant but it fails because it makes our 13yo boy laugh - this scene goes on far too long and is so clumsily handled that any necessary tension for it to work is lost in a miasma of hohumness. There's another faux Alien bit that's supposedly gory, but again the fakery can be seen a mile off so that when things happen there's no shock or disgust. The idea of an alien virus mutating DNA is interesting, but here it's just used as background wallpaper onto which has been slapped a generic story about a group of red shirts on a mission where things go wrong and they die one by one until there's a lone survivor left. The more interesting story to me was what was happening with Oscar Isaacs character. He turns up bleeding internally on the brink of dying but somehow manages to survive for months - what happened there? Was he being studied? Did they find a 'cure'? He's obviously been quarantined so they must have done tests, even at a cellular level there must have been some discrepancies? How come neither of them turned into tree people?

There are no shocks. There's no horror. It's a bit gory in one scene. There are no thrills at all. The pacing is clunky. It looks very pretty in one or two places.

This isn't so much a deliberately slow-paced film as a low energy one consumed by indecision. Paramount dodged a bullet by Netflixing it.

Meh!… Expand

5 of 6 users found this helpful51

JLau

Nov 1, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Sci-fi nonsense about evolution or mutation that doesn't seem to know just how dreadful it is on every level.… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

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82	#82 Best Movie of 2018
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