Annihilation is a 2018 sci-fi/thriller film directed by Alex Garland, and based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. The film stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac. The film follows a biologist who signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into an environmental disaster zone where the laws of nature do not apply in hopes to find her missing husband.
So 2018’s theVade List choice.. was it a good one? Eh, not to my expectations to be honest with you all. Probably one of the more disappointing films of this year (so far) since I’m such a huge fan of Garland’s work. Literally as soon as I found out about his next film being yet another sci-fi thriller, I was instantly turned on. Yet, with its release date being pushed back a few months and it’s marketing coming incredibly late while also being only released in the US, I figured something was off about this film. I was expecting a lot coming from the film’s synopsis, and it hurts me to say this, but I really didn’t enjoy this film like I was hoping to.
So to start things off, Annihilation had a pretty fantastic cast. Portman delivered another great performance along side Leigh, and I personally found Leigh to have the best performance out of the bunch, standing high above the rest of the female leads. Although there was quite the cast for this film, I did find that a lot of the time the movie didn’t know which person to focus on and had some pacing issues when it came to giving each character enough time on the big screen. Both Thompson and Novotny had some of the best characters, yet not enough backstory or screen time to continue those arcs.
The story was probably one of the most lackluster piece to this film. When the film starts out, it drops a hell of a lot of exposition while also spoiling the entirety of the movie. Yeah, I get the point of it but it honestly ruined the experience for me. Why tell the audience what happens right away instead of letting them find out themselves? Another disappointing aspect of this film is that the ending is both confusing and incredibly anticlimactic. Sure there are hidden meanings in this film just like that of mother! but that still doesn’t mean you should leave the audience with that many questions. Answer information that you bring up, or don’t bring up that information at all.
As for the visuals and audio design? Pretty good, actually. I found that I enjoyed the audio design a hell of a lot more than the visuals as there are a couple of times where the VFX work pulled me out from the film. But I would like to say that this film felt pretty on par with the sound design of Arrival, which I both loved and praised. Both films used audio almost like a character, and the progression throughout the film in relation to sound was astounding. Bravo to the sound team, as they contributed to one of the only stellar parts of this film (at least for me).
To really sum up this film, I would say that it was super underwhelming for a movie with such great potential. This movie reminded me a lot of Arrival, and because of that I just felt very disappointed while walking out of the theater. Does that mean this is a bad film? Heck no. This movie definitely has some amazing pieces to it. Sadly this is just another film that I think would have been executed a lot better on the small screen instead of the big one. Annihilation‘s great performances, bland story, great sound design and decent VFX work left me with a pretty disappointed attitude. With that being said, I decided to give Annihilation an “Alright” on theVade Review Bar. This movie ultimately swung too hard and stroke out too fast for me. Hopefully Garland can make his way back to my heart with whatever he does next. But in reality, this movie annihilated any hope I have for him in the near future.
