Review: Annihilation (2018)

Every so often you find a film that can't decide what genre it wants to be. Such films are almost always a mess. This one is even more of a mess than I expected.

Annihilation is a 2018 science fiction/horror/goodness-knows-what-else film very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. The novel is part of a trilogy, but the film is a standalone.

I only recognised three of the actors:
Natalie Portman (Jane in Thor) as Lena
Oscar Isaac (Poe in Star Wars) as Kane
Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok) as Josie

Early in the film the main problem with it becomes only too apparent. The story keeps jumping around between the past and present. On its own that's not a problem, but the story also makes no sense. It feels like the writer, director, and actors all had different ideas of what the film was about.

Another major problem is the characters. To put it bluntly, they might as well be cardboard cutouts. They're interchangeable, unmemorable, and impossible to care anything for. I fast-forwarded until the main characters go into the Shimmer. Only then does the story become interesting.

The scenes in the Shimmer are really the only part of the film worth watching. They're incredibly eerie, beautiful, and terrifying. (In fact it was through seeing GIFs on Tumblr of the Shimmer that I first learnt of this film's existence. Let's just say I'd rather look at the GIFs than the film itself.) The bear attack is the most memorable, nightmarish thing I've seen for a long time.

Unfortunately, towards the end the film disintegrates into even more chaos. The alien's existence was easy to see coming. Its defeat and apparent death made sense. But then that final scene comes along and turns an underwhelming film into a mind-boggling mess. I wracked my brains trying to figure out what it meant. All I got was a headache.

If you want to watch a science fiction film, there are far better ones out there. (Pun unintentional.) If you decide to watch this film anyway, you're probably better off if you only watch the scenes in the Shimmer and stop the film as soon as the alien dies. That way you'll see the good parts without the boring or incomprehensible.

Is it available online?: I don't think so.

Rating: 4/10.