Annihilation (2018)

Fear what's inside. Annihilation is a film about an ex-military biologist who signs up to explore a phenomenon near a coast.

Alex Garland does some wonderful things with this film. Most of the shots are great and vibrant when inside the phenomenon. There are a few questionable shots like when the characters and moving through the forested area but at the corner of the screen so you get a wide shot of a beautiful landscape. The writing of each character while good, does have the feeling of just getting to know the character so they can get killed off. I'm so glad they gave Garland the screenplay for the Halo adaptation.

Natalie Portman plays Lena and gives a class on how to give a variety of emotions throughout the film. Anger, sadness, depression, lostness. She is a completely deep character and it'd be hard to cast someone else as this role. Without her, the film would have fallen apart. I can't go into too much detail as that would spoil the ending.

The other big character in the film is Kane, played by Oscar Isaac. This would be the second time Garland directed Isaac and his performance is better for it. Back in Ex Machina, his character was sort of one dimensional. This performance allows Isaac to show a broader range of his ability and in some cases upstages Portman which is hard to do. Some of his early scenes seem weird but they make sense by the end of the movie.

I can't understand why Garland doesn't have any upcoming directorial jobs but then again this movie might confuse the average movie-going audience.

Result: A- (I loved the ending, but the film does have some slow parts.)

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