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Annihilation Ponders the Meaning of Life in Stunning, Frightening Ways


There’s a curious nihilistic theme that’s beginning to recur in the films of Alex Garland. He seems very fascinated with the way humans approach the unknown and how it could detrimentally impact us. That theme was illustrated excellently in his 2015 debut Ex Machina, it even appears in the screenplay for 28 Days Later (which in retrospect appears more his film than Danny Boyle’s), and it plays a big part in Annihilation, a rather provocative sci-fi horror film based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer.
When her husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) returns unexpectedly from a covert special ops mission after having been missing for over a year, biology professor Lena (Natalie Portman) is brought into the fold of a government agency investigating the Shimmer -a mysterious entity of possibly extraterrestrial origin that has manifested itself in a national park and is spreading. With Kane the only survivor of the last expedition, severely ill and suffering amnesia, Lena volunteers to accompany psychologist Doctor Ventress (Jennifer Jason Lee), as well as medic Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez), physicist Radek (Tessa Thompson), and anthropologist Sheppard (Tuva Novotny) into the Shimmer to learn what it is and how it’s been mutating the environment.
Garland expertly knows how to build tension. He demonstrated that impeccably in Ex Machina and it works here too, as the characters try to understand the mystery of the effect the Shimmer is having both on their vicinity and themselves. It’s quite a feat to achieve this level of suspense when the flashback framing device reveals at the beginning the fates of the characters. The mood maintains this bleak uncertainty and doom, adding more to the moments of thrills and terrors which don’t quite manifest themselves the way you might expect. There’s a lot of science in this science-fiction movie, which means you really have to pay attention, but it does prove interesting and rewarding. It forms the backbone of this movie, combined with an Alien aesthetic and a bit of body horror.
Natalie Portman is great in this film. As the story moves along, more and more of her backstory is revealed, though not entirely in a linear way. What we’re shown when is more dictated by her feelings, and amounts to a character with a troubled conscience. Her relationship with Kane and how it may have affected his decision to take on this mission in the first place, is especially interesting. The rest of the characters aren’t as well defined. There are certain details dropped about them such as Sheppard’s family and Radek’s history of self-harm, but few of these are relevant. However, Rodriguez, Thompson, and Novotny are all very good, and it’s refreshing to have a movie like this feature an almost all-women cast. Ventress is explored a little more, with a determination and detachment Leigh plays very well. Oscar Isaac is really good of course, and Benedcit Wong does a great job as Lena’s interrogator.
One of the themes brought up in Annihilation is human self-destruction, which is tied in to the changing environment in the Shimmer, something the people with the government are quick to call a mutation because it’s different. It’s also unique in that the apparent alien invaders aren’t a form of conscious, organic life, but rather a kind of cellular pathogen. And the visual characterization that arises from this is very impressive. Compared to a science-fiction film with similar cerebral aspirations, Arrival, the design work on the alien life and their influence is much more clever and original. As are this films’ pretensions. And it is pretentious to a degree. This is a movie that wants to leave a lot to interpretation. Despite Lena making it out to tell this story, she’s still disoriented; and we know nothing about where this anomaly came from, what it wanted, or if it was hostile -though those latter two especially can be inferred by again relating back to the nihilistic current in the text. It’s a movie that raises a lot of questions that it doesn’t want to answer, and there are a couple it probably should have. Like there’s one eerie facet of the Shimmer that erases the memories of what appears to be a few days upon entering it -and I wish that was explored more. I also wish the ending was more ambiguous. Without giving anything away, the film presents two outcomes and ultimately chooses one, which is a little disappointing. Unlike the twist in Ex Machina, which was unexpected, horrifying, and fantastic, there comes a point where the one here is too obvious and isn’t nearly as striking. But more makes sense than doesn’t in hindsight after the films’ final reveals.
Annihilation isn’t as thrilling, fascinating, compellingly performed, or claustrophobic as Ex Machina, but it’s certainly a movie you’ll be thinking of long after you’ve left the cinema. Though Alex Garland’s recurring motifs may prove a crutch in the future, for now it’s still pretty fresh and just the right measure of unnerving.
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