AnnihilationIf the Earth contracted cancer, what kind of changes would it have on the world? Annihilation is a science fiction film about a group of scientists--including biologist Lena (Natalie Portman)--who enter into a mysterious zone enclosed within a semi-translucent barrier called "the shimmer", wherein the laws of nature no longer apply. Lena volunteers for this mission after the reappearance of her husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac); something is destroying him, and Lena believes that by penetrating into the obliquely named "Area X", she can save him and reclaim her life.
|
|
After Annihilation begins, there is a shot of cells dividing--part of a classroom presentation by Lena, who is a biology professor for aspiring doctors at Johns Hopkins University. She cites that the entire framework of our world is composed of divided cells, then reveals that this footage came from the growth of a cervical tumor. Annihilation proposes the grim conceit that our evolution, physiological variations, and everything that makes us human is nothing but the result of a mutation. Lena and Kane have a playful argument during a flashback about whether God makes mistakes; Annihilation posits that mistakes are the proof of intelligent design. This motif emerges almost invisibly at first, and as subtle as a growing tumor, building to the sensation that everything in nature conspires to reshape our definition of what is normal and natural. As a biologist, Lena has made herself intimately knowledgeable about what it is that exists within us; despite this, she is wholly unprepared when she crosses the threshold into the shimmer. Forced change is a reoccurring theme in Annihilation. Prolonged stay in the shimmer affects a change like cancer--a virulent attack from within, encroaching into our biological operating system...altering who we are and threatening to turn us into something we are not. When Lena and the others observe impossible variances in nature--like flora that cannot possibly have come from the same roots--group leader and psychologist, Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), uses the word "pathology", drawing comparisons with disease; and yet the flowers are quite beautiful, suggesting that the transformation is not entirely malicious. The team later witnesses some truly horrific monstrosities born from the genome-scrambling effects of the shimmer, and Lena immediately describes them as "malignant". The cancerous properties of the shimmer are implied to be from an alien source, which collided into the ominous lighthouse in the film's opening sequence. This extraterrestrial stimuli is both inscrutable and transcendent--it acts like a kind of "God" that cannot be understood by empirical means, operating on a level beyond human comprehension.
Annihilation is adapted from the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, although director Alex Garland indicates that at the time he began adapting the book into the movie that only the first of the three novels in the trilogy had been released. Annihilation is not strictly "faithful" to the source material--or the subsequent novels that flesh out the world of "Southern Reach"; it is a film that could be viewed as a "refraction" of this universe, an alternate dimension where events have mutated into something with its own unique identity, like "Ghost Bird" from the novels. Although comparisons between the novel and film are inevitable, it becomes more interesting to see different aspects of these characters, especially those who journey into the shimmer. Kane becomes violently ill after he abruptly returns home after being absent for almost a year, as though his systems were shutting down. When a cadre of black Cadillac Escalades swarm the ambulance transporting Lena and him to the emergency room, she is drugged and abducted, then taken to a remote outpost on the outskirts of the shimmer, where Ventress enlightens her that Kane is the first to return from countless prior expeditions. Ventress immediately comes across as cold and calculating; subtle details like her blouse being buttoned up to her neck partner with her aloof attitude and portray her as unnaturally composed--clinical and sterile. Similar to the novel, Ventress is presented as an antagonistic figure who cannot be trusted implicitly. She represents the interests of an arbitrary government that prides control over humanity; but her job is fused with a personal agenda that she withholds from the rest of the group. She finds some camaraderie with Lena in their respective secrets; Lena withholds that Kane was her husband, even when the group discovers grisly video footage of how the shimmer affected the previous expedition. Deception becomes both a commodity and a vice as the team ventures deeper and deeper into the lush environs within the shimmer. All of the women who go into Area X have a military and scientific background, making them a formidable combination of fighter and scholar, theoretically best equipped to confront the unknown--like astronauts exploring a brave new world. The shimmer is microcosm--an alien demiplane that looks like Earth, but shares more in common with something from beyond the stars. (Comparisons have been made between Annihilation and H. P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space".) Creatures that should look one way on our world--like crocodiles or bears--become nightmarish monsters within the shimmer. As Lena and the others make their way ever deeper, their sanity and humanity are tested, as the world around them grows more beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.
Similar to Alex Garland's earlier film, Ex Machina, Annihilation asks essential questions about what it means to be human--the eternal question of science fiction. Annihilation is visually driven film, sporting lengthy scenes without dialogue that depict the fantastic effects of the shimmer, inviting the audience to drink in the breathtaking special effects and contemplate its unspoken meaning. Unlike Ex Machina, this film proposes that our physical nature defines our identity, and that our perception of reality is a delusion--a flimsy defense at best against the primal power of the skin we live in. The idea that the body is mutable and primed for evolution recalls the evolutionary impulse found in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which also builds to an evolutionary kind of manifest destiny. Annihilation suggests that our current state of being is but one plateau on the ascent to something greater, and that in order to transcend our current existence, humanity must endure a violent reboot. When Lena encounters the cyclopean being at the heart of Area X, her subsequent experience shares similarities with the "Star Gate" sequence from 2001. Creatures born from this alien invasion (like the faceless bear) are pure nightmare fuel--otherworldly monsters that should only exist within our darkest nightmares that would feel at home in John Carpenter's The Thing. When trust begins to disintegrate among the expedition, even these scholarly warriors collapse under the weight of their fears and paranoia--like the one-time jovial Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez)--recalling the resolve-destroying psychological trauma seen in Aliens. Lena's grace under fire and grit puts her in company with other science fiction action heroines like Ellen Ripley of the Alien films. Annihilation also shares many commonalities with Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris; both films feature protagonists trying to escape their personal tribulations by entering an alien environment, only to be confronted with their fears on both a visceral and existential level. And despite both protagonists being intelligent scientists and experts in their field, their knowledge becomes as dust when confronted with the profound spiritual agony of a power that can only be described as the soul.
Recommended for: Fans of a complex, gorgeous, and even horrifying science fiction film that asks questions about the relationship between our personalities and our bodies, and even nature itself. Annihilation combines action and suspense into a tense and gripping story, loaded with verdant, vivid visuals and powerful performances.
Annihilation is adapted from the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, although director Alex Garland indicates that at the time he began adapting the book into the movie that only the first of the three novels in the trilogy had been released. Annihilation is not strictly "faithful" to the source material--or the subsequent novels that flesh out the world of "Southern Reach"; it is a film that could be viewed as a "refraction" of this universe, an alternate dimension where events have mutated into something with its own unique identity, like "Ghost Bird" from the novels. Although comparisons between the novel and film are inevitable, it becomes more interesting to see different aspects of these characters, especially those who journey into the shimmer. Kane becomes violently ill after he abruptly returns home after being absent for almost a year, as though his systems were shutting down. When a cadre of black Cadillac Escalades swarm the ambulance transporting Lena and him to the emergency room, she is drugged and abducted, then taken to a remote outpost on the outskirts of the shimmer, where Ventress enlightens her that Kane is the first to return from countless prior expeditions. Ventress immediately comes across as cold and calculating; subtle details like her blouse being buttoned up to her neck partner with her aloof attitude and portray her as unnaturally composed--clinical and sterile. Similar to the novel, Ventress is presented as an antagonistic figure who cannot be trusted implicitly. She represents the interests of an arbitrary government that prides control over humanity; but her job is fused with a personal agenda that she withholds from the rest of the group. She finds some camaraderie with Lena in their respective secrets; Lena withholds that Kane was her husband, even when the group discovers grisly video footage of how the shimmer affected the previous expedition. Deception becomes both a commodity and a vice as the team ventures deeper and deeper into the lush environs within the shimmer. All of the women who go into Area X have a military and scientific background, making them a formidable combination of fighter and scholar, theoretically best equipped to confront the unknown--like astronauts exploring a brave new world. The shimmer is microcosm--an alien demiplane that looks like Earth, but shares more in common with something from beyond the stars. (Comparisons have been made between Annihilation and H. P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space".) Creatures that should look one way on our world--like crocodiles or bears--become nightmarish monsters within the shimmer. As Lena and the others make their way ever deeper, their sanity and humanity are tested, as the world around them grows more beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.
Similar to Alex Garland's earlier film, Ex Machina, Annihilation asks essential questions about what it means to be human--the eternal question of science fiction. Annihilation is visually driven film, sporting lengthy scenes without dialogue that depict the fantastic effects of the shimmer, inviting the audience to drink in the breathtaking special effects and contemplate its unspoken meaning. Unlike Ex Machina, this film proposes that our physical nature defines our identity, and that our perception of reality is a delusion--a flimsy defense at best against the primal power of the skin we live in. The idea that the body is mutable and primed for evolution recalls the evolutionary impulse found in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which also builds to an evolutionary kind of manifest destiny. Annihilation suggests that our current state of being is but one plateau on the ascent to something greater, and that in order to transcend our current existence, humanity must endure a violent reboot. When Lena encounters the cyclopean being at the heart of Area X, her subsequent experience shares similarities with the "Star Gate" sequence from 2001. Creatures born from this alien invasion (like the faceless bear) are pure nightmare fuel--otherworldly monsters that should only exist within our darkest nightmares that would feel at home in John Carpenter's The Thing. When trust begins to disintegrate among the expedition, even these scholarly warriors collapse under the weight of their fears and paranoia--like the one-time jovial Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez)--recalling the resolve-destroying psychological trauma seen in Aliens. Lena's grace under fire and grit puts her in company with other science fiction action heroines like Ellen Ripley of the Alien films. Annihilation also shares many commonalities with Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris; both films feature protagonists trying to escape their personal tribulations by entering an alien environment, only to be confronted with their fears on both a visceral and existential level. And despite both protagonists being intelligent scientists and experts in their field, their knowledge becomes as dust when confronted with the profound spiritual agony of a power that can only be described as the soul.
Recommended for: Fans of a complex, gorgeous, and even horrifying science fiction film that asks questions about the relationship between our personalities and our bodies, and even nature itself. Annihilation combines action and suspense into a tense and gripping story, loaded with verdant, vivid visuals and powerful performances.