Alex Garland, famous for Ex Machina (2014), has struck absolute brilliance with Annihilation (2018), based on the 2014 novel of the same name. Starring sci-fi vet Natalie Portman, who plays Lena, a biologist-professor at John Hopkins University, Annihilation goes from strange to weird to incredibly mind-exploding. The rest of the star-studded cast includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac.
Capturing the essence of early science fiction ripe with paranoia and other-worldly experiences, it draws many similarities with classics such as Alien (1979) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). The plot begins simply with a biologist (Portman) struggling with the MIA status of her husband. However, when he returns, her life will never be the same.
Lena finds herself drawn up in a military site called “Area X” that has been dealing with the growing expansion of an unknown force referenced as “The Shimmer.” It is explained that the Shimmer has been steadily growing after first making an impact, crashing into a lighthouse a few years prior. Lena realizes this is where her husband lost himself. Desperate to get him back, she volunteers to venture beyond the Shimmer wall with a group of scientist women and discover everything she can about what happened.
The world beyond the Shimmer is breathtaking. The production design of Annihilation is incredible, rivaling the production put on by end-of-the-world video games such as The Last of Us (2013). To that end, much of the movie plays out like one would expect a video game to. It draws the viewer in with this enthralling, colorful world that has colors and life formations that could only arise out of a child’s best dreams and worst nightmares. Lena follows many of the conventions of an action-survivor video game protagonist, consistently trading up her weaponry and eventually making it to the final showdown in one of the most frightening and creative “boss battles” ever laid out.
The “magic” of the film is based on its science, with stunning visual displays of biology mutations at work and the byproduct of such a proposition. One of the visuals that is most striking is that of flowers that have grown to six feet tall, mimicking the form of a human. The implications are both beautiful and frightening.
To push the frightening bell further, this is one of the few science-fiction movies of its type to be predominantly female-led—a prospect that has some “classics” fans in frenzy. However, these are the times we’re living in, and Annihilation may be one of the smartest movies of our time and it has nothing to do with men. In fact, there is only one “starring” male, who is barely in the film at all. Instead, the audience is subject to the relationships by and between women scientists as they navigate a story usually propagated by military men.
The film is about humanity and the loss of it. How do we retain humanity? What makes us, us? Filled to the brim with exciting turns, twists, and terrifying jumps, Annihilation is a film that will leave you stunned. A must-see in this age of humanity to understand where we’ve been, and where we’re going.
