Annihilation is a science-fiction psychological thriller that subverts expectations in the most surprising and entertaining ways; from the amazing all female squad to the psychedelic ending sequence which leaves viewers with questions about the evolution of humanity that Wikipedia cannot answer.
Annihilation was theatrically released in the US on February 23 2018, but was released on Netflix in many other countries, including Australia on March 12. The decision to release the film straight to Netflix was criticised online. American test audiences found Annihilation to be too intellectual (which Junkee discussed as problematic in a really great review by Cameron Williams). This is a disappointing reason for a ground-breaking female-led science fiction film to be snubbed.
I really enjoyed Annihilation! I have watched it a bunch of times, and can’t get over how well-written and visually beautiful the film is!
Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Tuva Novotny play scientists from a variety of different fields; cellular biology, psychology, medicine, physics, and geomorphology respectively. The squad embark on an apparent suicide mission to a restricted zone in Florida, North America, to find out what lies beyond the psychedelic ‘shimmer’ of light surrounding the area.
‘The shimmer’ manifested after a meteor struck, and all previous exploratory missions were unsuccessful with zero survivors. Until Cain. He is Portman’s onscreen husband (played by Oscar Isaac), who was presumed dead after a year spent missing within ‘the shimmer’. His health rapidly deteriorates after returning home, before he collapses and is taken to the military base for testing. This prompts Portman’s character, Lena, to join the squad and find out what happened to her husband.
As Lena explores further into the zone the effects of the meteor become more powerful, and the intensity of the psychedelic style of the film increases until it becomes difficult to understand what is happening. The ending of Annihilation requires more than one viewing to grasp, and even then it left me with more questions than answers.
Annihilation makes interesting comments on mental illness by showing intelligent and physically capable women also suffering with issues like depression, anxiety, alcoholism, and suicide. This film portrays this without judgement. Instead presenting these issues and allowing the audience to make their own opinions.
In the past sci-fi has had issues with a lack of representation of women and a heavy reliance on violence and action over plot. This is not the case for Annihilation which is led by five women and has a distinct focus on intellectualism. (Another really interesting Junkee article by Michael Sun discussed this as well).
It was very exciting watching a sci-fi film with a female-led cast where all the characters had back-stories and different personality traits. Every member of the squad had screen time to explain why they decided to volunteer for a mission which they might not return from.
In one scene a large alligator crawls out from a lake and the characters watched to see if it would retreat before shooting. I was very confused when they didn’t immediately start shooting the giant reptile like most sci-fi films. This scene highlighted the focus of scientific curiosity over action and violence. Which is another refreshing aspect of Annihilation. It’s kinda cool when science trumps violence.
My initial expectation of the film was that the characters would enter ‘the shimmer’ and be hunted by beasts until they killed them all with their superior weaponry, you know, in the classic sci-fi horror style. I think my initial ideas about Annihilation were skewed by my interpretation of the trailer which felt similar to the original Predator film (1987). I was definitely not expecting the psychological questioning, and existential themes within the film, which is far more compelling than violence in this case. It was not a sci-fi horror like Predator, but a psychological sci-fi thriller like Arrival (2016).
I enjoyed watching Annihilation, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Arrival which also focused on the human experience rather than just killing aliens. It was a fresh take on the classic tale of ‘alien-thing crash lands on Earth and the cool squad of experts goes to check it out’.
Feature Image attributed to Paramount and Netflix. I am using this image under Fair Use for the purpose of criticism and comment.
Sirius Reviews 