The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape the second expedition ended in mass suicide the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with Annihilation, the Nebula Award-winning novel that "reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world" (Kim Stanley Robinson).Īrea X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Still, if you prefer your sci-fi deep, then you're in for a treat.A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ALEX GARLAND, STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAAC But given that the movie is sometimes creepy and perhaps even unsettling, it sets itself up as being more of a cult favorite than a mainstream hit - it's closer to 2001: A Space Odyssey than to Star Wars. The movie is admirable for featuring five women (and no men) as the characters who embark on the journey Portman's performance especially makes it an emotional one. It then opens up like a strange, exotic flower, following different offshoots to new, unexpected points in its unpredictable world. The shape of Annihilation is nothing short of brilliant, with a linear, minimalist starting point that consists of simple, straightforward images (like a lighthouse). The film is less focused on climactic battles, instead heading toward a far more poetic, surreal ending. Like Ridley Scott did in Blade Runner 2049, Garland combines unusual, imaginative visuals, ideas, and sounds with more traditional audience-aimed thrills - but he does so far more seamlessly than Scott. Based on Jeff VanderMeer's novel, Annihilation slightly resembles Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979), a highly artistic masterpiece from a much braver time, when audiences were less likely to balk at ambiguity.
But its challenging conclusion could be a hard sell. Alex Garland's second directorial outing after the excellent Ex Machina, this brainy, metaphysical sci-fi is even more ambitious and more amazing.
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