Annihilation (2018)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  7 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Like his previous film, Alex Garland's 'Annihilation,' is all about suspense, as it follows a group of scientists venturing into an area of forest that's under the manipulation of a strange alien force called "the Shimmer." Their mission is to reach a lighthouse from which it supposedly began its expansion, and to see if they can learn about it along the way.
  
  On this journey they find strange mutated plants and animals which try, in two brilliantly constructed body-horror set-pieces, to eat them. From these experiences, the central biologist (Natalie Portman) realises that the Shimmer is slowly infecting the DNA of every living creature - including the team themselves - and that adds a brilliant time pressure to the already tense atmosphere.
  
  It helps too that the characters are compellingly performed and written; all grieving and lonely in ways that we slowly unpick and understand, and all increasingly suspicious of each other as they realise what's happening.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: As with 'Ex Machina,' though there are some interesting concepts teased, they're not really the focus of the film. As such, when we arrive at the lighthouse in the final act, there's no questions left to answer, so the conclusion falls a little flat.
  
  VERDICT: 'Annihilation,' may not be particularly deep, but it's another brilliantly suspenseful and inventive sci-fi film from Alex Garland.

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