Appropriately Tense and Scary but Not the Complete Package for Me

Rating: 7/10 (26 February 2018)

The thing that caught my attention with the Annihilation trailers was the unique visual design the movie had. Dark and moody sci-fi set on Earth rarely has such a vibrant colour scheme. One of the best parts of Annihilation is that it does do something unique with the visual effects and the environments. The creatures within the Shimmer are frightening combinations like if you got to do a Build-a-Bear with monstrous, human-killing animals. You have this alien life that populates the screen with bright colours, but they manage to make it look sickly and scary even. This was an element I needed, with the slow pace of the movie it kept me engaged.
So Lena is our protagonist who ventures into the Shimmer with her team to discover the origin and the threat level of what lies within. Lena (Natalie Portman), Kane (Oscar Isaac) and the team are all given compelling backstories, but I think I ended up liking the actors and actresses more than the characters. Lena isn't particularly interesting or easy to care about. She's very detached (that's by design) and her lack of emotion wasn't endearing, especially when we find out more about her. Its the same with the other characters, the actors and actresses have to do the work to get you invested instead of the writing. The only one who gets continued development other than Lena or Kane is Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and she's also deliberately cold. The rest of the team gets the initial character motivation description and the movie just moves on.
The other reason I wanted to see Annihilation (other than Garland's name being attached and the good reviews) was that the movie featured a lot of people I like in the cast. I think Natalie Portman did about as good of a job as she could have, I liked her just not her character. Oscar Isaac did a fine job, I wondered why he signed on to this, he gets some solid screen time, but he isn't given a chance to do much. It was nice to see Gina Rodriguez again, she's the most emotional of the team but her reactions help sell the horror of the situation. I was a little disappointed Tessa Thompson wasn't given more to do. She's been really stepping out lately in stuff like: Thor Ragnarok and Westworld and while she does her job, I wish she also had more to work with. Jennifer Jason Leigh does well as Dr. Ventress and Tuva Novotny might have been my favourite doing an even-keeled job as Cass Shepherd.
A lot of great science fiction isn't concerned about moving at a brisk pace. That's not a bad thing always, there's a lot of buildup in this movie and there were some quick moments that showed how horrible the Shimmer was. So, waiting for the payoff at the end didn't bother me. The problem I had with Annihilation was the ending doesn't have the punch I wanted. There's so much tension and when we finally get there... I thought it just fizzled out. I think the intention was for you to be a little more attached to the relationship between Lena and Kane but the flashbacks showing them was the weakest part of the movie. I haven't read the book, but I wouldn't have minded if the parts going back to Lena explaining the fallout and the bits of her marriage were just cut in at the end. Considering some of Garland's past work (Ex-Machina was great, and it ended on a surprisingly satisfying twist), it was a little disappointing. In a more minor complaint, I thought the score was overbearing. The song they decide to use in those flashbacks works but the rest of it blares and it was more of a distraction instead of helping things along.
Despite my negative reaction to some of Annihilation, I did like this movie. I never turned on it or found my interest waning. I just got a little caught up in the hype around it and the final product was decent to me, instead of amazing. Garland is still one of the better directors working in this genre and I'm eager to see what he does next. Most of my problems I think come from the source material instead of his script or his directing anyway. If you loved this movie, I don't have a problem with that. A lot of people were calling this the next Arrival and I don't think it reached that level. I'll just be waiting for the Blu-ray or its release on Netflix instead of going to the theatre for my next viewing of Annihilation.