cliche and pretentious

Rating: 4/10 (4 February 2020)

The movie started well, with a cool premise and a good lead character (it's Natalie...). The film is very atmospheric, and the story sucks you in.
Unfortunately, once the novelty wears off, you realize this is just another "aliens come to earth" movie. Yes it tries to be more original, yes it has some twists, but in the end, if you remove the bells and whistles, is just another aliens come to Earth. And there are dozens of movies like his - from War of the worlds and Independence day, to Close encounters to Invasion of the body snatchers.
From the more recent ones - Monsters (2010) and Arrival tucked a similar theme.
So, Annihilation brings little new to the table, but that's ok, since the mystery of the shimmer still keeps you glued to the screen - that until the last 1/3 of the film, when the mystery is finally unraveled (kinda of). And then the movie falls flat (at least for me) - the climax is just...stupid. Really stupid. Yeah, there are lots of flying colors (literally) and suprarealistic images, but beyond that, just stupid.
The worst part is that the movie tries to be pretentious - you know, smart and cerebral, using lots of colors and weird imagery. when in fact is not. Also, there's no character development besides the main lead, so we don't care much about them.
In the end, the movies has some highs - good main lead, interesting premise, cool atmosphere. The story sucks you in. But once you get past the pretty imagery, the movie is thin, cliche, and the last part downright stupid. There are better options in the genre.