A Heroic Failure!

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2020)

I really wanted to like Annhilation and there is plenty to like about this sophomore production from director/writer Alex Garland. But overall I do have to agree with many of the reviewers on these pages, in that I think the professional critics have been a little over-generous in their collective praise of Annihilation. And ironically the main weakness of the movie in my view, is the screenplay, which is normally one of Garland's great strengths.
The film looks great for an ambitious, mid-budget sci-fi project. The soundtrack is also a winner ranging from the very appropriate use of some early Crosby, Stills and Nash material, to a mind-expanding tonal smorgasboard in the latter stages of the film. I have no problem either, with what I believe is the fairly unlikely scenario of a 5 women unit group of (mainly) scientists who enter "The Shimmer", a mysterious quarantined zone of mutating plants and animals caused by an alien presence. It's just that the execution of the story just didn't ring true in a number of important ways.
The Southern Reach has already sent a number of groups over 3 years into The Shimmer with Lena's husband Kane being the sole survivor of any of the expeditions. Why should this one be any different? Did they actually train as a group? Thorensen for example seemed really surprised that Lena could use an automatic weapon. Surely the character of Dr. Ventress, the group leader, needed more exposition. I don't blame Jennifer Jason Leigh for her portrayal, but Ventress appeared to be the most unlikely expedition leader one would ever come across and significantly didn't appear to give a hoot about the welfare of the other expedition members. More than once she appeared happy to just rock off by herself without caring whether the others followed or not. Supposed suicide mission or not, it was just bizarre behaviour from the OIC.
Then after the group has managed to kill a giant, hybrid crocodile, why would they then immediately jump into tiny tinny canoes and then proceed to paddle through the swamp presumably inhabited by those same crocodiles. It goes without saying that the lack of scientific process displayed was very obvious, from the non-use of any protective clothing including the basics like gloves, to none of the group members, apart from Lena doing anything much scientific at all. Thorensen the medical expert, when confronted with an extremely challenging medical related video, crazily comments that the images were caused by a trick of the light.
I could handle the regular flashbacks but was bemused by Lena initially saying she couldn't remember anything and then suddenly blurting out all these details which make up much of the movie's content. Perhaps the reason was she was the only "original" human to return from The Shimmer. And again I could even accept the unlikely proposition that somehow an exploding phosphorous grenade could shut down The Shimmer. But if that was the case, why didn't the first one, that we see exploding on the video, cause more destruction?
Annihilation is certainly different from your typical sci-fi fare It's atmospheric, mysterious and even very exciting at times. For those reasons I do believe it's worth seeing, but I do wish Alex Garland hadn't been quite so slapdash in his script preparation. I believe it showed, to the overall detriment of the film.