The Best Sleeper Film of the Year

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2018)

From writer and director Alex Garland, Annihilation is about a team of researchers who go into this unknown zone that has appeared called 'The Shimmer' to investigate what it is, why it's here, and how it's growing and changing its surroundings so rapidly.
I was a fan of Garland's last film he wrote and directed, Ex Machina, for his tightly written dialogue and mesmerizing scene development with great acting and a surprising amount of action as well. His work on that film transfers over beautifully to Annihilation with a substantially bigger budget and a wider variety of acting as well. Even though this script has substantially less dialogue than his last film, each and every line is executed beautifully and the audience feels the impact of every one as well. His direction in this movie is flawless with the proper use of slow motion and the mix of special effects and practical makes it mesmerizing every second the cast is in the shimmer.
Like I said the dialogue is practically flawless with it's variety of characters and unique builds in this film. The twists written come across very well and are fleshed out beautifully with its amazing cast and great direction. Rob Hardy's work on cinematography is amazing with his offsetting shots and beautifully crafted scenes. With him working on Ex Machina with Garland they have now developed a system that is just pumping out more and more beautiful movies every few years now.
Acting wise everyone did a flawless job in this film. Natalie Portman I believe has never done a bad or even a decent performance, when she hits the screen she's impeccable with every role, every character, every scene, every line of dialogue that she executes in every film she's in. Jennifer Jason Leigh did an amazing job once again as Dr. Ventress in this film, I grew a very big liking for her from her performance in The Hateful Eight. Even Gina Rodriguez and Tessa Thompson did amazing jobs for their polar-opposite characters in this film.
One of the biggest parts of this film is the make p done on the cast and it's by far the best looking makeup of the year. The scars on characters and tattoos being strategically placed on the characters makes this films story just more and more impactful with every watch. The blood and gore used is beautiful combined with great prosthetics and for gore and creatures as well.
Annihilation I believe will be one of the best sleeper movies of the year with it's highly original sci-fi story and great direction and acting with a flawless blend of CGI and practical effects used. My only complaint has to be a subplot that attempts to flesh out Portman's character a bit more, I felt it's not necessary and drags the runtime out a little bit too long. Minus that it's a near perfect sci-fi movie.
I have to give this film a 9.25/10