Not as original as it seems...

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2018)

Annihilation, the most talked about scify of early 2018... and for good and bad reasons. This movies brings visuals and story telling in the same style as Arrival did last year, Kubrick inspired, bit of alien here, bit of 2001 there, like most scify to be honest. Nevertheless, it is interesting and original enough to be among the ones that came before. Not a masterpiece or to be classic, just solid with flaws.
So lets talk about the most important aspect first; story. The story of annihilation starts with the ending, which grasps attention. Smart choice for the movie, since at times the situations in the plot seem very desperate and hopeless, which creates interest for the conclusion.
The movie is at times very mysterious and subtle, but at others bombarding with exposition. Most plot points are explained to the audience through dialog, which feels like a lazy way of telling this somewhat (coming back to that later) interesting story.
The story itself, does not feel entirely satisfying. In some way it does, the main character finds out what she was looking for. But on the scify side of the story it feels a lot like 2001: a space odyssey. And with that I mean the unsatisfying way Kubrick wrote most of his movies (hear me out). Throwing in a lot of alien and mysterious concepts, packed in beautiful cinematography, but feeling very hollow in the conclusion. As an example, the scene in 2001 where they enter the gate or monolith (whatever you want to call it). Its a unique scene, terrifying, but goes on for so long without substance or meaning. The point is, it feels like its put in there to show some skill of the cinematographer or writer without adding to the film in anyway. A lot of scify elements of this movie feels like random bits from other scifies without adding any substance to the movie.
This movie is not about characters but more so about flashy and freaky scify concepts. The characters feel quite flat, especially the supporting cast. The main character has some depth that is shown in the first act of the movie. We get to know some details about her, but other then that she does not change throughout the story. The supporting cast, apart from some minor traits, isn't developed at all. They have a mission of what only two of them get any motivation for (though very under developed motivation).
The structure of the plot is quite regular, with the standard three act structure. And the usual 'sequel-hint' at the very end of the movie, although a sequel would be very unlikely.
One thing that bothered me a lot was the 'science' in this scify. As a former biology student and a human being with the capability to think, I thought there were some lazy scify elements that felt more as 'magic'. Talking about the DNA merging of species and transforming of organisms, sounds very fantasy if you ask me. It wouldn't have mattered if the movie did not try to explain the science and was leaning more on the fiction side of scify. But it did put in a lot of science, but in a lazy and almost offending way. Big con of this movie.
So, coming to cinematography, where the other half of the shine can be found. Most of the scify bits of the movie look very refreshing and beautiful. The movie uses bright colors to depict alien activity and life forms, which feels very fresh. Some of the wide shots look amazing, with the contrast of bright colors of the nature/alien against darker colors anything human related.
The CGI is okay, it serves the purpose but it is very noticeable. Especially the animals made with CGI. This movie could age very well on any other part of the cinematography, except the CGI would prevent it from doing so.
Natalie Portman steals the show; great acting, believeable, gripping. She carries the movie, there isn't much else going on with the acting other then what she delivers. Oscar Isaac was fine, didn't have a lot to do or to show. I thought Jennifer Jason Leigh was a total miscast, I may be baised from The Hateful Eight. Other then that, it is mainly Portman doing what she is great at, and she delivers.
The music and sounddesign was fine. Nothing special really. It served the purpose, typical modern scify music really. Only at the end, in the final act, the music became a little too noticable and distracting (talking about electronic sounds).
Overal, I thought the movie was fine. Not as good as the hype is trying to make it. The story bothered me at some points because of exposition bombarding and I expected a little more at the end due to all the mysteriousness during the first two acts. CGI was okay and futhermore nothing really stood out. Most of the science elements in this scify were downright lazy and dumb. It felt hollow, with a pretty and shiny outside.