A different perspective ...

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2018)

OK, here it is...a different way of looking at Annihilation.
This was not a film about aliens at all. The whole story was about Lena not being able to come to terms with her husband's death. This was her unconscious dragging her down into her center to heal herself, I think this is what Carl Jung meant by the phrase "individuation". So, as one viewer commented there are a lot of holes in the plot. For example, how would Kane's overseers have known so quickly about his rush to the hospital? It doesn't matter, this is her story and she must get there herself. When her damaged husband appears to her he can give her no answers. And not much is explained when she gets to the facility. The next clue is the team, all women. They represent aspects of Lena herself. They are all armed because Lena is ex-military, they are all scientists because so is Lena. They are all parts of her. Remember the talk in the boat. All the women are damaged goods. They represent the parts of Lena that are holding her back from recovering from the shock of Kane's death. The woman who ties them to the chairs is the part that wants to keep the status quo, she even accuses Lena of orchestrating their deaths (yes!) but Lena stays true to her purpose and continues on, finally alone. When she leaves her heavy pack on the beach and continues to her center (beautifully expressed by the lighthouse) that is another symbol of leaving her "baggage" behind. When she sees the video of her husbands death this is the moment she heals herself. She then goes deeper into herself, the hole leads into a place that even looks like the skeletal insides of a person, and the light of purification begins. Coming up out of the depths she can finally "face herself" and then the fire is the last purification. Her final words show that she is healed: "You are not Kane..."
So that's the way I see it. If you have read this far, what do you think?