A pretty self-centered affair...

Rating: 5/10 (25 February 2018)

I am rarely writing movie reviews, but feel compelled to do so here without offering major spoilers. I had high expectations, having heard of the movie and having watched a trailer or two in the past. Without getting into plot details, I will mention this: "Annihilation" reminds me of a number of "strangeness-descends-upon-a-locale" flicks, such as "Signs" (2002), "The Mist" (2007) and, more recently, "Arrival" (2016), but unlike those movies, it veers into the inexplicable, bizarre, and self-centered in a manner that defeats, in my opinion, both the aesthetic pleasure from watching the visuals, and seeking any deeper questions/answers the events might call upon.
The main problem, I think, is that the slow, almost lethargic, pacing of the movie suggests that a feverish climax may be suddenly coming, but when the latter finally arrives, it leaves the viewer literally nowhere - the main characters have no nagging questions left, there is no plot twist, and, at best, the movie seems to suggest that one needs to accept/adapt to fate no matter how odd, bizarre, or alienating. For those of us who watched "Arrival" and enjoyed the movie - be warned that, in contrast, in "Annihilation" there is no hard science, no clever games with concepts related to the time-space continuum, no large existential questions. While it is probably unfair to compare the two movies, the first 20-30 minutes of "Annihilation" are VERY close to the premise of "Arrival" and beg the comparison. From then on, however, each film takes a different route. "Annihilation" opts for the increasingly more erratic, bizarre, and grotesque, but has no answers as to why or how the events we see on screen come to relate to the fate of the main characters.
If I write more, I will probably reveal unintentionally plot elements. I will mention only that for the most part, the acting is good, but characterization, as a whole, is not that good - we don't get to empathize much with any of the characters. The visuals are pretty, but not unique or exceptional in any way.