I'm so disappointed

Rating: 4/10 (13 January 2019)

Billed as a science fiction horror film, for a lot of it Annihilation seems to be a love film with an all female cast. The book itself is about four women, so I don't know where this film went wrong. Apparently it was only based on the first book of a trilogy, and deviated quite a lot, more using the ideas to tell its own story.
Annihilation is neither exciting, nor interesting, nor scary. It is simply boring and full of plot holes. I feel like it was in desperate need of a strong male lead. Or better character development. The husband sucks all the air out of every scene he's in. He looks moody and barely speaks (this is true in flashbacks as well, so nothing to do with what happened to him). It is difficult as the viewer to empathise with Lena or even comprehend her love for him. Or care about it in any way.
The team of four going into the Shimmer have no chemistry whatsoever. If you compare it to a movie like Aliens or Predator... actually, it is pointless to do so. This is not an action movie, although a good action movie could be made with this premise.
The story is told by jumping backwards and forwards in time, but I found myself not caring about any of it. The three women apart from Lena I couldn't really tell you anything about. Actually, there were five rather than four that entered the Shimmer, but that's how badly written and forgettable they were - I forgot one.
All of the main cast are insipid and devoid of personality. There is one scene where one of them gives Lena the lowdown on what makes each of them unique. It was forgettable and pointless. The viewer finds themselves not actually caring what happens, even in the small number of tense moments where their lives are in danger. I fought the urge not to turn off halfway through, and was rewarded with an initially intriguing and beautiful finale, that is then completely wasted with an unsatisfactory ending that doesn't attempt to explain any of it.
The writer and director of this film did a terrible job. I honestly don't know what he was trying to do with this film, but he didn't succeed.
It is a shame for such an interesting concept to be wasted on this film. The concept behind it is extremely interesting to me. The visual effects were stunning and beautiful, at times psychedelic. This could have been an intriguing or even quite cerebral film, instead of the confusing painting by numbers love story we got, riddled with plot holes. It leaves you with more questions than answers. Deeply unfulfilling.