Annihilates your brain

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2018)

This review of Annihilation is spoiler free
***** (5/5)
IF YOU EVER need a well-drawn, super-smart and thought provoking sci-fi (and in this world of identikit sequels, remakes and films we've seen done before we definitely do) a film that will take you on a ride of mystery, the paranormal and take you to a whole new world, then writer-director Alex Garland is your man. Though this isn't the first time he's taken you down this road, his brilliant Oscar-winning debut Ex Machina did pretty much the same thing, which had him take us on a winding road through super-smart thrills involving robots basically it was his vision of A.I. Now, we get his visitation of an alien world. Annihilation is Garland's version of Avatar, and in it he makes true to the different sci-fi tropes while still making it feel solidly original.
First off it sets itself as a women-on-a-mission story - a five strong team of scientists each of them with very different skill sets (there's a biologist, a physicist, a geologist, a paramedic and a psychologist) they are sent on a secret, potentially dangerous mission to a crashed meteor site causing different changes in an area of Florida. But that's just the throwaway plotting, as throughout Garland (loosely adapting the best selling novel by Jeff VanderMeer) in it he tackles routes of grief, depression, loneliness and insanity. And with it he's created a story that could change the routes of typical sci-fi. Natalie Portman is Lena - a cellular biologist who suffers from grief after the mysterious disappearance of her husband (Isaac), she also suffers from solidarity and she always feels that her world is not going to be the same again. Normally it would be difficult to find an actress who can portray this kind of personality with such strength, such sadness and such feeling that can make you feel for her, and it looks like Garland has found his true calling in Portman. Of course you have to praise her co-stars too, who each take their roles (with Garland's magnificent guidance) and they each play them beautifully. There's Jennifer Jason Leigh as a sort of general type in charge of their mission, secondly there's Tessa Thompson who's another world beyond the strong warrioress in Thor: Ragnarok etc. And each of them bring the story to the ground.

With that it helps that Garland and his visionary creative team make this world feel as authentic as possible, once through the shimmering purple shield like material it's almost as if Garland has placed our heroines on another planet, a world where evolution has escalated to 11, the animals have changed their features, tree like vines grow on buildings, there are different colours of flowers in the same batch. In short it's a world where nature has no rules, a place where time and space are irrelevant. At the same time Garland gives the audience the big questions; what happens in this place? Is it dangerous? What happens to people in the world? etc. The mysteries are relentlessly unfolded. Here Garland has conjured a world that's beautiful and will have you in constant awe. To be fair, it's best if you just go with it as the film drags you in.
Garland was late coming to the director's route; Annihilation is only his second film yet it feels he's been directing for his entire life, but he hasn't been, he started out as a novelist (he wrote the novel to The Beach), later he turned screenwriter going on to write film's such as 28 Days Later and Sunshine to name a couple - this was all years before he took the plunge to write and direct his exceptional debut which was only three years ago. Whatever made him take his time to make these two films it's all been worth it, this is worthy follow-up to Garland's directing career essentially proving that his debut was no joyous accident one that soon saw him become a recognizable figure. And we can't wait to see what he does next.

VERDICT Asks questions of mystery but then unravels into something deeper, a film that have you stunned with awe. This is sci-fi at its best.