Dumb, with some fun to be had.

Rating: 4/10 (21 February 2019)

Annihilation seems to have some mixed reviews, and I can understand why. I didn't particularly enjoy this film, but at the same time I can understand why some people love it.
There are two scenes that I enjoyed. The scene where three of the protagonists are tied to chairs while a mutated bear hunts for them is genuinely really scary; the visual design of the bear, the fact that the characters are tied down, the way that the bear sounds like a tortured version of the previously killed woman, and the fact that it kills another character in such a brutal and quick way makes this scene terrifying.
The other scene I liked was the final "battle", if you can call it that. Natalie Portman's character finds herself at the lighthouse, the location the group were trying to get to, on her own. There she sees some amazingly designed horrors that would be ruined if I described them here. A human-like being then forms, mimicking her, and nearly kills her. This whole scene is weird and incredible, and a wonderful ending to the film.
Unfortunately, these are the only scenes I enjoyed. The rest of the film was boring and generic, and the wild contrast between these two scenes and the rest of the film is really strange, and makes it feel like two different films unnaturally spliced together.