Amazing Experience Held Back By Cliches

Rating: 5/10 (8 March 2018)

If there was one word I would use to describe Annihilation, it would be inconsistent. There are so many things in this film that make it stand out, and sometimes where I was amazed at what I was watching. This film seems to have this gimmick that the longer into the movie's runtime we get, the more interesting and thought-provoking stuff happens. Unfortunately, that gimmick seems to stick it's nose early into the film and incredibly harms the first act, which I'll get into during spoiler talk.
The inconsistency is everywhere in this film. Sometimes, I'm completely drawn into what I am watching, and other times I am bored out of my mind and uninterested with what I'm looking at. I think the biggest issue is in the acting. These are all very talented actors, Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson especially, but for some reason here they have absolutely no range and react to everything in the most unrealistic way possible, and a lot the dialogue in this film is just poorly written and lame. Early in the film, they get attacked by a pretty out of the ordinary creature, and they keep looking at it like I look at the container of my chocolate chip muffins in the morning, like it's something I'm used to and it's just in my way. Sure they get spooky scared when the jump scare scenes pop in, but besides those and few notable other scenes, they just have very little expression and range. And yes, the dialogue certainly didn't help, but again I'll get into spoiler talk for more details on that.
Can't really get into more details about this film before the spoiler section, but I really don't want to come off like I hate this film. The 5/10 I'm giving is a very good 5. The stuff in this film that is great, is great. Everything in the last 30 minutes is certainly worth it, with very creative visuals and tense moments that will stick with you when you leave the theater.
(SPOILERS) So I really wanted to go into detail about how awful the first 30 minutes as compared to the last 30 minutes. The connection between all our main characters was incredibly rushed. Natalie Portman meets them at the table, they say "we are going in" and she just kinda joins them. Sure we learn more about them as the adventure goes on, but we only seem to learn more about them moments before they die. It seems like the writers wanted to make really cool death scene moments, but forgot to actually add characters to them. All of these girls personalities are pretty copy and paste. Also, I really hope I wasn't rolling my eyes at how they tried to connect Natalie's character and her husband. Again, what they did with them at the end was not only unique but made you care about their connection. What didn't connect me was them tickling each other in bed and then saying something corny about the stars. I can't stand when movie writers do this because I feel like it's a lazy way to make you see a character as a good person. You can't make a character out of bootleg bible verses. Also the completely unnecessary scenes with her affair. Not only was it weird for the pacing but it added nothing to the story. Also, it just added another character that felt like a prop.
Again, there were fantastic things in the film. The visuals, CGI, and practical effects were very consistent in their quality, the ending was trippy and thought-provoking in all the best ways. That screaming bear was awesome, and I can't wait to watch that scene specifically again. Most of the horror and gore is done in a way that doesn't feel cheap, and the soundtrack was phenomenal, with a theme that is in the trailer that I was really happy to see how they used it in the film. I do recommend seeing this film, but I promise there is nothing wrong with being a little late to it.