This movie is like an onion with its many layers to peel...

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2018)

...only to find there are just more layers of onion.
Annihilation is a film that presents a reality and never explains it, the onus is on you to work out what it all means. For many people this will be an enjoyable and challenging experience, and others will feel like they just sat in on a 2 hour Biology and Psychology lecture.
The Movie Annihilation follows former military soldier and current scientist Lena (played by Natalie Portman), and four other throw away characters of various backgrounds. The group ventures into the shimmer to gather data and determine a way to stop it. As the movie progresses an adventure of scientific proportions develops that provide information and additional questions to both the characters and the viewers. The adventure climaxes to an ultimately satisfying scientific but not exciting ending.
I left the theater satisfied but a little disappointed, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the little hints of information that kept me thinking through the movie. What I didn't enjoy was that some of the fundamentals were missing.
We had supporting characters we knew so little about that when they died or moved on we didn't care.
Mutation happening mostly in the form of adding flowers to walls and antlers and skin etc.
Too many flashbacks (sometimes the same one as before only longer).
The movie cannot decide if it wants the atmosphere to be about wonder or tension and flip flops between the two over 2 hours.
Too hard to believe they had been working to discover the shimmers secrets for years and had literally zero information about it, other than it was increasing in size. Really no one thought to maybe stick their arm in and take a scoop of dirt?
In the end I enjoyed the film and would recommend it to someone looking for a little bit of a thinker. Was it a deep movie? The self appointed movie intellectuals on IMDB sure think it is.