Could have been good.

Rating: 3/10 (14 June 2018)

The general feeling when thinking about Annihilation is that it was a shame, and a real missed opportunity for Sci-Fi fans.
Taking cues from 2001's Evolution, an other-worldly being is spreading visibly after a meteorite hits the earth but this time it's no joke.
The alien life-form in question demonstrates a rather under-explored and contradictory 'reflective' reaction the the earths environment and inhabitants.
Some of the elements of this concept could have been engaging and would have provided a more justifiable reasons for the stunning visual effects achievable today.
Unfortunately, that's not what we got. Far more time was spent exploring the feelings and emotions of the slow paced and inexplicably All-Female expedition into the alien territory. All the representation boxes were checked with gusto.
Somehow, an expanding incident of global concern under investigation by the government and military was left in the hands of a terminal gender studies professor, an Hispanic lesbian,a dutch girl with a sob story, a black geek and Mary Sue (Expert at everything).
They were non-military (Portmans's Character was Ex-military) but they were all issued weapons. They were scientists, but took zero notes, did no tests and the only time a camera appeared was when they found one...
The third act was a relief, after the pointless whining and screeching ended thanks to the team being mostly killed off, from here it felt more moody and thoughtful. Somewhat in line with the recent 'Interstellar' when combined with the slow pace.
You could almost be convinced by the 'art' ploy at this point, that the film was trying to convey hidden meanings and deeper more poignant points about the characters or even life, again, It's a shame. Because it didn't. Just a blatant ripoff of other well explored 'alien' tropes.
I can already hear the excuses and dismissal of this criticism, Yes, if it makes you feel better, we are all racist Nazi's. However...
Poor old David Gyasi was shoehorned into the protagonists backstory as an afterthought, for no other reason than they needed some interracial action to complement the diversity quota. Twice! he had to endure Portman moodily bouncing on him via flashback accompanied with some loose reference about self destruction.
It was such a shame to see a great idea and clearly a large budget go to waste on a project clearly more concerned with pushing this awful agenda than telling the story.
Again.
It's getting old now.