The thing about high-minded science fiction, other than
the fact that it tends to lose its way through too much science and
not enough fiction, is that most movies that qualify for that
particular subgenre tend to feel like the script was written long
before the ending was even considered. When this happens, such movies
tend to feel like well-acted (Contact), well-scripted (The Arrival)
set ups for endings that, because of the overly high expectations
placed upon them by their unique plots, never ever live up to what
audiences will expect from the movie. Oh, hey, Annihilation! Ready to
join the club?
Let it be known that, despite what I'm about to say
about this particular movie, it never quite qualifies as awful even
after it hits the two hour mark, runs into the
more-bit-off-than-chewable conundrum or when it finally tries to say
anything of meaning but merely falls flat due to all the dangling
threads it leaves behind. The acting ranges from good to great, the
premise (wonky alien thing engulfing large amounts of land
and...turning them) is cool and well scripted and it even tries to
balance its dramatic elements with a visually stunning setting and
booming score. If this hadn't been a sci-fi movie that promised
answers to its many bonkers scenarios, this would have been a fun, if
high-minded, sci-fi attempt in the vein of Bladerunner or Ghost in
the Shell.
Unfortunately, despite first act efforts that seem to
be to the contrary, Annihilation ultimately becomes just another
bland, too-smart-for-its-own-good sci-fi movie. The characters start
charming but eventually turn into every science officer in every bad
sci-fi movie ever (they try to feed you science instead of
fun-sounding nonsense), the actual plot is heavy-handed and lacks
basic needs for this kind of movie (it isn't fun to watch because it
spends too much time trying to educate) and that previously mentioned
sound design tends to get thrown out in the third act for what can
best be described as “let's deafen the audience so they don't
notice we have nothing worthwhile to say”. There are flutters of
The Martian attempted here (serious talk tempered by some levity),
but it's shallow and never tries to deviate from its source material
enough to make anyone care.
As for watching it, Black Panther is still in its wonky
coronation phase so, if you haven't seen it yet, this is probably
your chance before the regret of being swallowed up by all the
misplaced hype so, you know, go see that one instead. Otherwise,
Every Day is out if you want to watch a pretty fantastic young
actress (Angourie Rice) act her age for once (that's not actually a
good thing come to think about it) or you could, like me, just watch
the entire Mythica movie series on Amazon (don't do that either).
So... Black Panther again?
Alex Garland (Ex Machina) follows up a pretty
intelligent, entertaining sci-fi movie with a pretty intelligent
sci-fi movie that doesn't quite know how to entertain with
Annihilation, a well-acted, abysmally-paced, well-shot piece of
cinematic sci-fi that exists solely to be swallowed up by the bigger,
better-advertised movie currently in the next theater. When her
long-missing husband (Oscar Isaac) suddenly appears on her doorstep
with life-threatening, scientifically impossible symptoms, Biologist
Lena (Natalie Portman) joins a military expedition into Area X, a
region of Florida hit by a meteor exhibiting odd biological behavior,
in a desperate attempt to save his life. Wildlife will look both
horrifying and awesome, the characters won't be around long enough
for you to care about them, and you'll likely leave the theater with
that weird, unsatisfied taste in your mouth that, if you're really
unlucky, will compel you try to read the book series which will loop
back around to making the author think people actually care about his
books which will make him want to make more movies in an endless
idiot loop for the rest of record-able history. Or you could just put
a stop to it now and AVOID IT.
My score: 4/10. On second thought, watching the Mythica
fantasy series (a five movie series funded by Kickstarter) wasn't so
bad. It's basically a bunch of SyFy channel quality movies with meh
acting and occasionally funny dialogue. Also, it has Kevin Sorbo in,
like, four of them. I think that last one is a win...
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