I know I'm a bit late, as everyone who was interested has already seen this film already, but last night was my first experience with this film and it left such an impression on me that I figured I should write a review on it. Strap in, it's going to be a wild ride.
The premise to Annihilation is as follows. Our main character Lena is a biologist at John's Hopkins University specializing in cancer cell reproduction and is former military, having served in the Army for 7 years. Her husband Kane is also military (they met in the military) and at the beginning of the film is believed to be KIA in some sort of top secret mission. So Kane comes home randomly, doesn't remember anything, gets sick, the military stop the ambulance, drug Lana, and she wakes up in a super secret base called Area X. You find out that about 3 years prior there had been some anomaly emanating from a lighthouse on the beach that they call The Shimmer (because it shimmers) and Kane was one of the teams sent in to investigate. Yada yada some stuff happens that doesn't matter, Lana decides to go in with this group of scientists because she owes Kane (because she had an affair before he left you find out later on) and ok now we've entered the shimmer.
If it seems like I'm glossing over a lot, it's because I am. There's a lot of little things, and originally I was like "oh damn this is going to be really thought provoking and intense" but after you finish the movie you realize none of it actually matters. The worst part is that the beginning of the movie is its strongest point.
If you've guessed that I was not a fan of this movie, you'd be correct, but don't worry I'll explain why in a bit.
The movie honestly can't decide what it's trying to be. Sometimes it wants to be a horror movie, sometimes it wants to be hard sci-fi, other times it wants to be fantasy, but it never makes up its mind and thus the parts fall very flat. The characters are absolutely obnoxious. Each one having traits or flaws that just doesn't jive and puts them at complete odds with the rest of the film. One is aggressive for no reason (shes the EMT, even though she acts more like a soldier than our main protagonist), two are extremely mousy and passive, like, the exact opposite kind of people you would send into a high stress situation, and the leader of the group is visibly insane. They all die, so that's why I'm not wasting time with their names, because just like you expect (and are told through a flash forward, or flash back, or whatever who cares) they all die by the end. Guys this movie is a mess.
So there's these flash forwards to where Lana is talking about her experience to a very angry asian man in a hazmat suit, but maybe the whole story is a flash back, or maybe it's all a dream? Ooooo so smart, so intense, so intellectual!!!! sarcasm This movie really pushes the concept that it's a movie for smart people, but it's such a dumb film from start to finish that I can't even handle it.
Alright back to it. So the group heads into the shimmer and somehow immediately loses 6 days, they completely forget where they are and what they've done. Now, here's the first major plot hole. This situation only happens once. They only lost their memory entering The Shimmer, the rest of the time they're completely fine. It's very obvious this was a plot device to explain "well this is why they can't just send someone in right on the edge and test it and leave". That's really the only reason this situation exists, and it's never spoken of after it happens. Right away the main character explains that these crazy weird flowers are duplicating in a sort of mirror image. This mirror situation is shown half a dozen times, and it's so heavily explained that by the time the "twist" comes at the end you go "yea duh.".
So next comes the next big issue I have with the plot. So this random shark alligator mutant creature pulls one of the girls into the water, Lena drops her gun and goes into the water to grab her. Ok, so this woman is supposed to have been in the military for 7 years, we've already seen her holding the weapon like she has no idea what she's doing, and then she just throws it down. Ok. Sure. Lena, even though she's the only soldier on the team, seems the most uncomfortable with holding and using a weapon. However the movie goes out of it's way to show her firing dozens of rounds into the alligator later on and then has the characters look at her in aw as they ask "where did you learn to shoot like that?" I'm not sure, because the gun isn't actually firing at the alligator, the CGI at this moment is so bad, the bullet trajectory is completely off. I thought she was shooting behind it, but no it died. Magic.
God there's so much to say. I have to just skip a bunch because a lot of nonsense happens. One of the girls is dragged off by a mutant bear, and for some reason we have a whole scene where Lena goes off to see if she's dead. Lol. Yea, she's deader than fuck dude. You don't need to journey off on your own to discover that. The overly aggressive medic has a breakdown and ties everyone up in chairs and goes full on psychotic on everyone, for absolutely no reason, then the bear comes back, eats the shit out of her, and the mousy girl (who you for some reason are told cuts herself, yea it doesn't make sense I'm not sure why it was necessary, god it's just such a fucking mess of a film) shoots the bear and saves Lena's life. Ok. So now there's three. The leader runs off to the lighthouse by herself, the mousy girl becomes a goddamned tree, and Lena heads towards the lighthouse on her own. None of this is actually pertinent to the story, because the story isn't really good. This is all just stuff that happens, that fills time, but it doesn't actually mean anything.
Lena heads to the lighthouse and inside there's a body burned up and a video recorder. It's of course Kane, filming himself burn himself to death with a phosphorous grenade, then another Kane (what two Kanes?) steps from around the camera. What? So twist, so spin! Except it's not. By this point in the film you've already realized that Kane was a clone, because everything clones in this place. This Shimmer clones stuff and then blends it with other DNA and makes new things, that's literally a thing you're told like 10 times before this point. So there's this black anus in the lighthouse (that's what it looks like) and the leader chick is heard from down there, so Lena goes down there and there's this acid trip scene where the leader chick turns into a floating green dubstep turd and then Lena gets cloned by this thing. So Lena and her clone which mirrors her have this back and forth and you see them go at it, and finally Lana places a phosphorus grenade in the hand of the clone and pulls the pin and runs (for some reason the clone does't mirror her during this sequence for unknown reason) and that burns everything down and the shimmer is gone.
Yea. So she goes back and she talks to Kane who's now mysteriously fine, and she goes "you aren't Kane are you?" and he goes "idk" and he goes "are you Lena?" and they hug. But holy fuck their eyes both shimmer! WHAT??? IS SHE A CLONE TOO???? No. Shes infected, you've literally seen it through a microscope earlier in the movie. She says out loud to another character that "it's inside of me". Kane is obviously a clone, there's no doubt. So.
WHAT THE FUCK?
There's no twist. There's nothing! This movie is a pile of hot garbage hidden behind pretty colors and special effects! The director said he was concerned the audience wouldn't be smart enough to "get it". Really? There's nothing to get dude. This was literally bad sci-fi. It was about 60 minutes of filler with maybe 30 minutes of actual useful story. Yea, it's a waste of time. It's not even an entertainingly bad sci-fi movie, it's just a bunch of poorly developed characters who act out of character at every turn, a myriad of plot holes and a horribly unsatisfying payoff.
Avoid this film.
End rant.
