BY-RITWIK BHARDWAJ
7/10 IMDb 79%Metacritic 87% Rotten Tomatoes
Release Date: 13 February 2018 Director: Alex Garland
Cast:
Natalie Portman(as Lena),
Jennifer Jason Leigh(as Dr. Ventress),
Gina Rodriguez(as Anya Thorensen),
Tessa Thompson(as Josie Radek),
Tuva Novotny(as Cassie Sheppard),
Oscar Isaac(as Kane),
Benedict Wong(as Lomax),
Sonoya Mizuno(as Katie and Humanoid),
David Gyasi(as Daniel)
Budget:$40,000,000
Box office: 4.29 crores USD
Do you all remember when alien movies were just about the little green men or some robot humanoids coming to conquer Earth? Annihilation is another in the queue of modern sci-fi films that are more interested in the philosophy than the practicality of extraterrestrials.
Annihilation is a sci-fi thriller which is based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, is a rousing, flawed genre success. The plot revolves around four female scientists and a paramedic who enters the Shimmer, a sequestered zone which is formed around the area surrounding the lighthouse over the last few years from where no living creature has ever emerged alive. They enter without any compass, comms or coordinates to guide them and starts a mission that will only lead them to either killing something or killing themselves.
Alex Garland’s new Annihilation will make your jaw hang open in wonder and leave you astonished. But once it’s over, you're much more likely be scratching your head in confusion.
A biologist's husband disappears. She puts her name forward for a mission into an environmental disaster zone but does not find what she's expecting. It's about a year since a team of soldiers entered an environmental disaster zone, and never returned back. One soldier named Kane, the husband of Lena suddenly reappears, much to her despairing relief. But he doesn't remember where he's been or how he got home. Then he has a sudden medical emergency and is rushed to a hospital. In a strive to help her husband, Lena decides to join a team of all female scientists on a mission back into the environmental zone. Things of course don't go as planned.
The film is about, among other things, cancer. One of the main protagonists is suffering from terminal cancer, and the shimmer is slowly spreading, distorting everything, it is the representation of Dr. Ventress' affliction. There are also themes of humanity's tendency toward self-destruction. It's a multi-layered piece of work that will be appreciated much more in years to come.
The aura built in Annihilation is so rich, terrifying, and mystifying. In the middle of the film, you cannot help but think how to spend another ten hours in that chair just exploring what else it had to share.
It's the ideal film for sci-fi fans to play 'spot the reference' with some shiny new effects to admire.
The music was haunting, special effects were jaw dropping, photography was breathtaking and the acting was solid.
The result is a film that has the feel of erudite, high-end sci-fi, but ultimately neither the underlying the structure nor the content.
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