263.
Annihilation
5.5/10
With the cinemas closed, I have decided to use the streaming services that I have subscribed to, firstly starting with Netflix. I'm going to watch 27 movies, starting from A going through to Z and then ending with a movie that begins with a number. It's been needed so that I can get around to some recommendations and movie that I should have seen by now, (apparently). Only time shall tell if the wait was worth it.
Starting with A, my movie is going to be Annihilation starring Natalie Portman and other than it has something to do with weird planets and starring her, I know nothing else. It is a Netflix movie, which means there was never the chance to watch it on the big screen so I hardly feel any guilt in not doing so. Let's start with a quick run-through of the story.
The movie begins with a bit of aftermath to the main story. We have Portman's character sitting in a room with a couple of people in hazmat suits interviewing her. Behind a glass wall, are several others listening in. Questions such as 'does she remember anything?' are floated about, to get the audience asking the same and pretty soon, we know that we won't be following a linear narrative. We have already seen a spacecraft crash into a lighthouse and are still waiting for answers on this. We are thrust back a little while and Portman's character Lena is an educator on cell biology. We find out that her husband is an army man and has been lost for the last year. A colleague is chasing her a little but she is still adamant that she is to remain alone. Looking at her wedding pictures, we see that her husband is played by Oscar Issac and I'm already thinking that he is a little too big of a name to simply be seen in a picture and some flashbacks. A night or two later and we actually see him return home. I thought at first that it might just be her wishing this, as we walked up the stairs but she is as shocked as anybody when it turns out that he is there. But maybe he isn't truly there. He doesn't have any, memories of how he returned, where he was and what happened. He ends up coughing up blood, being in the back of an ambulance and on the way to the hospital, a parade of black jeeps pull them over and take the married couple.
We are now in the location of the interview and Lena is introduced to the main Dr behind this secret ops Dr. Ventress, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She shows Lena a place called the Shimmer, which is just outside the compound and explains that Kane, her husband was part of a team sent in to explore. He has been the only one to ever return as others are either lost or dead. Kane is on the compound but he is also dying. We know where this is going and Lena joins onto the next team to go in after answers from this event which has started from a lighthouse inside. The team is made up of all women, bringing a different strength and the only other one I recognise is Tessa Thompson.
Once camping inside, the team has already lost a couple of days somehow. Their communications don't work all of this is also being explained by the present-day interview with Benedict Wong's character. The women look like ghostbusters walking around and we are into our new chapter, The Shimmer, as we walk through this planet enriched environment. Lena was in the army for 7 years so she is straight into the role and as one gets attacked by a gator, she shows how to handle a gun. On closer inspection, the gator has shark teeth and the team is wondering if there has been any cross-breeding within the shimmer. The make it to the last place that Kane's team took shelter and a video is left for them to watch. The team is cutting open on of their own, who doesn't seem to be putting up a fight. The video is for education purposes showing something growing inside the man and moving like a snake. The team takes time to digest what they saw and aren't too happy when they actually walk into the location that it happened and the guy is still there. He has seemed to grow like a plant, spiralling up the wall and decomposing. During this time, we have a few more flashbacks to Lena's last moments before Kane left on the mission and then a random sex scene with her colleague from earlier.
As the team moves on, we lost one to a horrible looking bear, another to the same bear which now growls with the screams of the last victim and Tessa's character, who has plants growing out of her arm, walks off into the forest and away from the following Lena who cannot find her but does find several plants in the shape of people. Before leaving Tessa's character explains a few things about the Shimmer. The Shimmer isn't blocking the signals, it is refracting it, just as it is doing to the DNA of everything inside it.
The Doctor already left to find the lighthouse so now it is Lena's turn to walk up to it, enter and answer the questions to what the hell is going on. There are skeletons sprawled out, a corpse up against the wall which looks like it had exploded and a hole in the ground with plants growing around it. There is a camera set up and watching the video she sees Kane is the body that explodes and from behind the camera walks another Kane, who they chatted about who was the real Kane and the distortion of reality. This clone is the one who made it back to Lena. Going into the hole, she finds Dr. Ventress whose face is all twisted and she explains that the Shimmer is of an alien nature. She then dissolves into some sort of bright form and Lena's facial cut bleeds into this bright light before it becomes a human form.
It mimics all of Lena's moves, attacks back when Lena attacks and the only way out is to take another grenade and put it into the clone's hand whilst pulling the pin. It starts to truly transform into Lena as it burns away, touching the branches inside the lighthouse and crawling back into the hole, the fire spreads in the quickest way and the Shimmer disappears. We return to Lena's interview and rather than wondering what had gone on because the end 10 minutes had made me lose interest, I'm wondering how Wong's character had been standing in the same stance for so long listening to Lena. Wong's character confirms that the Shimmer has gone and Lena has no idea of how she got home. Kane has woken up and as the two are reintroduced, Lena knows that it is not truly him but he asks the same question of her. They both embrace and if you are quick, we see their eyes start to change colour.
People may perceive this movie in different ways and it may be thought-provoking to some and maybe not for others. The storyline was pretty easy to follow, although on three timelines and the storyline was just that, a story. It felt like there was a metaphor behind it all but what? The ball never really dropped for me if there was one and maybe another slog of a viewing will bring it to the surface but I'd rather just read about it afterward. Alex Garland, the writer and director gave us Ex-Machina which I enjoy, was clever and kept me interested. I'm not going to write the lad off in my books on this movie as there were some other positives.
I hadn't realised that there was such a horror swerve coming within the movie and to see some cool creatures and unique use of horror kept my hopes alive to the end. The way the movie looked was also pretty impressive, with a steady direction and relative freedom that comes from the genre, the sets and cinematography were pretty striking.
The cast was pretty synonymous with this type of movie. Each having their role, their qualities and to an extent, they made sense. Portman as a leader by the end made sense as she was ex-army, rather than certain movies were you see these characters step up and kick-arse from absolutely nowhere. The only one for me to not make sense was the paramedic. The aggressive, tie you to a chair and point a gun at you type, usually comes from the army background or at least one of the characters who had been portrayed as a little insane. The paramedic was the calm and rational starter and then suddenly that changed in an instant and it didn't make sense. The roles were all acted out very well though, with the writing at fault, I can't fault the cast. I can't remember a movie that I've seen Natalie Portman lead the line but I enjoyed her in this one.
It's going to be interesting to see what the freedom of these Netflix exclusive movies are going to give me. I wasn't overly impressed with this one and I'd be lying if I said that it didn't have its moments, I just think that it was let down by what the ending had become. Was it all about rebirth and creating a new you? Someone, please shed some light!
No comments:
Post a Comment