Annihilation focuses around a strange atmospheric distortion, The Shimmer, that is slowly expanding. Wave after wave of military expeditions has been sent inside to determine what it is, never to return. Except now one person has, and he's dying of an uncertain disease. Hoping to find the cure, his wife Lena, an accomplished biologist and army veteran, joins the next team to enter The Shimmer. Inside, they encounter increasing mysteries and horrors.
This movie is quite a mixed bag. In its favor, it is as powerfully creepy as you could ever hope for. Once the exploration team enters the Shimmer, the movie unfolds with a deliberate creeping dread, hitting you with ever more unsettling ideas. There are sequences to make you squirm and gasp, concepts that will make your skin crawl. That aspect of the film is everything I could have hoped for.
The musical score adds tremendously to the chills the movie serves up. Composed by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow, it's an uncomfortable sonic palette comprised of sounds that seem like they might have been discovered in a lab, and determined to have ill effects on humans. Lots of "what the hell is that noise?" In a couple key moments, the score becomes the loudest thing in the entire movie, forcing you to recoil from the intensity. It's not a score I would ever buy to listen to on its own -- it's too unsettling. But it's a real triumph of the movie.
The characters don't rise to the level of the weirdness around them, though. Lena is the only one to be fully drawn, and as played by Natalie Portman, she's a compelling enough protagonist. But the other four characters on her team are sketched in in the most shallow way. You get almost no background on most of them, while the little tidbits you do get are dropped in as exposition in scenes so much more important that the info washes right over you. No doubt, this is due largely to the source material, the novel from which this film was adapted. In the book, none of the characters even have names, only jobs. Garland realized enough, it seems, to know that wouldn't fly for the protagonist of a movie, but didn't take it far enough with the rest of the characters.
But another thing about the characters inherited from the novel is of interest -- they're all female. And in a satisfying moment of empowerment, this isn't justified in any way. (It's commented on, once, briefly, and that's it.) And why should they justify it? The movie has a certain Predator vibe at times, and Predator had no need to explain why all its team was male. It's just unfortunate that there are some out there who would connect the genders of the characters here with their lack of personality or their non-sensical behavior at key moments of the film. There's good casting -- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Nuva Novotny -- but they can't infuse much into the flat characterizations.
The movie really lost me in the final 30 minutes. It's all been building to the big question of what they will find in the center of the Shimmer. And what they find, while visually compelling, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I saw no logic in the end of the story, nor did that ending explain how the story began in the first place. (Specifically, how did Lena's husband get out of the Shimmer undetected?) It's an ending intended to give you a big mental sucker punch right before the credits start, but it unravels the moment you begin thinking about it.
Annihilation is no Ex Machina. I want to be able to recommend it, because there are aspects I really liked. But the whole hangs together at about a C+ in my book. For most people, it's just not going to be worth the time.
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