Alex Garland has been buzzing around the sci-fi world for awhile now. He has his hooks in the community and gained a lot of popularity writing for Boyle on several of his projects--to varying levels of success, imo. Ex Machina was a big step: the directorial debut. And although it features absolutely stellar visuals and acting, the writing itself fell just slightly short of where the rest of the film took me. I make it sound worse than it is. Ex Machina truly is a magnificent movie and I do very much love it, but the script just didn't quite gel with me. It's very on rails. It didn't leave a whole lot up for guesswork in the viewing experience for me. I kind of knew exactly where we were going. That might be the point and that might be exactly why a lot of people love it, but it did detract from the film for me, even if only slightly.
And that's why I anticipated Annihilation so highly. I felt like Garland was right on the cusp of something and when I saw that trailer I had a feeling I was about to get what I was looking for. It's pretty rare, as a viewer, to see a film that feels like it's right up your alley in a way that few other projects really seem to be. And every single second of Annihilation works like that for me. The weird sci-fi, the Lovecraftian overtones, and the feeling of utter depression amidst one of the most beautiful worlds I've ever seen. It's also terrifying. It's kind of like LOST with a more overt horror influence. It's polarizing though, I know. Some will think it's too vague, some will think it just doesn't offer a whole lot, and the cinephiles might say it's too reminiscent of Stalker (but, ugh, hard disagree). I don't care though. This is one of the best science fiction films ever made.
Review by filmboicoleBlockedParent2020-08-14T13:43:54Z
Alex Garland has been buzzing around the sci-fi world for awhile now. He has his hooks in the community and gained a lot of popularity writing for Boyle on several of his projects--to varying levels of success, imo. Ex Machina was a big step: the directorial debut. And although it features absolutely stellar visuals and acting, the writing itself fell just slightly short of where the rest of the film took me. I make it sound worse than it is. Ex Machina truly is a magnificent movie and I do very much love it, but the script just didn't quite gel with me. It's very on rails. It didn't leave a whole lot up for guesswork in the viewing experience for me. I kind of knew exactly where we were going. That might be the point and that might be exactly why a lot of people love it, but it did detract from the film for me, even if only slightly.
And that's why I anticipated Annihilation so highly. I felt like Garland was right on the cusp of something and when I saw that trailer I had a feeling I was about to get what I was looking for. It's pretty rare, as a viewer, to see a film that feels like it's right up your alley in a way that few other projects really seem to be. And every single second of Annihilation works like that for me. The weird sci-fi, the Lovecraftian overtones, and the feeling of utter depression amidst one of the most beautiful worlds I've ever seen. It's also terrifying.
It's kind of like LOST with a more overt horror influence. It's polarizing though, I know. Some will think it's too vague, some will think it just doesn't offer a whole lot, and the cinephiles might say it's too reminiscent of Stalker (but, ugh, hard disagree). I don't care though. This is one of the best science fiction films ever made.