Monday, April 9, 2018

Annihilation (2018)

Here's a switch: despite the critics' raves, we did not love this sci-fi thriller in which five female scientists volunteer to explore and study an environmentally altered area. Natalie Portman (last blogged for Song to Song) is the protagonist, as her motivation is to learn what happened to her husband (played by Oscar Isaac, most recently in Suburbicon) in the area, known as the Shimmer. Jennifer Jason Leigh (after Anomalisa I enjoyed her work in nine episodes of Atypical) heads up the expedition, which also includes Tessa Thompson (last in Creed), Tuva Novotny (small part in Eat Pray Love), and Gina Rodriguez (she did other work before her 80 episodes, so far, as Jane the Virgin, but who can remember?).

Director/screenwriter Alex Garland (last did the honors on Ex Machina) adapts the 2014 novel, the first of the Southern Reach trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer. Ex Machina was to the point, with an ending that tied up loose ends. This one is confusing and subject to much interpretation and speculation. Apparently one backer tried to make Garland change the ending after a test screening but didn't prevail.

The composers Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury (also scored Ex Machina) provide a spooky soundtrack (which I like a lot) that can be streamed in its entirety from this link.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 87% with its audiences more in line with us at 67. The main reason we saw it three weeks ago was its position of number one on Thrillist's best movies of 2018. Oh well, you can't love them all. Its estimated streaming and disk release is May 2018.

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