Annihilation (2018) Movie | Natalie Portman & Jennifer Jason Leigh | Review & Facts
[Music] the e e e e e hey guys welcome back to the picture review Channel guys in today’s video the movie we’re going to talk about is called Annihilation we will talk about what this movie is all the interesting facts about this movie we are going to give you a detailed review of this movie and we will talk in detail about the technical department music department pre-production filming post-production budget and box office collection of this film we will also talk about the story of this film and I we’ll also give you a small review of the story of this film apart from this we will discuss about the facts of this film storyline starcast actor’s performance in the film and which character has played which role that’s why I request you friends to watch this video till the end if you are visiting our channel for the first time don’t forget to subscribe to our channel so let’s start the video released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on February 23rd 2018 and in China on April 13th Annihilation was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12th 2018 it received positive reviews from critics engrossed $43 million worldwide according to Empire magazine the film addresses depression grief and the human propensity for self-destruction plot s cellular biology professor and former US Army soldier Lena Portman is under interrogation she was part of an expedition to an anomalous Zone known as the Shimmer but she was the only one to return the Shimmer emerged 3 years prior from a meteor that landed on a lighthouse in the St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and it is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries many exploratory Expeditions were organized but only Lena’s husband Cain Isaac returns home after a year of absence Cain cannot explain where he was and how he came back and his condition quickly deteriorates Lena calls an ambulance but she and Cain are intercepted by security forces and taken to a secret facility as Cain is put in intensive care psychologist Dr Ventress Lei prepares a new scientific Expedition into the Shimmer and Lena joins her three other women participate in the Expedition Cass novotney a geomorphologist Ana Rodriguez a paramedic and Josie Thompson a physicist communication equipment does not function within the Shimmer’s territory and the Expedition encounters unusually mutated plants and animals Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth at an abandoned military base the group finds a video message from kan’s expedition in which Kane cuts open another soldier’s abdomen with a knife to reveal slithering intestines the group finds the Soldier’s corpse which has turned into an overgrown colony of lyans at night leener and Ventress share a watch and reflect on Humanity’s strange instinct to destabilize and destroy itself they’re joined later by Cassie and the base is attacked by a mutant bear that drags Cassie away Lena later finds her mutilated corpse Within an abandoned Village Josie studies plants that have taken on a humanoid form and theorizes that the Shimmer functions as a prism distorting and transforming everything that falls within its boundaries including the Expedition member’s own DNA Ana overcome with paranoia after watching her fingerprints change disarms the other members and ties them to chairs and accuses Lena of murdering Cassie the mutant bear returns and lures Ana away by emitting a cry for help in Cassie’s voice the bear kills Anna while Josie frees herself and shoots the bear then Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse the center of the Shimmer Josie believes Cassie’s dying mind was refracted into the bear and laments that the only piece left of Cassie was the pain and fear she experienced while being killed she allows herself to succumb to the Shimmer and refract into a humanoid plant hoping to avoid a similar fate Lena follows Ventress to the lighthouse where she discovers Kane’s remains and a videotape in the footage Cain leaves an instruction to find Lena before killing himself with a phosphorous grenade after the explosion a doppelganger of can steps into frame within the hole created by the meteor Lena finds Ventress who explains that the Shimmer will eventually swallow everything Ventress then disintegrates into a shimmering Cloud that absorbs a drop of blood from Lena’s face and changes into a faceless shimmering humanoid being that mimics Lena’s movements unable to escape the creature Lena tricks it into igniting one of Cain’s leftover grenades as it transforms into her doppelganger Lena fleases the burning Lighthouse and the Shimmer dissipates destroying itself as it mindlessly mimics the explosion back in the present Lena’s interrogation concludes and she learns that after the Shimmer fell kan’s condition began to stabilize Lena visits the C doppelganger and asks if he is really Cain which he doubts he asks if she is Lena but she does not answer they Embrace and their iris’s Shimmer cast Natalie Portman as Lena Jennifer Jason Lee as Dr Ventress Gina Rodriguez as Ana thoron Tessa Thompson as Josie redek tuva nood as Cassie C Sheppard Oscar Isaac as kanaine Benedict Wong as LX sonoya mauno as ktie med student mauno also provided the motion capture performance for humanoid David gasi as Daniel development Paramount Pictures and Scott rudden acquired the film rights to Annihilation the then unpublished first novel in Jeff vander’s Southern reach Trilogy on March 26th 2013 Ruden and Eli Bush were set to produce the film and Alex Garland who had previously worked with Ruden and Bush on exmachina was hired to write and direct the film in October 2014 Garland explained that his adaptation was necessarily based on only the first novel in the trilogy at the point I started working on Annihilation there was only one of the three books I knew that it was planned as a Trilogy by the author but there was only the manuscript for the first book I really didn’t think too much about the trilogy side of it garan said his adaptation is a memory of the book rather than book referenced screenwriting with the intention of capturing the dreamlike nature and tone of his experience reading vanir’s novel rather than trying to directly adapt the book Garland deliberately took the story in his own Direction with vanir’s permission Garland did not read the other two books when they were completed as he was concerned he would need to revise his script when others informed him of elements of the sequels he expressed surprise at some of the similarities to what he had written some critics have noted the film has similarities with arcadi and Boris strat’s 1972 science fiction novel roadside picnic and Andre tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation stalker Nerdist Industries Kyle Anderson noted an even stronger resemblance to the 1927 short story the color out of space by HP Lovecraft also adapted for the screen on several occasions including as color out of space in 2019 which is about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutagenic plague in his review Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer found Annihilation to be reminiscent of both the color out of space and roadside picnic shuna stalker vanir stated that the original novel is 100% not a tribute to picnic stalker but rather Drew influences from works by JG Ballard and France Kafka box office the film grossed 32.7 million in the United States and Canada and 10.3 million in China for a worldwide total of 43.1 million against a production budget of $455 million while it did not amass much in terms of box office the film found new life in home release with some Publications arguing it could become a cult classic in the United States Annihilation was released alongside game night and everyday and was projected to gross 102 million from 2012 theaters during its opening weekend it made $3.9 million on its first day including $900,000 from Thursday night previews at wi 150 theaters and ended up making $1 million over the weekend finishing fourth behind Black Panther game Knight and Peter Rabbit its second weekend the film’s box office total dropped 49% to 5.9 million falling to sixth place critical response on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 331 reviews and an average score of 7.7 10 the site’s critics consensus reads Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and viscer genre Thrills with an impressively ambitious and surprisingly strange exploration of challenging themes that should leave audien is pondering long after the end credits rooll on Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 51 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of C on an A+ to f scale and postt trck reported film goers gave it a 71% overall positive score Richard roer of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars praising it for taking risks and saying kudos to Garland and the cast but Bravo to Scott Roden as well apparently you knew a masterpiece when you saw it and you made sure we were able to see it as well writing for Rolling Stone Peter Travers complimented the cast and Garland’s writing and Direction giving the film three and a half stars out of four and saying Garland need make no apologies for annihilation it’s a bracing brain teaser with the courage of its own ambiguity you work out the answers in your own head in your own time in your own dreams where the best sci-fi puzzles leave things The Economist described the film as tight rope walking the fine line between open-ended mind expanding mystery and lethargic pretentious twaddle but praised its final half hour as part of his annual endof year list of favorite songs books and movies former president Barack Obama listed Annihilation as one of his favorite films of 2018 critics have referred to the film as a sci-fi horror Thriller and some have said that this combination defies traditional genres and makes it part of the new weird Alex Garland’s Visionary unsettling Annihilation doesn’t fall into the same neat categories as so many recent films in what has been a Sci-Fi genre boom of late whether it’s the big films like Blade Runner 2049 or the Netflix ones like mute and the Cloverfield Paradox sci-fi is everywhere in the late 10s with most of it owing a great deal to some combination of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the wowski The Matrix even within this Resurgence rarely do you see a film that’s built from the templates of tarkovski films like Solaris or stalker movies that used sci-fi in a discomforting emotional register because well that kind of film making is incredibly difficult to pull off it’s so difficult in fact that Paramount had no idea what to do when they saw Annihilation barely promoting it holding it from press until a few days before release and selling it to Netflix for international markets maybe they’re still burned by the failure of mother but they’re burying a genre gem here an ambitious challenging piece of work that people will be dissecting for years don’t miss it what looks like a meteor hits a lighthouse in the opening shots of annihilation Flash Forward we presume to a woman being interrogated by a man in a hazmat suit people watch the interrogation through glass and wear protective masks even though they’re not in the same room with her who is this woman why is everyone treating her like a biohazard flashback again we presume to a time before Lena Natalie Portman was possibly radioactive a successful biologist Lena seems just about ready to get over the grief of her missing husband who has been gone on a cover mission for a year and presumed Kia when he walks up the stairs and into her bedroom Caine Oscar Isaac may be home but there’s a sense immediately that something is wrong in a quick flashback Garland shows us a playful smiling cane so we the viewers can sense along with Lena that something is not right with the dead-eyed man in front of her Garland is brilliant in the way he Parcels out information with a quick scene line flashback Etc giving us just what we need to process and analyze the action in front of us while also staying one step ahead of us making us eager to catch up then Cain starts spitting up blood before long Lena is brought to a place called The Southern reach a research facility a few miles from that lighthouse in the opening shot on the horizon near a tree line she sees what can best be described as a rainbow wall Dr Ventress Jennifer Jason Lee informs her that it’s called the Shimmer and that they have been investigating it for 3 years now past the Shimmer no radio signals have returned and no manned missions have produced a Survivor until her husband the assumption is that something in there kills people or people go crazy and kill each other Lena Dr Ventress and three others tough-talking Ana Gina Rodriguez shy Josie Tessa Thompson and sweet Cass Tua novotney will venture into the Shimmer get to the lighthouse and return maybe if you’re wondering how much has been spoiled at this point in the review the answer is almost nothing Annihilation really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold Into the Woods a fascinating setting for a sci-fi flick that reveals itself slowly this is not an alien planet and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration Within These Woods Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused but also in the moment with Lena and the crew it’s a film that balances disorientation with the grounded performances of its cast who keep us engaged in each interaction believing the danger as it unfolds Annihilation could have easily become campy or silly if I described some of its scarier scenes you might laugh but Garland finds a way to make the insanity work and watching that Balancing Act can be invigorating Annihilation is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible cinematographer Rob Hardy who also shot X mackina works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the pair used those Sleek lines and reflections of the lab in their previous film and the sound design especially in the climax is spectacular keeping us disoriented and frightened with the tonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves most of all the artistic success of annihilation comes down to the way Garland meets out information visually he’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about Duality and Corruption there’s also a centerpiece scene involving an attack at night that straight up one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in terms of design and Direction it reminded me of the first time it’s clear that everyone is probably going to die in John Carpenter’s The Thing there are times when the structure of annihilation frustrated me just a little bit although I’m eager to see it again to see if that comp complaint Fades away flashbacks within flashbacks often do that and I’m not sure Garland’s Final Act works as well as it could have there’s an inherent problem with Mission films like annihilation in that the journey is almost always more engaging and interesting than the destination questions make for better art than answers however Garland leaves enough open for discussion that he saves it artistically and he produces some of his most striking visuals in those closing scenes Annihilation is not an easy film to discuss it’s a movie that will have a different meaning to different viewers who are willing to engage with it it’s about self-destruction Evolution biology codependence and that which scares us the most that we can no longer trust our own bodies it’s meant to linger in your mind and haunt your dreams in this recent wave of sci-fi films it’s one of the best released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on February 23rd 2018 and in China on April 13th Annihilation was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12th 2018 it received positive reviews from critics and grossed $43 million worldwide according to Empire magazine the film addresses depression grief and the human propensity for self-destruction plot cellular biology professor and former US Army soldier Lena Portman is under interrogation she was part of an expedition to an anomalous Zone known as the Shimmer but she was the only one to return the Shimmer emerged 3 years prior from a meteor that landed on a lighthouse in the St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and it is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries many exploratory Expeditions were organized but only Lena’s husband Cain Isaac returns home after a year of absence Cain cannot explain where he was and how he came back and his condition quickly deteriorates Lena calls an ambulance but she and Cain are intercepted by security forces and taken to a secret facility as Cain is put in intensive care psychologist Dr Ventress Lei prepares a new scientific Expedition into the Shimmer and Lena joins her three other women participate in the Expedition c novotney a geomorphologist Ana Rodriguez a paramedic and Josie Thompson a physicist communication equipment does not function within the Shimmer’s territory and the Expedition encounters unusually mutated plants and animals Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth at an abandoned military base the group finds a video message from kan’s expedition in which Cain cuts open another soldier’s abdomen with a knife to reveal slithering intestines the group finds the Soldier’s corpse which has turned into an overgrown colony of lyans at night leaner and Ventress share a watch and reflect on Humanity’s strange instinct to destabilize and destroy itself they’re joined later by Cassie and the base is attacked by a mutant bear that drags Cassi away Lena later finds her mutilated corpse within an abandoned Village Josie studies plants that have taken on a humanoid form and theorizes that the Shimmer functions as a prism distorting and transforming everything that falls within its boundaries including the Expedition member’s own DNA Ana overcome with paranoia after watching her fingerprints change disarms the other members and ties them to chairs and accuses Lena of murdering Cassie the mutant bear returns and lures Ana Away by emitting a cry for help in Cassie’s voice the bear kills Ana while Josie frees herself and shoots the bear n Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse the center of the Shimmer Josie believes Cassie’s dying mind was refracted into the bear and laments that the only piece left of Cassie was the pain and fear she experienced while being killed she allows herself to succumb to the Shimmer and refract into a humanoid plant hoping to avoid a similar fate Lena follows Ventress to the lighthouse where she discovers Kane’s remains and a videotape in the footage Kan leaves an instruction to find Lena before killing himself with a phosphorous grenade after the explosion a doppelganger of can steps into frame within the hole created by the meteor Lena finds Ventress who explains that the Shimmer will eventually swallow everything Ventress then disintegrates into a shimmering Cloud that absorbs a drop of blood from Lena’s face and changes into a faceless shimmering humanoid being that mimics Lena’s movements unable to escape the creature Lena tricks it into igniting one of Cain’s leftover grenades as it transforms into her doppelganger Lena flees the burning Lighthouse and the Shimmer dissipates destroying itself as it mindlessly mimics the explosion back in the present Lena’s interrogation concludes and she learns that after the Shimmer fell Cain’s condition began to stabilize Lena visits the Cain doppelganger and asks if he is really Cain which he doubts he asks if she is Lena but she does not answer they Embrace and their iris’s Shimmer cast Natalie Portman as Lena Jennifer Jason Lee as Dr Ventress Gina Rodriguez as Ana thornson Tessa Thompson as Josie rck tuva novotney as Cassie Cass Shepard Oscar Isaac is Kane Benedict Wong as LX sonoya Mizuno as ktie med student Mizuno also provided the motion captured performance for humanoid David gasi as Daniel development Paramount Pictures and Scott Ruden acquired the film rights to Annihilation the then unpublished first novel in Jeff vander’s Southern reach Trilogy on March 26 2013 Ruden and Eli Bush were set to produce the film and Alex gar who had previously worked with Ruden and Bush on XM was hired to write and direct the film in October 2014 Garland explained that his adaptation was necessarily based on only the first novel in the trilogy at the point I started working on Annihilation there was only one of the three books I knew that it was planned as a Trilogy by the author but there was only the manuscript for the first book I really didn’t think too much about the trilogy side of it Gan said his adaptation is a memory of the book rather than book referenced screenwriting with the intention of capturing the dreamlike nature and tone of his experience reading vanir’s novel rather than trying to directly adapt the book Garland deliberately took the story in his own Direction with vanir’s permission Garland did not read the other two books when they were completed as he was concerned he would need to revise his script when others informed him of elements of the secret he expressed surprise at some of the similarities to what he had written some critics have noted the film has similarities with aradi and Boris strat’s 1972 science fiction novel roadside picnic and Andre tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation stalker Nerdist Industries Kyle Anderson noted an even stronger resemblance to the 1927 short story the color out of space by HP Lovecraft also adapted Ed for the screen on several occasions including as color out of space in 2019 which is about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutagenic plague in his review Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer found Annihilation to be reminiscent of both the color out of space and roadside picnic chuna stalker vmir stated that the original novel is 100% not a tribute to picnic stalker but rather Drew influences from works by JG Ballard and France Kafka box office the film grossed 32.7 million in the United States and Canada and 10.3 million in China for a worldwide total of $ 43.1 million against a production budget of 4455 million while it did not amass much in terms of box office the film found new life in home release with some Publications arguing it could become a cult classic in in the United States Annihilation was released alongside game night and everyday and was projected to gross 10102 million from 2012 theaters during its opening weekend it made $3.9 million on its first day including $900,000 from Thursday night previews at w 150 theaters and ended up making $1 million over the weekend finishing fourth behind Black Panther game night and Peter R rabbit its second weekend the film’s box office total dropped 49% to $5.9 million falling to sixth place critical response on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 331 reviews and an average score of 7.7 to 10 the site’s critics consensus reads Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre Thrills with an impressively ambitious and surprisingly strange exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits role on Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 51 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of C on an A+ to f scale and postt track reporting film goers gave it a 71% overall positive score Richard roer of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars praising it for taking risks and saying kudos to Garland and the cast but Bravo to Scott Roden as well apparently you knew a masterpiece when you saw it and you made sure we were able to see it as well writing for Rolling Stone Peter Travers complimented the cast and Garland’s writing and Direction giving the film three and a half stars out of of four and saying Garland need make no apologies for annihilation it’s a bracing brain teaser with the courage of its own ambiguity you work out the answers in your own head in your own time in your own dreams where the best sci-fi puzzles leave things The Economist described the film as tight rope walking the fine line between open-ended mind expanding mystery and lethargic pretentious twaddle but praised its final half hour as part of his ual endof year list of favorite songs books and movies former president Barack Obama listed Annihilation as one of his favorite films of 2018 critics have referred to the film as a sci-fi horror Thriller and some have said that this combination defies traditional genres and makes it part of the new weird Alex Garland’s Visionary unsettling Annihilation doesn’t fall into the same neat categories as so many recent films in what has been a Sci-Fi genre boom of L whether it’s the big films like Blade Runner 2049 or the Netflix ones like mute and the Cloverfield Paradox sci-fi is everywhere in the late 10s with most of it owing a great deal to some combination of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the wowski The Matrix even within this Resurgence rarely do you see a film that’s built from the templates of tarkovski films like Solaris or stalker movies that used sci-fi in a discomforting emotional register because well that kind of film making is incredibly difficult to pull off it’s so difficult in fact that Paramount had no idea what to do when they saw Annihilation barely promoting it holding it from press until a few days before release and selling it to Netflix for international markets maybe they’re still burned by the failure of mother but they’re burying a genre gem here an ambitious challenging piece of work that people will be dissecting for years don’t miss it what looks like a meteor hits a lighthouse in the opening shots of annihilation Flash Forward we presume to a woman being interrogated by a man in a hazmat suit people watch the interrogation through glass and wear protective masks even though they’re not in the same room with her who is this woman why is everyone treating her like a biohazard flashback again we presume to a time before Lena Natalie Portman was possibly radioactive a successful biologist Lena seems just about ready to get over the grief of her missing husband who has been gone on a covert mission for a year and presumed Kia when he walks up the stairs and into her bedroom Cain Oscar Isaac may be home but there’s a sense immediately that something is wrong in a quick flashback Garland shows us a playful smiling cane so we the viewers can sense along with Lena that something is not wrong right with the dead-eyed man in front of her Garland is brilliant in the way he Parcels out information with a quick scene line flashback Etc giving us just what we need to process and analyze the action in front of us while also staying one step ahead of us making us eager to catch up then Cain starts spitting up blood before long Lena is brought to a place called The Southern reach a research facility a few miles from that lighthouse in the opening shot on the horizon near a tree line she sees what can best be described as a rainbow wall Dr Ventress Jennifer Jason Lee informs her that it’s called the Shimmer and that they have been investigating it for 3 years now past the Shimmer no radio signals have returned and no manned missions have produced a Survivor until her husband the assumption is that something in there kills people or people go crazy and kill each other Lena Dr Ventress and three others tough-talking Ana Gina Rodriguez shy Josie Tessa Thompson and sweet Cass tuva novotney will venture into the Shimmer get to the lighthouse and return maybe if you’re wondering how much has been spoiled at this point in the review the answer is almost nothing Annihilation really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold into the woods a fascinating setting for a sci-fi flick that reveals itself slowly this is not an alien planet and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration Within These Woods Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused but also in the moment with Lena and the crew it’s a film that balances disorientation with the grounded performances of its cast who keep us engaged in each interaction believing the danger as it unfolds Annihilation could have easily become campy or silly if I described some of its scarier scenes you might laugh but Garland finds a way to make the insanity work and watching that Balancing Act can be invigorating Annihilation is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible cinematographer Rob Hardy who also shot X mackina works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the pair used those Sleek lines and reflections of the lab in their previous film and the sound design especially in the climax is spectacular keeping us disoriented and frightened with the tonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves most of all the artistic success of annihilation comes down to the way Garland meets out information visually he’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image image which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about Duality and Corruption there’s also a centerpiece scene involving an attack at night that straight up one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in terms of design and Direction it reminded me of the first time it’s clear that everyone is probably going to die in John Carpenter’s The Thing there are times when the structure of annihilation frustrated me just a little bit although I’m eager to see it again to see if that complaint Fades away flashbacks within flashbacks often do that and I’m not sure Garland’s Final Act works as well as it could have there’s an inherent problem with Mission films like annihilation in that the journey is almost always more engaging and interesting than the destination questions make for better art than answers however Garland leaves enough open for discussion that he saves it artistically and he produces some of his most striking visuals in those closing scenes Annihilation is is not an easy film to discuss it’s a movie that will have a different meaning to different viewers who are willing to engage with it it’s about self-destruction Evolution biology codependence and that which scares us the most that we can no longer trust our own bodies it’s meant to linger in your mind and haunt your dreams in this recent wave of scii films it’s one of the best released theatrically in the United States by par amount pictures on February 23rd 2018 and in China on April 13th Annihilation was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12th 2018 it received positive reviews from critics and grossed 43 million worldwide according to Empire magazine the film addresses depression grief and the human propensity for self-destruction plot cellular biology professor and former US Army soldier Lena Portman is under interrogation she was part of an expedition to an anomalous Zone known as the Shimmer but she was the only one to return the Shimmer emerged 3 years prior from a meteor that landed on a lighthouse in the St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and it is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries many exploratory Expeditions were organized but only Lena’s husband Cain Isaac returns home after a year of absence Cain cannot explain where he was and how he came back and his condition quickly deteriorates Lena calls an ambulance but she and Cain are intercepted by security forces and taken to a secret facility as Cain is put in intensive care psychologist Dr Ventress Lei prepares a new scientific Expedition into the Shimmer and Lena joins her three other women participate in the Expedition Cass novotney a geomorphologist Ana Rodriguez a paramedic and Josie Thompson a physicist communication equipment does not function within the Shimmer’s territory and the Expedition encounters unusually mutated plants and animals Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth at an abandoned military base the group finds a video message from Cain’s expedition in which Cain cuts open another soldier’s abdomen with knife to reveal slithering intestines the group finds the Soldier’s corpse which has turned into an overgrown colony of lyans at night leer and ventas share a watch and reflect on Humanity’s strange instinct to destabilize and destroy itself they’re joined later by Cassie and the base is attacked by a mutant bear that drags Cassie away Lena later finds her mutilated corpse within an abandoned Village Josie studies plants that have taken on a humanoid form and theorizes that the Shimmer functions as a prism distorting and transforming everything that falls within its boundaries including the Expedition member’s own DNA Ana overcome with paranoia after watching her fingerprints change disarms the other members and ties them to chairs and accuses Lena of murdering Cassie the mutant bear returns and lures Ana Away by emitting a cry for help in Cassie’s voice the bear kills Ana while Josie frees herself and shoots the bear then Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse the center of the Shimmer Josie believes Cassie’s dying mind was refracted into the bear and laments that the only piece left of Cassie was the pain and fear she experienced while being killed she allows herself to succumb to the Shimmer and refract into a humanoid plant hoping to avoid a similar fate Lena follows entress to the lighthouse where she discovers C’s remains and a videotape in the footage Cain leaves an instruction to find Lena before killing himself with a phosphorus grenade after the explosion a doppelganger of cane steps into frame within the hole created by the meteor Lena finds Ventress who explains that the Shimmer will eventually swallow everything Ventress then disintegrates into a shimmering Cloud that absorbs a drop of blood from Lena’s face and changes into into a faceless shimmering humanoid being that mimics Lena’s movements unable to escape the creature Lena tricks it into igniting one of Cain’s leftover grenades as it transforms into her doppelganger Lena flees the burning Lighthouse and the Shimmer dissipates destroying itself as it mindlessly mimics the explosion back in the present Lena’s interrogation concludes and she learns that after the Shimmer fell kan’s condition began to stabilize Lena visits the Cain doppelganger and asks if he is really Cain which he doubts he asks if she is Lena but she does not answer they Embrace in their iris’s Shimmer cast Natalie Portman as Lena Jennifer Jason Lee as Dr Ventress Gina Rodriguez as Ana thornson Tessa Thompson as joy rck tuva noot as Cassie Cass Shepard Oscar Isaac as Caine Ben Wong as LX sonoya Mizuno as ktie med student Mizuno also provided the motion capture performance for humanoid David gasi as Daniel development Paramount Pictures and Scott Ruden acquired the film rights to Annihilation the then unpublished first novel in Jeff vander’s Southern reach Trilogy on March 26th 2013 Ruden and Eli Bush were set to produce the film and Alex Garland who had previously worked with Ruden and Bush on X mackina was hired to write and direct the film in October 2014 Garland explained that his adaptation was necessarily based on only the first novel in the trilogy at the point I started working on Annihilation there was only one of the three books I knew that it was planned as a Trilogy by the author but there was only the manuscript for the first book I really didn’t think too much about the trilogy side of it Garin said his adaptation is a memory of the book rather than book referenced screenwriting with the intention of capturing the dreamlike nature and tone of his experience reading vanir’s novel rather than trying to directly adapt the book Garland deliberately took the story in his own Direction with vanir’s permission Garland did not read the other two books when they were completed as he was concerned he would need to revise his script when others informed him of elements of the sequels he expressed surprise at some of the similarities to what he had written some critics have noted the film has similarities with arcadi and Boris strat’s 1972 science fiction novel roadside picnic and Andre tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation stalker Nerdist Industries Kyle Anderson noted an even stronger resemblance to the 1927 short story the color out of space by HP Lovecraft also adapted for the screen on several occasions including as color out of space in 2019 which is about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutogenic plague in his review Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer found Annihilation to be reminiscent of both the color out of space and roadside picnic chunner stalker vmir stated that the original novel is 100% not a tribute to picnic stalker but rather Drew influences from works by JG Ballard and France Kafka box office the film grossed 32.7 million in the United States and Canada and 10.3 million in China for a worldwide total of $ 43.1 million against a production budget of $455 million while it did not amass much in terms of box office the film found new life in home release with some Publications arguing it could become a cult classic in the United States Annihilation was released alongside game night and everyday and was projected to gross 102 million from 2,2 theaters during its opening weekend it made $3.9 million on its first day including $900,000 from Thursday night previews at w 150 theaters and ended up making $1 million over the weekend finishing fourth behind Black Panther game Knight and Peter Rabbit its second weekend the film’s box office total dropped 49% to $5.9 million falling to sixth place critical response on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 331 reviews and an average score of 7.7 to 10 the site’s critics consensus reads Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre Thrills with an impressively ambitious and surprisingly strange exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits role on Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 51 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of C on an A+ to f scale and postt trck reported film goers gave it a 71% overall positive score Richard rer of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars praising it for taking risks and saying kudos to Garland and the cast but Bravo to Scott Roden as well apparently you knew a masterpiece when you saw it and you made sure we were able to see it as well writing for Rolling Stone Peter Travers complimented the cast and Garland’s writing and Direction giving the film three and a half stars out of four and saying Garland need make no apologies for annihilation it’s a bracing brain teaser with the courage of its own ambiguity you work out the answers in your own head in your own time in your own dreams where the best sci-fi puzzles leave things The Economist described the film as tight rope walking the fine line between open-ended mind expanding mystery and lethargic pretentious twaddle but praised its final half hour as part of his annual endof year list of fav songs books and movies former president Barack Obama listed Annihilation as one of his favorite films of 2018 critics have referred to the film as a sci-fi horror Thriller and some have said that this combination defies traditional genres and makes it part of the new weird Alex Garland’s Visionary unsettling Annihilation doesn’t fall into the same neat categories as so many recent films in what has been a Sci-Fi genre boom of late whether it’s the big films like Bladerunner 2049 or the Netflix ones like mute and the Cloverfield Paradox sci-fi is everywhere in the late 10s with most of it owing a great deal to some combination of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Ridley Scotts Blade Runner and the wowski The Matrix even within this Resurgence rarely do you see a film that’s built from the templates of tarkovski films like Solaris or stalker movies that used sci-fi in a discomfort in emotional register because well that kind of film making is incredibly difficult to pull off it’s so difficult in fact that Paramount had no idea what to do when they saw Annihilation barely promoting it holding it from press until a few days before release and selling it to Netflix for international markets maybe they’re still burned by the failure of mother but they’re burying a genre gem here an ambitious challenging piece of work that people will be dissecting in for years don’t miss it what looks like a meteor hits a lighthouse in the opening shots of annihilation Flash Forward we presume to a woman being interrogated by a man in a hazmat suit people watch the interrogation through glass and wear protective masks even though they’re not in the same room with her who is this woman why is everyone treating her like a biohazard flashback again we presume to a time before Lena Natalie Portman was possibly radi active a successful biologist Lena seems just about ready to get over the grief of her missing husband who has been gone on a covt mission for a year and presumed Kia when he walks up the stairs and into her bedroom Cain Oscar Isaac may be home but there’s a sense immediately that something is wrong in a quick flashback Garland shows us a playful smiling cane so we the viewers can sense along with Lena that something is not right with the dead-eyed man in front of her Garland is brilliant in the way he Parcels out information with a quick scene line flashback Etc giving us just what we need to process and analyze the action in front of us while also staying one step ahead of us making us eager to catch up then Cain starts spitting up blood before long Lena is brought to a place called The Southern reach a research facility a few miles from that lighthouse in the opening shot on the horizon near a tree line she sees what can best be described as a rainbow wall Dr Ventress Jennifer Jason Lee informs her that it’s called the Shimmer and that they have been investigating it for 3 years now past the Shimmer no radio signals have returned and no manned missions have produced a Survivor until her husband the assumption is that something in there kills people or people go crazy and kill each other Lena Dr Ventress and three others tough to talking Ana Gina Rodriguez shy Josie Tessa Thompson and sweet Cass tuva novotney will venture into the Shimmer get to the lighthouse and return maybe if you’re wondering how much has been spoiled at this point in the review the answer is almost nothing Annihilation really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold into the woods a fascinating setting for a Sci-Fi FL that reveals itself slowly this is not an alien planet and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration Within These Woods Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused but also in the moment with Lena and the crew it’s a film that balances disorientation with the grounded performances of its cast who keep us engaged in each interaction believing the danger as it unfolds annihilation could have easily become campy or silly if I described some of its scarier scenes you might laugh but Garland finds a way to make the insanity work and watching that Balancing Act can be invigorating Annihilation is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible cinematographer Rob Hardy who also shot exmachina works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the pair used those Sleek lines and reflections of the lab in their previous film and the sound design especially in the climax is spectacular keeping us disoriented and frightened with the tonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves most of all the artistic success of annihilation comes down to the way Garland meets out information visually he’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about Duality and Corruption there’s also a centerpiece scene involving an attack at night that straight up one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in terms of design and Direction it reminded me of the first time it’s clear that everyone is probably going to die in John Carpenter’s The Thing there are times when the structure of annihilation frustrated me just a little bit although I’m eager to see it again to see if that complaint Fades away flashbacks within FL flashbacks often do that and I’m not sure Garland’s Final Act works as well as it could have there’s an inherent problem with Mission films like annihilation in that the journey is almost always more engaging and interesting than the destination questions make for better art than answers however Garland leaves enough open for discussion that he saves it artistically and he produces some of his most striking visuals in those closing scenes Annihilation is not an easy film to discuss it’s a movie that will have a different meaning to different viewers who are willing to engage with it it’s about self-destruction Evolution biology codependence and that which scares us the most that we can no longer trust our own bodies it’s meant to linger in your mind and haunt your dreams in this recent wave of sci-fi films it’s one of the best released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on February 23rd 2018 and in China on April 13th Annihilation was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12th 2018 it received positive reviews from critics and grossed $43 million worldwide according to Empire magazine the film addresses depression grief and the human propensity for self-destruction plot cellular biology professor and former US Army soldier Lena Portman is under interrogation she was part of an expedition to an anomalous Zone known as the Shimmer but she was the only one to return the Shimmer emerged 3 years prior from a meteor that landed on a lighthouse in the St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and it is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries many exploratory Expeditions were organized but only Lena’s husband Cain Isaac returns home after a year of absence Cain cannot explain where he was and how he came back and his condition quickly deteriorates Lena calls an ambulance but she and Cain are intercepted by security forces and taken to a secret facility as Cain is put in intensive care psychologist Dr Ventress Lei prepares a new scientific Expedition into the Shimmer and Lena joins her three other women participate in the Expedition Cass novotney a geomorphology Ana Rodriguez a paramedic and Josie Thompson a physicist communication equipment does not function within the Shimmer’s territory and the Expedition encounters unusually mutated plants and animals Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth at an abandoned military base the group finds a video message from kan’s expedition in which Cain cuts open another soldier’s abdomen with a knife to reveal slythering intestines the group finds the Soldier’s corpse which is turned into an overgrown colony of lyans at night leer and Ventress share a watch and reflect on Humanity’s strange instinct to destabilize and destroy itself they’re joined later by Cassie and the base is attacked by a mutant bear that drags Cassie away Lena later finds her mutilated corpse within an abandoned Village Josie studies plants that have taken on a human form and theorizes that the Shimmer functions as a prism distorting and transforming everything that falls within its boundaries including the Expedition member’s own DNA Ana overcome with paranoia after watching her fingerprints change disarms the other members and ties them to chairs and accuses Lena of murdering Cassie the mutant bear returns and lures Ana Away by emitting a cry for help in Cassie’s voice the bear kills Ana while Josie frees herself and shoots the bear then Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse the center of the Shimmer Josie believes Cassie’s dying mind was refracted into the bear and laments that the only piece left of Cassie was the pain and fear she experienced while being killed she allows herself to succumb to the Shimmer and refract into a humanoid plant hoping to avoid a similar fate Lena follows Ventress to the lighthouse where she discovers kan’s remains and a videotape in the footage Cain leaves an instruction to find Lena before killing himself with a phosphorus grenade after the explosion a doppelganger of cane steps into frame within the hole created by the meteor Lena finds Ventress who explains that the Shimmer will eventually swallow everything Ventress then disintegrates into a shimmering Cloud that absorbs a drop of blood from Lena’s face and changes into a faceless shimmering humanoid being that mimics Lena’s movements unable to escape the creature Lena tricks it into igniting one of Cain’s leftover grenades as it transforms into her doppelganger Lena flees the burning Lighthouse and the Shimmer dissipates destroying itself as it mindlessly mimics the explosion back in the present Lena’s interrogation concludes and she learns that after the Shimmer fell kan’s condition began to stabilize Lena visits the Cain doppelganger and asks if he is really Cain which he doubts he asks if she is Lena but she does not answer they Embrace and their iris’s Shimmer cast Natalie Portman as Lena Jennifer Jason Lee as Dr Ventress Gina Rodriguez as Ana thoron Tessa Thompson as Josie redek tuen nooty as Cassie Cass Shepard Oscar Isaac as Cain Benedict Wong as LX sonoya Mizuno as ktie med student Mizuno also provided the motion captured performance for humanoid David gasi as Daniel development Paramount Pictures and Scott Ruden acquired the film rights to Annihilation the then unpublished first novel in Jeff vander’s Southern reach Trilogy on March 26th 2013 Ruden and Eli Bush was set to produce the film and Alex Garland who had previously worked with Ruden and Bush on x was hired to write and direct the film in October 2014 Garland explained that his adaptation was necessarily based on only the first novel in the trilogy at the point I started working on Annihilation there was only one of the three books I knew that it was planned as a Trilogy by the author but there was only the manuscript for the first book I really didn’t think too much about the trilogy side of it Garin said his adaptation is a memory of the book rather than book referenced screenwriting with the intention of capturing the dreamlike nature and tone of his experience reading vanir’s novel rather than trying to directly adapt the book Garland deliberately took the story in his own Direction with vanir’s permission Garland did not read the other two books when they were completed as he was concerned he would need to revise his script when others informed him of elements of the sequels he expressed surprise at some of the similarities to what he had written some critics have noted the film has similarities with aradi and Boris strat’s 1972 science fiction novel roadside picnic and Andre tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation stalker Nerdist Industries Kyle Anderson noted an even stronger resemblance to the 1927 short story the color out of space by HP Lovecraft also adapted for the screen on several occasions including as color out of space in 2019 which is about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutagenic plague in his review Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer found Annihilation to be reminiscent of both the color out of space and roadside picnic chunna stalker vmir stated that the original novel is 100% not a tribute to picnic stalker but rather Drew influences from works by JG Ballard and France Kafka box office the film grossed 32.7 million in the United States and Canada and 10.3 million in China for a worldwide total of $ 43.1 million against a production budget of $ 40505 million while it did not amass much in terms of box office the film found new life in home release with some Publications arguing it could become a cult classic in the United States Annihilation was released alongside game night and everyday and was projected to gross 102 million from 2012 theaters during its opening weekend it made $3.9 million on its first day including $900,000 from Thursday night previews at w50 theaters and ended up making $1 million over the weekend finishing fourth behind Black Panther game Knight and Peter Rabbit it’s second weekend the film’s box office total dropped 49% to $5.9 million falling to sixth place critical response on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 331 reviews and an average score of 7.7 to 10 the site’s critics consensus reads Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre Thrills with an impressively ambitious and surprisingly strange exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits role on Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 51 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of C on an A+ to f scale and postt track reported film goers gave it a 71% overall positive score Richard rooper of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars praising it for taking risks and saying kudos to Garland and the cast but Bravo to Scott Roden as well apparently you knew a masterpiece when you saw it and you made sure we were able to see it as well writing for Rolling Stone Peter Travers complimented the cast and Garland’s writing and Direction giving the film three and a half stars out of four and saying Garland need make no apologies for annihilation it’s a bracing brain teaser with the courage of its own ambiguity you work out the answers in your own head in your own time in your own dreams where the best sci-fi puzzles leave things The Economist described the film as tight rope walking the fine line between open-ended mind expanding mystery and lethargic pretentious twaddle but praised its final half hour as part of his annual endof year list of favorite songs books and mov movies former president Barack Obama listed Annihilation as one of his favorite films of 2018 critics have referred to the film as a sci-fi horror Thriller and some have said that this combination defies traditional genres and makes it part of the new weird Alex Garland’s Visionary unsettling Annihilation doesn’t fall into the same neat categories as so many recent films in what has been a Sci-Fi genre boom of late whether it’s the big films like Blade Runner 2049 or the Netflix ones like mute and the Cloverfield Paradox sci-fi is everywhere in the late 10s with most of it owing a great deal to some combination of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Ridley Scotts Blade Runner and the wowski The Matrix even within this Resurgence rarely do you see a film that’s built from the templates of tarkovski films like Solaris or stalker movies that used sci-fi in a discomforting emotional register because well that kind of film making is incredibly difficult to pull off it’s so difficult in fact that Paramount had no idea what to do when they saw Annihilation barely promoting it holding it from press until a few days before release and selling it to Netflix for international markets maybe they’re still burned by the failure of mother but they’re burying a genre gem here an ambitious challenging piece of work that people will be dissecting for years don’t miss it what looks like a meteor hits a lighthouse in the opening shots of annihilation Flash Forward we presume to a woman being interrogated by a man in a hazmat suit people watch the interrogation through glass and wear protective masks even though they’re not in the same room with her who is this woman why is everyone treating her like a biohazard flashback again we presume to a time before Lena Natalie Portman was possibly radioactive a success successful biologist Lena seems just about ready to get over the grief of her missing husband who has been gone on a covert mission for a year and presumed Kia when he walks up the stairs and into her bedroom Cain Oscar Isaac may be home but there’s a sense immediately that something is wrong in a quick flashback Garland shows us a playful smiling cane so we the viewers can sense along with Lena that something is not right with the dead-eyed man in front of her Garland is brilliant in the way he Parcels out information with a quick scene line flashback Etc giving us just what we need to process and analyze the action in front of us while also staying one step ahead of us making us eager to catch up then Cain starts spitting up blood before long Lena is brought to a place called The Southern reach a research facility a few miles from that lighthouse in the opening shot on the horizon near a tree line she sees what can best be described as a rainbow wall Dr Ventress Jennifer Jason Lee informs her that it’s called the Shimmer and that they have been investigating it for 3 years now past the Shimmer no radio signals have returned and no maned missions have produced a Survivor until her husband the assumption is that something in there kills people or people go crazy and kill each other Lena Dr Ventress and three others tough-talking Ana G Rodriguez Shai Josie Tessa Thompson and sweet Cass tuva novotney will venture into the Shimmer get to the lighthouse and return maybe if you’re wondering how much has been spoiled at this point in the review the answer is almost nothing Annihilation really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold into the woods a fascinating setting for a sci-fi flick that reveals it itself slowly this is not an alien planet and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration Within These Woods Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused but also in the moment with Lena and the crew it’s a film that balances disorientation with the grounded performances of its cast who keep us engaged in each interaction believing the danger as it unfolds Annihilation could have easily become campy or silly if I described some of its scarier scenes you might laugh but Garland finds a way to make the insanity work and watching that Balancing Act can be invigorating Annihilation is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible cinematographer Rob Hardy who also shot XM works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the the pair used those Sleek lines and reflections of the lab in their previous film and the sound design especially in the climax is spectacular keeping us disoriented and frightened with the tonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves most of all the artistic success of annihilation comes down to the way Garland meets out information visually he’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about Duality and Corruption there’s also a centerpiece scene involving an attack at night that straight up one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in terms of design and Direction it reminded me of the first time it’s clear that everyone is probably going to die in John Carpenter’s The Thing there are times when the structure of annihilation frustrated me just a little bit although I’m eager to see it again to see if that complaint Fades away flashbacks within flashbacks often do that and I’m not sure Garland’s Final Act works as well as it could have there’s an inherent problem with Mission films like annihilation in that the journey is almost always more engaging and interesting than the destination questions make for better art than answers however Garland leaves enough open for discussion that he saves it artistically and he produces some of his most striking visuals in those closing scenes Annihilation is not an easy film to discuss it’s a it’s a movie that will have a different meaning to different viewers who are willing to engage with it it’s about self-destruction Evolution biology codependence and that which scares us the most that we can no longer trust our own bodies it’s meant to linger in your mind and haunt your dreams in this recent wave of sci-fi films it’s one of the best released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on February 23rd 2018 18 and in China on April 13th Annihilation was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12th 2018 it received positive reviews from critics and grossed $43 million worldwide according to Empire magazine the film addresses depression grief and the human propensity for self-destruction plot cellular biology professor and former US Army soldier Lena Portman is under interrogation she was part of an expedition to an anomalous Zone known as the Shimmer but she was the only one to return the Shimmer emerged 3 years prior from a meteor that landed on a lighthouse in the St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and it is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries many exploratory Expeditions were organized but only Lena’s husband Cain Isaac returns home after a year of absence Cain cannot explain claim where he was and how he came back and his condition quickly deteriorates Lena calls an ambulance but she and Cain are intercepted by security forces and taken to a secret facility as Cain is put in intensive care psychologist Dr Ventress Lei prepares a new scientific Expedition into the Shimmer and Lena joins her three other women participate in the Expedition Cass novotney a geomorphologist Ana Rodriguez a paramedic and Josie Thompson a physicist communication equipment does not function within the Shimmer’s territory and the Expedition encounters unusually mutated plants and animals Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth at an abandoned military base the group finds a video message from C’s expedition in which Cain cuts open another soldier’s abdomen with a knife to reveal slithering intestines the group finds the solders corpse which is turned into an overgrown colony of lyans at night leer and ventas share a watch and reflect on Humanity’s strange instinct to destabilize and destroy itself they’re joined later by Cassie and the base is attacked by a mutant bear that drags Cassie away Lena later finds her mutilated corpse within an abandoned Village Josie studies plants that have taken on a humanoid form and theorizes that the Shimmer functions as a prism distorting and transforming everything that falls within its boundaries including the Expedition member’s own DNA Ana overcome with paranoia after watching her fingerprints change disarms the other members and ties them to chairs and accuses Lena of murdering Cassie the mutant bear returns and lures Ana Away by emitting a cry for help in Cassie’s voice the bear kills Anna while Jose frees herself and shoots the bear then Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse the center of the Shimmer Josie believes Cassie’s dying mind was refracted into the bear and laments that the only piece left of Cassie was the pain and fear she experienced while being killed she allows herself to succumb to the Shimmer and refract into a humanoid plant hoping to avoid a similar fate Lena follows Ventress to the lighthouse where she discovers kan’s remains and a videotape in the footage Kane leaves an instruction to find Lena before killing himself with a phosphorus grenade after the explosion a doppelganger of can steps into frame within the hole created by the meteor Lena finds Ventress who explains that the Shimmer will eventually swallow everything Ventress then disintegrates into a shimmering Cloud that absorbs a drop of blood from Lena’s face and changes into a faceless shimmering humanoid being that mimics Lena’s movements unable to escape the creature Lena tricks it into igniting one of Cain’s leftover grenades as it transforms into her doppelganger Lena flees the burning Lighthouse and the Shimmer dissipates destroying itself as it mindlessly mimics the explosion back in the present Lena’s interrogation concludes and she learns that after the Shimmer fell kan’s condition began to stabilize Lena visits the Cain doppelganger and asks if he is really Cain which he doubts he asks if she is Lena but she does not answer they Embrace and their iris’s Shimmer cast Natalie Portman as Lena Jennifer Jason Lee as Dr Ventress Gina Rodriguez as Ana thoron Tessa Thompson as Josie redek tuva nooty as Cassie C Shepard Oscar Isaac as Cain Benedict Wong as LX sonoya Miss as Katie med student Mizuno also provided the motion captured performance for humanoid David gasi as Daniel development Paramount Pictures and Scott Ruden acquired the film rights to Annihilation the then unpublished first novel in Jeff vander’s Southern reach Trilogy on March 26th 2013 Ruden and Eli Bush were set to produce the film and Alex Garland who had previously worked with Ruden and Bush on X mackina was hired to to write and direct the film in October 2014 Garland explained that his adaptation was necessarily based on only the first novel in the trilogy at the point I started working on Annihilation there was only one of the three books I knew that it was planned as a Trilogy by the author but there was only the manuscript for the first book I really didn’t think too much about the trilogy side of it garan said his adaptation is a memory of the book rather than book referenced screenwriting with the intention of capturing the dreamlike nature and tone of his experience reading vanir’s novel rather than trying to directly adapt the book Garland deliberately took the story in his own Direction with vanir’s permission Garland did not read the other two books when they were completed as he was concerned he would need to revise his script when others informed him of elements of the sequels he expressed surprise at some of the similarities to what he had written some critics have noted the film has similarities with aradi and Boris strat’s 1972 science fiction novel roadside picnic and Andre tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation stalker Nerdist Industries Kyle Anderson noted an even stronger resemblance to the 1927 short story the color out of space by HP Lovecraft also adapted for the screen on several occasions including as color out of space in 2019 which is about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutagenic plague in his review Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer found Annihilation to be reminiscent of both the color out of space and roadside picnic chuna stalker vmir stated that the original novel is 100% not a tribute to picnic stalker but rather Drew influences from works by JG Ballard and France Kafka box office the film grossed 32.7 million in the United States and Canada and 10.3 million in China for a worldwide total of $ 43.1 million against a production budget of $455 million while it did not amass much in terms of box office the film found new life in home release with some Publications arguing it could become a cult classic in the United States Annihilation was released alongside game night every day and was projected to gross 102 million from 2012 theaters during its opening weekend it made $3.9 million on its first day including $900,000 from Thursday night previews at wi 1350 theaters and ended up making $1 million over the weekend finishing fourth behind Black Panther game night and Peter Rabbit its second weekend the film’s box office to total dropped 49% to $5.9 million falling to sixth place critical response on film review agregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 331 reviews and an average score of 7.7 10 the site’s critics consensus reads Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre Thrills with an impressively ambitious and surprisingly strange exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits role on Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 51 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of C on an A+ to f scale and postt trck reported film goers gave it a 71% overall positive score Richard roer of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars praising it for taking risks and saying kudos to Garland and the cast but Bravo to Scott Roden as well apparently you knew a masterpiece when you saw it and you made sure we were able to see it as well writing for Rolling Stone Peter Travers complimented the cast and Garland’s writing and Direction giving the film three and a half stars out of four and saying Garland need make no apologies for annihilation it’s a bracing brain teaser with the courage of its own ambiguity you work out the answers in your own head in your own time in your own dreams where the best sci-fi puzzles leave things The Economist described the film as tight rope walking the fine line between open-ended mind expanding mystery and lethargic pretentious twaddle but praised its final half hour as part of his annual endof year list of favorite songs books and movies former president President Barack Obama listed Annihilation as one of his favorite films of 2018 critics have referred to the film as a sci-fi horror Thriller and some have said that this combination defies traditional genres and makes it part of the new weird Alex Garland’s Visionary unsettling Annihilation doesn’t fall into the same neat categories as so many recent films in what has been a Sci-Fi genre boom of late whether it’s the big films like Blade Runner 204 9 or the Netflix ones like mute and the Cloverfield Paradox sci-fi is everywhere in the late 10s with most of it owing a great deal to some combination of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the wowski The Matrix even within this Resurgence rarely do you see a film that’s built from the templates of tarkovski films like Solaris or stalker movies that used sci-fi in a discomforting emotional register because well that kind of film making is incredibly difficult to pull off it’s so difficult in fact that Paramount had no idea what to do when they saw Annihilation barely promoting it holding it from press until a few days before release and selling it to Netflix for international markets maybe they’re still burned by the failure of mother but they’re burying a genre gem here an ambitious challenging piece of work that people will be dissecting for years don’t miss it what looks like a meteor hits a lighthouse in the opening shots of annihilation Flash Forward we presume to a woman being interrogated by a man in a hazmat suit people watch the interrogation through glass and wear protective masks even though they’re not in the same room with her who is this woman why is everyone treating her like a biohazard flashback again we presume to a time before Lena Natalie Portman was possibly radioactive a successful biologist Lena seems just about ready to get over the grief of her missing husband who has been gone on a covert mission for a year and presumed Kia when he walks up the stairs and into her bedroom Cain Oscar Isaac may be home but there’s a sense immediately that something is wrong in a quick flashback Garland shows us a playful smiling cane so we the viewers can sense along with Lena that something is not right with the dead-eyed man in front of her Garland is brilliant in in the way he Parcels out information with a quick scene line flashback Etc giving us just what we need to process and analyze the action in front of us while also staying one step ahead of us making us eager to catch up then cane starts spitting up blood before long Lena is brought to a place called The Southern reach a research facility a few miles from that lighthouse in the opening shot on the horizon near a tree line she sees what can best be described as a rainbow wall Dr Ventress Jennifer Jason Lee informs her that it’s called the Shimmer and that they have been investigating it for 3 years now past the Shimmer no radio signals have returned and no manned missions have produced a Survivor until her husband the assumption is that something in there kills people or people go crazy and kill each other Lena Dr Ventress and three others tough-talking Ana Gina Rodriguez sh Josie Tessa Thompson and sweet Cass tuva novotney will venture into the Shimmer get to the lighthouse and return maybe if you’re wondering how much has been spoiled at this point in the review the answer is almost nothing Annihilation really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold into the woods a fascinating setting for a sci-fi flick that reveals itself slowly this is not an alien planet and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration Within These Woods Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused but also in the moment with Lena and the crew it’s a film that balances disorientation with the grounded performances of its cast who keep us engaged in each interaction believing the danger as it unfolds Annihilation could have easily become campy or silly if I described some of its scarier scenes you might laugh but Garland finds a way to make the insanity work and watching that Balancing Act can be invigorating Annihilation is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible cinematographer Rob Hardy who also shot XM works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the pair used those sleek designes and reflections of the lab in their previous film and the sound design especially in the climax is spectacular keeping us disoriented and frightened with the tonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves most of all the artistic success of annihilation comes down to the way Garland meets out information visually he’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about J ity and Corruption there’s also a centerpiece scene involving an attack at night that straight up one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in terms of design and Direction it reminded me of the first time it’s clear that everyone is probably going to die in John Carpenter’s The Thing there are times when the structure of annihilation frustrated me just a little bit although I’m eager to see it again to see if that complaint Fades away flashbacks within flashbacks often do that and I’m not sure Garland’s Final Act works as well as it could have there’s an inherent problem with Mission films like annihilation in that the journey is almost always more engaging and interesting than the destination questions make for better art than answers however Garland leaves enough open for discussion that he saves it artistically and he produces some of his most striking visuals in those closing scenes Annihilation is not an easy film to discuss it’s a movie that will have a different meaning to different viewers who are willing to engage with it it’s about self-destruction Evolution biology codependence and that which scares us the most that we can no longer trust our own bodies it’s meant to linger in your mind and haunt your dreams in this recent wave of sci-fi films it’s one of the best released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on February 23rd 2018 and in China on April 13th Annihilation was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12th 2018 it received positive reviews from critics and grossed $43 million worldwide according to Empire magazine the film addresses depression grief and the human propensity for self-destruction plot cellular biology professor and former US Army soldier Lena Portman is under interrogation she was part of an expedition to an anomalous Zone known as the Shimmer but she was the only one to return the Shimmer emerged 3 years prior from a meteor that landed on a lighthouse in the St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and it is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries many exploratory Expeditions were organized but only Lena’s husband Cain Isaac returns home after a year of absence Cain cannot explain where he was and how he came back and his condition quickly deteriorates Lena calls an ambulance but she and Cain are intercepted by security forces and taken to a secret facility as Cain is put in intensive care psychologist Dr Ventress Le prepares a new scientific Expedition into the Shimmer and Lena joins her three other women participate in the Expedition Cass novotney a geomorphologist Ana Rodriguez a paramedic and Josie Thompson a physicist communication equipment does not function within the Shimmer’s territory and the Expedition encounters unusually mutated plants and animals Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth at an abandoned military base the group finds a video message from Cain’s expedition in which Cain cuts open another soldier’s abdomen with a knife to reveal slithering intestines the group found the solders corpse which is turned into an overgrown colony of lyans at night leener and Ventress share a watch and reflect on Humanity’s strange instinct to destabilize and destroy itself they’re joined later by Cassie and the base is attacked by a mutant bear that drags Cassie away Lena later finds her mutilated corpse within an abandoned Village Josie studies plants that have taken on a humanoid form and theorizes that the Shimmer functions as a prism distorting and transforming everything that falls within its boundaries including the Expedition member’s own DNA Ana overcome with paranoia after watching her fingerprints change disarms the other members and ties them to chairs and accuses Lena of murdering Cassie the mutant bear returns and lures Ana Away by emitting a cry for help in Cassie’s voice the bear kills Ana while Josie frees herself and shoots the bear then Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse the center of the Shimmer Josie believes Cassie’s dying mind was refracted into the bear and laments that the only piece left of Cassie was the pain and fear she experienced while being killed she allows herself to succumb to the Shimmer and refract into a humanoid plant hoping to avoid a similar fate Lena follows Ventress to the lighthouse where she discovers kan’s remains and a video tape in the footage Kan leaves an instruction to find Lena before killing himself with a phosphorus grenade after the explosion a doppelganger of can steps into frame within the hole created by the meteor Lena finds Ventress who explains that the Shimmer will eventually swallow everything Ventress then disintegrates into a shimmering Cloud that absorbs a drop of blood from Lena’s face and changes into a faceless shimmering humanoid being that mimics Lena’s movements unable to escape the creature Lena tricks it into igniting one of Cain’s leftover grenades as it transforms into her doppelganger Lena flees the burning Lighthouse and the Shimmer dissipates destroying itself as it mindlessly mimics the explosion back in the present Lena’s interrogation concludes and she learns that after the Shimmer fell kan’s condition began to stabilize Lena visits the cane Doppel gang hanger and asks if he is really Cain which he doubts he asks if she is Lena but she does not answer they Embrace and their irises Shimmer cast Natalie Portman as Lena Jennifer Jason Lee as Dr Ventress Gina Rodriguez as Ana thoron Tessa Thompson as Josie redek tuva noot as Cassie Cass Shepard Oscar Isaac as Cain Benedict Wong as LX sonoya mauno as ktie student Mizuno also provided the motion capture performance for humanoid David gasi as Daniel development Paramount Pictures and Scott rudden acquired the film rights to Annihilation the then unpublished first novel in Jeff vander’s Southern reach Trilogy on March 26th 2013 Ruden and Eli Bush were set to produce the film and Alex Garland who had previously worked with Ruden and Bush on X mackina was hired to write and direct the film in October 2014 Garland explained that his adaptation was necessarily based on only the first novel in the trilogy at the point I started working on Annihilation there was only one of the three books I knew that it was planned as a Trilogy by the author but there was only the manuscript for the first book I really didn’t think too much about the trilogy side of it Garland said his adaptation is a memory of the book rather than book referenced screenwriting with the intention of capturing the dreamlike nature and tone of his experience reading vanir’s novel rather than trying to directly adapt the book Garland deliberately took the story in his own Direction with vanir’s permission Garland did not read the other two books when they were completed as he was concerned he would need to revise his script when others informed him of elements of the sequels he expressed surprise at some of the similarities to what he had written some critics have noted the film has similarities with arcadi and Boris strat’s 1972 science fiction novel roadside picnic and Andre tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation stalker Nerdist Industries Kyle Anderson noted an even stronger resemblance to the 1927 short story the color out of space by HP Lovecraft also adapted for the screen on several occasions including as color out of space in 2019 which is about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutagenic plague in his review Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer found Annihilation to be reminiscent of both the color out of space and roadside picnic shuna stalker vmir stated that the original novel is 100% not a tribute to picnic stalker but rather Drew influences from works by JG Ballard and France Kafka box office the film grossed 32.7 million in the United States and Canada and 10.3 million in China for a worldwide total of $ 43.1 million against a production budget of $455 million while it did not amass much in terms of box office the film found new life in home release with some Publications arguing it could become a cult classic in the United States Annihilation was released alongside game night and everyday and was projected to gross 102 million from 2012 theaters during its opening weekend it made $3.9 million on its first day including $900,000 from Thursday night previews at wi 1350 theaters and ended up making $1 million over the weekend finishing fourth behind Black Panther game night and Peter Rabbit its second weekend the film’s box office total dropped 49% to $5.9 million falling to sixth place critical response on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomato the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 331 reviews and an average score of 7.7 to 10 the site’s critics consensus reads Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre Thrills with an impressively ambitious and surprisingly strange exploration of challenging themes themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits rooll on Metacritic the film has a waited average score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 51 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of C on an A+ to f scale and postt track reported film goers gave it a 71% overall positive score Richard roer of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars praising it for taking risks and saying kudos to Garland and the cast but Bravo to Scott Roden as well apparently you knew a masterpiece when you saw it and you made sure we were able to see it as well writing for Rolling Stone Peter Travers complimented the cast and Garland’s writing and Direction giving the film three and a half stars out of four and saying Garland need make no apologies for annihilation it’s a ring brain teaser with the courage of its own ambiguity you work out the answers in your own head in your own time in your own dreams where the best sci-fi puzzles leave things The Economist described the film as tight rope walking the fine line between open-ended mind expanding mystery and lethargic pretentious twaddle but praised its final half hour as part of his annual endof year list of favorite songs books and movies former president Barack Obama listed did Annihilation as one of his favorite films of 2018 critics have referred to the film as a sci-fi horror Thriller and some have said that this combination defies traditional genres and makes it part of the new weird Alex Garland’s Visionary unsettling Annihilation doesn’t fall into the same neat categories as so many recent films in what has been a Sci-Fi genre boom of late whether it’s the big films like Blade Runner 2049 or the flick ones like mute and the Cloverfield Paradox sci-fi is everywhere in the late 10s with most of it owing a great deal to some combination of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the wichowski The Matrix even within this Resurgence rarely do you see a film that’s built from the templates of tarkovski films like Solaris or stalker movies that used sci-fi in a discomforting emotional register because well that kind of film making is incredibly difficult to pull off it’s so difficult in fact that Paramount had no idea what to do when they saw Annihilation barely promoting it holding it from press until a few days before release and selling it to Netflix for international markets maybe they’re still burned by the failure of mother but they’re burying a genre gem here an ambitious challenging piece of work that people will be dissecting for years don’t miss it what looks like a meteor hit it’s a lighthouse in the opening shots of annihilation Flash Forward we presume to a woman being interrogated by a man in a hazmat suit people watch the interrogation through glass and wear protective masks even though they’re not in the same room with her who is this woman why is everyone treating her like a biohazard flashback again we presume to a time before Lena Natalie Portman was possibly radioactive a successful biologist Lena seems just about ready to get over the grief of her missing husband who has been gone on a covert mission for a year and presumed Kia when he walks up the stairs and into her bedroom Cain Oscar Isaac may be home but there’s a sense immediately that something is wrong in a quick flashback Garland shows us a playful smiling cane so we the viewers can sense along with Lena that something is not right with the dead-eyed man in front of her Garland is brilliant in the way he Parcels out his information with a quick scene line flashback Etc giving us just what we need to process and analyze the action in front of us while also staying one step ahead of us making us eager to catch up then Cain starts spitting up blood before long Lena is brought to a place called The Southern reach a research facility a few miles from that lighthouse in the opening shot on the horizon near a tree line she sees what can best be described as a rainbow wall Dr Ventress Jennifer Jason Lee informs her that it’s called the Shimmer and that they have been investigating it for three years now past the Shimmer no radio signals have returned and no manned missions have produced a Survivor until her husband the assumption is that something in there kills people or people go crazy and kill each other Lena Dr vess and three others tough talking Ana Gina Rodriguez Shai Josie Tessa Thomson and sweet Cass tuva novotney will venture into the Shimmer get to the lighthouse and return maybe if you’re wondering how much has been spoiled at this point in the review the answer is almost nothing Annihilation really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold into the woods a fascinating setting for a sci-fi flick that reveals itself slowly this is not an alien planet and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration Within These Woods Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused but also in the moment with Lena and the crew it’s a film that balances disorientation with the grounded performances of its cast who keep us engaged in each interaction believing the danger as it unfolds Annihilation could have easily become campy or silly if I describe some of its scarier scenes you might laugh but Garland finds a way to make the insanity work and watching that Balancing Act can be invigorating Annihilation is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible cinematographer Rob Hardy who also shot X mackina works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the pair used those Sleek lines and reflections of the lab in their previous film and the sound design especially in the climax is spectacular keeping us disoriented and frightened with the tonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves most of all the artistic success of annihilation comes down to the way Garland meets out information visually he’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about Duality and Corruption there’s also a centerpiece scene involving an attack at night that straight up one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in terms of design and Direction it reminded me of the first time it’s clear that everyone is probably going to die in John Carpenters the thing there are times when the structure of annihilation frustrated me just a little bit although I’m eager to see it again to see if that complaint Fades away flashbacks within flashbacks often do that and I’m not sure Garland’s Final Act worked as well as it could have there’s an inherent problem with Mission films like annihilation in that the journey is almost always more engaging and interesting than the destination questions make for better art than answers however Garland leaves enough open for discussion that he saves it artistically and he produces some of his most striking visuals in those closing scenes Annihilation is not an easy film to discuss it’s a movie that will have a different meaning to different viewers are willing to engage with it it’s about self-destruction Evolution biology codependence and that which scares us the most that we can no longer trust our own bodies it’s meant to linger in your mind and haunt your dreams in this recent wave of sci-fi films it’s one of the best [Music]
Annihilation (2018) Full Movie | Natalie Portman & Jennifer Jason Leigh | Review & Facts
Watch The Full Video To Get Interesting Facts, Detailed Review, Lifetime Box-Office Collection And Deep Story Analysis & Explanation About English Language Science Fiction Horror Thriller Film Annihilation (2018).
Annihilation is a 2018 science fiction horror thriller film written and directed by Alex Garland, loosely based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. It stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac. The story follows a group of scientists who enter “The Shimmer”, a mysterious quarantined zone of mutating plants and animals caused by an alien presence.