Annihilation [2018]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review


Annihilation [2018] (screenplay and directed by Alex Garland based the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Jeff VanderMeer [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]), is a _slow-moving_ though _intentionally so_, ever creepy Sci-Fi / Horror film set in the near future in which a small but slowly yet relentlessly growing section of isolated coastal Florida marshland has been absorbed by a strange, eerie phenomenon called "The Shimmer."

Those sent on scouting missions into the region absorbed by The Shimmer, generally don't come back, and even the few who do, return very disoriented with poor recollections of both what took place while they were "inside the Shimmer" and even of their lives prior to their entry into it.  Further, the region inside The Shimmer appears to be a Universal Dead Zone for all communications and navigation equipment: Radios, GPS, even compasses don't work there; those inside The Shimmer can only navigate by means of following the movement of the sun, and since the story was taking place in Florida marshland, even the sun need not be always visible because of tree / cloud cover and mist.  What the heck was going on in there?  Well, that's for the characters in story (as well as the Viewers) to figure out. 

The principal character in the story is Lena (played by Natalie Portman) a once marine now biologist who had been married to Kane (played by Oscar Isaac) still U.S. Special Forces who was, in fact, sent on a secret mission into The Shimmer, and one year later, becomes the first person to ever return from it alive, though extremely disoriented, recalling neither much of his time (again, nearly a year) inside The Shimmer, nor of his previous life outside of it.  When he comes down with a virulent form of cancer, Lena goes down to region of Florida, otherwise sealed off from the public, where she finds out he had been sent.  Eventually, because (1) she was a biologist (a skill deemed useful by the military officials there, (2) she had been previously military (hence could fire a weapon / defend herself) and (3) she simply insisted on coming along, in hopes of figuring out what happened to her husband, she's allowed to participate in a four person, interestingly ALL WOMAN scouting expedition into The Shimmer and ... the rest of the story unspools from there.

Again, what the heck is going on?  Well, if interested / intrigued, go see the movie ;-)


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