These reviews are ultimately an excuse to reminisce about each movie I own and, in many cases, talk about how bad they are but why I still like them. Or, indeed, why I might dislike them. In this regard, 2018’s Annihilation is simply an awful way to start things off. I was unaware of it before it came out, was dimly aware that it did due in part to a video from Red Letter Media, and then promptly forgot about it until I saw it in the cheap bin at Walmart in a three-pack with Arrival and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and had two thoughts. The first was, “Why is Tomb Raider in this?” and the second, and more pertinent, was, “Well, why not?” This accounts for my entire history with the movie and were it not for the fact that it’s the first movie I’m watching for this exercise, it would an utterly unremarkable part of my life.
I have now watched it almost twice. The first time, I fell asleep at some point and missed a large chunk of the film but this is not meant to demean the movie because dozing off like that is a minor medical issue. The second time, I was able to confirm that this is not a bad movie and therefore not something I would have written about it were I not on a mad quest to watch every movie I owned and document them. Annihilation stars Natalie Portman as Lena, a former soldier and current scientist, as she and four other women travel into a mysterious area called the Shimmer. This is because it shimmers from the outside, you see, while on the inside things are just mutating and every other team that’s gone into Shimmer hasn’t come back save for one person: Lena’s husband Kane, played by Oscar Isaac. His return is what spurs her towards the Shimmer, in an attempt to find the answers needed to hopefully save his life because while Kane came back he did not come back well. These answers are found, but this is the sort of movie where each answer found produces more questions.
My favorite part of Annihilation were the creatures that popped up a few times during the film and left lasting impressions, and the sense of unease that permeated the entire movie. Even when Lena and her team aren’t in immediate danger, you get the sense that this could radically change at any moment, especially since they’re always in some kind of danger because that’s just the sort of place the Shimmer is. My least favorite part, and consider this your spoiler warning, was the reveal that Lena was having an affair with one of her colleagues in a subplot that not only seemed unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, but was never resolved. It wasn’t as if Lena or Kane needed an additional reason to go into the Shimmer and the knowledge just cast a sort of jarring ickiness on the movie that the writhing intestines and skull-faced bears that would call out for help in the voice of their latest victims in order to ensnare new ones could not. We shall now be spoiler-free.
Despite that, the movie was enjoyable and I wouldn’t mind watching it again. I’ll certainly say that it’s the best movie I’ve watched for this project, but as it’s the only movie I’ve watched for this it’s also the worst. We’ll see how well it ranks by the end of this experiment, though I don’t intend to keep some sort of ranking. Our next movie will be 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider which was probably summoned by its mention earlier.
QUICK BITS
MOVIE: Annihilation (2018)
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Red Letter Media and just… wherever
OBTAINED: Walmart cheap bin
WATCHED BEFORE: Yes, but fell asleep
WATCHED WITH: My girlfriend Jess
GOOD/BAD/MEH: Good
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