I heard a lot about this film a couple of years after it came out, although it never got a cinema release, made by Netflix and going straight onto the streaming service, I was looking forward to watching it, written and directed by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Ex Machina, Men). Starring, cellular biology professor and former U. S. Army soldier Lena (Natalie Portman) is being interrogated by a security force, led by Lomax (Benedict Wong). She was the only person to return from an expedition to a mysterious zone called "Shimmer", where the laws of nature don't apply. The Shimmer emerged three years prior from a meteor that landed in the St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, and it has gradually expanded and increased its boundaries. Many expeditions of exploration were organised, Lena's husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) was away for a year before returning home from one of them. Kane cannot explain where he was and how he came back, and his condition quickly deteriorates. Lena calls an ambulance, but government agents sedate them and take them to a secret facility. While Kane is put in intensive care, psychologist Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is preparing a new secret scientific expedition into the Shimmer. She will be joined by physicist Josie Radek (Thor: Ragnarok's Tessa Thompson), anthropologist Cassie "Cass" Sheppard (Tuva Novotny), and paramedic Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez). Wanting answers to Kane's condition and not revealing she is married to him, Lena volunteers to accompany them as well. In the Shimmer, the landscape and objects are slightly altered, communication equipment does not function, and there are several unusually mutated plants and animals. Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth. The group finds an abandoned military base and a video message from Kane's expedition. The footage shows Kane cutting open another soldier's abdomen with a knife to reveal slithering intestines. The group finds the corpse of this soldier, which has turned into overgrown lichen, a combination of a fungus and an alga. During the night, Lena and Ventress are on watch and reflect on humanity's strange instinct to destabilise and destroy itself. After Cassie joins the watch, the base is attacked by a mutant bear, and she is dragged away. Her mutilated corpse is found later by Lena. The group finds an abandoned village and several plants that have taken on a humanoid form. Josie theorises that the Shimmer is a prism, distorting and transforming everything that enters it, and the explorers themselves may have their DNA altered also. Anya is highly paranoid after seeing her fingerprints change; she takes the weapons of the other team members and ties them up. Anya accuses Lena of murdering Cassie, but then the mutant bear returns. Anya is lured away by the bear which emits a cry for help in Cassie's voice. Anya is killed by the bear, while Josie frees herself and then kills it. Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse at the centre of the Shimmer. Josie believes Cassie's dying mind was "refracted" into the bear, saying that all that remained of Cassie was her fear and suffering when being killed. Not wanting to suffer a similar fate, she allows herself to succumb to the influence of the Shimmer and is "refracted" to become a humanoid plant. Lena follows Ventress to the lighthouse, where she discovers the remains of Kane. She also finds a videotape with footage of Kane speaking to Lena with the instruction to find her. In the footage, after Kane kills himself with a chemical explosive, a doppelgänger of Kane steps into the 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. Then something 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 exploding one of Kane's remaining grenades as it transforms into her doppelgänger. Lena flees the burning lighthouse, and the Shimmer dissipates, destroying itself as it mindlessly mimics the explosion. Back in the present, Lena's interrogation ends, and she learns after the Shimmer fell that Kane's condition began to improve. Lena visits the Kane doppelgänger, and asks if he is really Kane, which he doubts. He asks if she is Lena, but she does not answer. They embrace and their eyes are seen shimmering, meaning that their DNA has been altered by the exposure. Also starring David Gyasi as Daniel, Kola Bokinni (Yinka's brother), and Hiten Patel as Scientist. Portman as the ex-army biologist does well in the lead role, Isaac is interesting with his time onscreen, and there is good support from Leigh, Thompson, Novotny, and Rodriguez. The story of a world behind an invisible forcefield is often interesting, it is a beautiful nightmare with dreamy colourful visuals and strange special effects, with the themes of corruption and fear being the strongest, I just found it an unusual atmospheric film with some weird but fascinating ideas and a few decent thrills, a worthwhile science-fiction psychological fantasy horror. Good!
Review of Annihilation
