Annihilation Review: Enter The Shimmer
Annihilation(2018)
Directed by: Alex Garland
Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac
Nature is two faced. It sustains life, helps it flourish without limits and it can wipe it all out with its unyielding power to a clean slate. Every form of life is in an eternal course of evolution to adapt to its environment. None can escape the cycle of life.
Lena (Natalie Portman) is a former U.S army soldier and cellular biology professor whose husband, also in the army, goes missing in a secret mission. One day, he returns out of the blue but in a daze without any knowledge of what happened or who he was. His health deteriorates and while being taken to the hospital, their ambulance is intercepted. Lena wakes up in a secret facility “Area X”. She meets Dr.Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a psychologist who introduces her to the ‘Shimmer’, an anomalous zone created by a meteor landing at a lighthouse. It is continuously expanding and the various expeditions sent to the ‘shimmer’ saw no return. It is revealed that her husband was the first person to reappear. Lena meets physicist Josie, geomorphologist Cassie, and paramedic Anya, who are on the latest expedition arranged by Dr.Ventress. Lena joins them and enters the ‘Shimmer’. They wake up to find days have passed with them having no memory of it, communication equipment that doesn’t function properly and without any knowledge of location or direction. They learn that all forms of life inside the zone has been mutated. Some are beautiful like vibrant and decorative flora and others hostile like enormous and savage beasts. Not even light is spared as there is variegated light in almost every frame. Rob Hardy’s cinematography and the vfx team excels in materialising these abnormalities onscreen to create an eccentric yet eerie world inside the ‘Shimmer’.
The sequences depicting the wrath of the hostile environment is contrasted by beautiful shots of the tranquility amid the turmoil. This technique is reminiscent of Midsommar, where sequences of violent and radical cult practices are followed by those of cordial community practices set in decorated sets. Viewers are left having conflicting emotions of terror and placidness.
The writing falls short mostly in the case of character development. Anya and Cassie are poorly written and the former is performed rather unconvincingly by Gena Rodriguez. Lena has an unnecessary arc of her having an affair and ensuing guilt and self hate which fizzles out for the most part except for the overarching theme of self destruction. Rest of the characters suffer from self destructive addictions and conditions which is their impetus to embark on this venture. The deaths of certain characters arrive predictably and misses the mark in earning the sympathy of the viewers. But at the same time, the event itself is stunning and poignant.
The climax sequence is gripping and disturbing. It plays out like an abstract music video with an electronic score, similar to the ones of ‘The Chemical Brothers’. If the glaring plot ambiguities (like how one can keep something like this “classified” from the world and how various institutions are handling this other than the secret facility) and a major plothole towards the end can be glossed over, this is a must watch for viewers who are looking for horror thrillers that do not deal with the paranormal.
