Annihilation: A near-perfect sci-fi story that, unsurprisingly, nobody watched
Alex Garland returns to affirm his place as the most exciting new voice in contemporary science fiction.
I really want to be Alex Garland.
The author-turned-screenwriter-turned-director made his name by authoring The Beach, the brilliant travel novel that achieved modern-classic status the second it touched shelves. Naturally, a movie deal followed for The Beach soon after it was published, but the film Danny Boyle and Leonardo Di Caprio put together was a mere shade of Garland’s hallucinogenic masterpiece. Perhaps frustrated by how his material was handled, the Englishman has worked in film ever since; first writing Boyle’s 28 Days Later and Sunshine, before working on cult remake Dredd. Though he was only credited as a writer on Dredd, it’s widely accepted he had a very heavy hand in the directing process — proving his storytelling talent spread beyond just the page. His true directorial debut followed with Ex Machina, a critical darling and masterpiece of modern science-fiction that failed to make much more than pocket change at the box office, but did bag a plethora of awards.
Ex Machina’s lack of commercial success was reflected in Paramount’s decision to sell the international distributing rights for Garland’s follow-up, Annihilation, to Netflix. Made on a budget almost three-times that of Ex Machina, it’s easy to understand Paramount’s safe, if frustrating, decision to not to give Annihilation a theatrical release outside of the United States; it’s just incredibly disappointing, because Alex Garland has crafted another beautiful, eerie and lucid piece of science-fiction that confirms his status as one of the best writer-directors working today.
Turning from adapted to adapter, Garland’s script is a reworking of Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 novel of the same name. Its emotional centre is Natalie Portman’s Lena, a ex-military biologist whose soldier husband (Oscar Isaac) disappears after entering Area X; the ever-expanding, seemingly-alien cancer that’s spreading from a meteor-hit lighthouse and threatening to cover the entire planet. Naturally, Lena goes after him; it’s what she discovers about herself, and the nature of whatever waits in the lighthouse, that lends the film its intrigue.
From the moment Lena enters Area X, Garland crafts an atmosphere thick in unease. Lena’s group faces trial after trial as the nature of the alien cancer is slowly revealed, Garland expertly wielding plot elements of sci-fi horror (think Alien, The Thing) to deconstruct his characters, who are played excellently by the all-female cast. Josie (Tessa Thompson) is perhaps the most fascinating, beyond Lena; Thompson’s performance is understated and heartbreaking and haunting, a sliver of humanity in an otherwise psychedelic barrage of alien weirdness.
And there is a lot of alien weirdness to enjoy and, perhaps more importantly, contemplate long after the credits roll. The final scene in particular will stick with you for months as you trouble to understand what it means; another, towards the end of the second act, is disturbing enough to keep you up in a cold sweat, checking every dark corner and jumping at loud noises. In fact, some of the horror imagery here is so terrifying, and yet so original, it’s a wonder we haven’t seen it before. Like Ex Machina, every frame here drips in gorgeous, trippy visuals that make the impossibility of seeing Annihilation on the big screen outside of the US a real tragedy.
Garland’s script is head-scratching, but not in that obnoxious, ‘I’m-smarter-than-you’ way that plagues so much science fiction. There is a singular theme that runs through Annihilation that is both utterly obvious (Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character literally spells it out midway through) and complex enough to ensure the film will be discussed for years to come. Garland leaves things just ambiguous enough for multiple, nuanced readings of the film to exist, without sacrificing proper narrative function; Lena’s arc is still fulfilling and emotionally complex, the finale still cathartic and rewarding.
Alex Garland is crafting the kind of science fiction that will live long after he retires. Few writer-directors are working today who can match Garland’s aptitude for marrying compelling storytelling with the mind-bending concepts prevalent in Annihilation, and all cinema fans should be excited about where he goes next.
