A tale of two very different sci-fi films
The divergent fortunes and concepts of Mute and Annihilation
I do not remember much of Mute, nor do I want to return to it and re-jog my memory of a film that Netflix was clearly having second thoughts on they hit the upload button. A movie with a grey, flat rock of a lead in Alexander Skarrsgard at it’s center, and a plot that decided to be everything and nothing whenever it felt like it. It was a catastrophic disappointment on levels I didn’t realise exist. It’s vision of a future Berlin somewhat soaked in neon but mostly stuck in the shadow of Blade Runner 2049’s monolithic visuals is left to rot in a story so devoid of stakes or interest that it would struggle to fill out a duration of a Vine video (R.I.P). And in what might be it’s worst crime, it completely fails at being a vehicle worthy of the ‘hosanna on high’ ‘tache that a constantly annoyed and uncomfortable looking Paul Rudd sports in the film:
It’s a hall of fame worthy cookie duster in need of a much better film instead of this bucket of celluloid anti-matter. Whatever interesting elements it has, and to be fair it has many, are wasted in a fashion that almost tricks you into thinking you had reconstructed that memory out of nothing. It’s good for a few bright screensavers and that’s about it. None of it mattered in the slightest. The fact that it comes from Duncan Jones, who directed the instant sci-fi classic Moon and the giddy thrill ride that was the Jake Gyllenhaal’s befuddled face in Source Code (let’s not talk about Warcraft okay?) makes it downright traumatizing. Where did it go so wrong?
When Mute was announced, it was somewhat anticipated. A return to a more cerebral, small scale sci-fi tale for Jones, who had been crushed under the nonsensical weight and hokiness of the Warcraft movie (the man was genuinely disappointed it didn’t work out). It had an interesting premise, a tantalising neo-noir style, and a mysterious connection to Moon. None of which worked in the slightest. It severely brings into question Jone’s capabilities as a filmmaker — is this a downward spiral he can’t get out from, or hopefully just a blip on the radar? So much of the film comes off as half-baked and bastardized elements of better films. A hodgepodge of refracted notes that always feel tonally flat or discordant. A look at the review bites on Rotten Tomatoes paints a decidedly grim picture.
Contrast it with Netflix’s other recent sci-fi release, Alex Garland’s Annihilation — a movie that I realised I had so much more talk about after I had chatted for 45 minutes on our podcast Take the Cannoli from earlier this week. Acquired by Netflix after Garland (he wrote it as well as directed it) stood fast against Paramount Picture’s panicked desire to change the inscrutable, cerebral ending and the studio got cold feet and offloaded it to the streaming giant.
The film is yet another compelling example highlighting Garland’s command of oblique sci-fi concepts, where the joy isn’t the arrival (to the lighthouse) but the multitude of rough hewn tracks that stray away from the main path. Natalie Portman plays Lena— a biologist and former soldier, as focused and professional, terse and sharp. Her curiosity a detachment as her emotional trauma and collapsing marriage is hauled into focus. Two sides of her in constant conflict. The expedition into The Shimmer, a strange event in coastal U.S the start of a journey into the dangers and frailty of human nature and our subconscious desire for self-destruction.
Mirroring and duality is a major theme that courses through the film, and Garland himself mirrors his previous film, Ex Machina with his portrayal of humanity from the point of view of an highly intelligent outsider — mimicking, evolving and then manipulating what makes us our most weak. Those things that make us human and broken. For it is new, and we are not. In that, there’s also echoes of Paul Schrader’s spellbinding Under the Skin where Scarlett Johansson’s alien hunter is nothing but a seductive reflection of a human at first before her actions, the environment around her and the people she interacts with begin to deepen, confuse and assail her predatory view.
The references and influences in Annihilation come across as organic and assured — Stalker, Apocalypse Now, Alien and H.R Giger, The Last of Us video game. A Rubik’s cube of a film to be dissected and disseminated with glee. It’s team of military scientist might lean more into archetypes at first but their professions and tact hide the pain within, curse as they all feel that they are, or deserve to be. Sure, the film has a few missteps and some uninspired if somewhat intentional dialogue, and the physical scares don’t hold a candle to the psychological terrors lurking in the darkness.
Paramount still retained the distribution rights for the U.S where it’s made just under $30 million since opening late February, against the it’s $40 million budget. Who the hell knows what Netflix is making out of it since they are worse than Gollum when it comes to their possessiveness of their viewing numbers. Paramount had misfires throughout last year and Annihilation was the unfortunate collateral of those misfires, even though it’s the kind of film that feels like it was meant for the big screen, and not just your laptop. Middling returns for a challenging film, a regular occurrence at the box office.
Mute and Annihilation offer contrasting examples of modern, auteur driven sci-fi in a world where content is about quantity and delivering your branding first. And also how widely a director can misfire on a project. There’s so much dross to wade through Netflix these days, most of it their own content that they’ve slapped their name on through acquisitions and whatnot. Interesting, bold and ambitious films can get lost in the murky streams. The more pressing concerns might be, does any of it matter? With the way Netflix and other streaming services hoard their data and the increasingly fragmented nature of film distribution and viewing nature, what more do these two films represent than simply another notch in the bed post? A mix of critical and audience reaction, box office figures and digital platforms, and award prestige have you an insight into a how a film performed and how it may be viewed.
These two films represent an interesting crossroad between cinema and streaming distribution. Their fates shrouded. Their fortunes tagged to intangibles. And that goes for a lot of Netflix and it’s films. Apparently a lot of people watched the Will Smith cop/fantasy/#woke Bright ( I regretfully did) and despite its terrible reviews and reactions Netflix is convinced that the people want more Bright. The thing is, it’s so easy and in a way much cheaper to watch films on Netflix. You settle in on your bed, your couch, your favourite bean bag and start searching through whatever might give you a distraction.
Whereas going to the movies requires going outdoors just to shell out cash for expensive snacks and searching for somewhat cheap parking and god all that traffic. People want convenience, which doesn’t mean quality most of the time. But if we get into habits like this we risk being caught in a feedback loop where we’re told we’re enjoying what we’re watching even though it’s basically just used as a distraction while we fold the clothes or finish off a whole tray of nachos (what?). A number or a stat doesn’t tell how someone felt about a film, eventually those numbers will turn on a distributor or studio and dwindle — rarely are they envisioning five years ahead.
So you’ve got a film like Annihilation which begs for a deeper discussion and prolonged appreciation, and Mute which basically dares you to cancel all your subscription services. While both were acquisitions by Netflix, Mute was more or less set for a Netflix release from the get go. One of reportedly 80 original films that Netflix release this year. Compare that with with Disney’s 10 scheduled releases and Warner Bros. 21 films coming out this year and yeah, the rate of hit and often miss becomes all too apparent. Throwing as much dirt at the screen and seeing if any gems come out of it seems to be Netflix’s MO. It does offer a home for films that would otherwise be left in development limbo — which both Mute and Annihilation were at some stages, with vastly different results. It’s bold and risky, at the same time though, film that could be marketed as event films (like they do with their behemoth shows like Stranger Things, House of Cards and The Crown) are lost in the ever increasing labyrinth of content.
