Annihilation (Spoilers inside!!)

cornflake

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Apparently this is based on a novel. I'm spoiler-phobic, so all I knew going in was Natalie Portman as a biologist with a team finds something. I decided, despite the Natalie Portman part, to see it, as it seemed like it'd be interesting.

I have rarely seen something the equal of that godforsaken mess.

I literally laughed out loud at the last scene Jennifer Jason Leigh (her involvement was a nice surprise) was in. I do not think they meant me to, but for the love of Carrie, how was that not designed to evoke laughter?

It was like a terrible rip-off of Arrival made by some discount movie house run by people who don't speak enough English to understand the screener of Arrival they got that was only in English. Aside from the general BADNESS, the sets were just so cheap-looking. The guy and the end thing both looked like they were made by a dedicated high school paper mache-loving craft class. I have no idea what happened here, or how this got into theatres but I'm kind of fascinated.

From the 'there are only two possible explanations....' thing, that left me sitting there going, 'wait, I can think of like six more off the top of my head and I just heard about it,' to the f'ing hilarity of Groot girl and the very end -- like, is she just keeping him, like a pet? Is no one going to ever draw her blood? I just...

The HELL was that?

Please tell me someone else has seen this.

If you haven't, uhm, don't spend money on it! :D
 
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cornflake

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Oh, you did? Awesome! I presume they're not the same same as trilogy =/ two hours of film time but... how did it end, please?
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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So, what did you really think? :roll:


I recognize that tone. It's called "bristling with acute disbelief."

Generally followed by the "thunk" of a book hitting the wall.
 

cornflake

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Wait.... ok so at the end of the movie (ok SPOILERS! You've been duly doubly warned).... spacing not whited text













Her not actual husband/alien made of duct tape/discount Robert Patrick is fine and she hugs him like she'll just take him because he goes with the furniture, and then her eyes make clear she's all X-Files black oiled, which you'd THINK someone is going to or should have already figured the f out.

So in the book did any of that happen?
 

cornflake

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I has a sad. The trailer made it look like an American Roadside Picnic. I lurve RP, so I was excited...

Awww, well I've not seen or read RP so I dunno but this was not with the good, but otoh, you do enjoy some silly horror so maybe?

Again, total spoilers, so as to compare to RP --














There's a weird phenomena zone that for years everyone the military/gov't has sent into were never seen again. So they say there are only two explanations, either they kill themselves or each other (that's what made no sense to me from the get-go). So Natalie Portman and a group of all women go in and figure it out but get eaten a bunch and then it's an alien thing from a meteor (that we saw hit so I dunno how everyone is so astonished it's alien) that also makes poor-man's Robert Patrick-in-T2 blank copies of people. Then it's all destroyed because she lit a match, which apparently no one thought of before then, except there's one alien dude and alien-altered Portman left hanging around at the end.

Also Jennifer Jason Leigh ends up screeching "annihilation!" as light shoots out of all her orifices and she turns into an alien blob. It's full-on hilarious.
 

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You guys fail at convincing me this movie isn't worth seeing. Maybe it and mother! can be a double feature soon. *I'll be so high*
 

cornflake

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He's not wrong.

My original reaction was annoyance at the stupidity. Since then I've also become annoyed at the sort of faux feminism of the thing. They send an all-female crew into the zone of whatever, most of whom, we're told, are scientists, yet none of them do any science, besides Portman taking like two samples, barehanded (because that's a good idea), and looking into a microscope once. The physicist who comes up with the only explanation we ever hear for the phenomena (it's refracting everything -- which is thin at best, nonsensical at worst), just kind of says that and wanders off. Never discusses anything in scientific terms, discusses taking any measurements to figure it out, confirm anything, anything.

Also, Portman's entire motivation is her husband. She wants to find what happened to him, then to get back to him/to help him somehow (though that's not explained either). She never has any motivation, explicit or implicit, save that. She repeats those goals kind of endlessly. There's never a turning point at which her own survival appears to mean anything to her; it's just to get home to her husband. I mean I get the true love/help/reunite with a spouse/love is not exactly untrod territory, and whatever, but they sort of frame it as a powerful women type thing, and yet...
 

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Huh. I've read the Southern Reach trilogy, and I would actually recommend the first book. It doesn't make sense, and it shouldn't, because that's what makes the horror work. The rest of the trilogy isn't as good, and the ending is just plain odd.


Cornflake, a lot of what you're describing comes from the books, but in them, it's clear that the biologist is a deeply strange character, and the all-female crew is for other reasons I don't quite remember (something to do with the director of the institute going mad). The treatment of the husband doesn't sound like the same as in the books.

I'm not trying to excuse what sounds like a poor film, but it's possible these elements aren't shabby feminism and are just lacking the context of the original story.
 

cornflake

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Huh. I've read the Southern Reach trilogy, and I would actually recommend the first book. It doesn't make sense, and it shouldn't, because that's what makes the horror work. The rest of the trilogy isn't as good, and the ending is just plain odd.


Cornflake, a lot of what you're describing comes from the books, but in them, it's clear that the biologist is a deeply strange character, and the all-female crew is for other reasons I don't quite remember (something to do with the director of the institute going mad). The treatment of the husband doesn't sound like the same as in the books.

I'm not trying to excuse what sounds like a poor film, but it's possible these elements aren't shabby feminism and are just lacking the context of the original story.

Interesting -- I've no idea what's in the book(s), obviously, just talking about the film. There's no explanation or rationale offered for sending an all-female crew, they just seem to happen to be, which, :Shrug:. The biologist, Portman, isn't portrayed as strange, she's in the beginning just still grieving her supposedly dead husband and then consumed with finding out whatever to somehow help/return to him. They do insert an affair in flashback, but then just drop it. The revelation never goes anywhere.

That's one of the ways I thought they were trying to rip off Arrival (before I got home and realized it was based off existing work). There are these flashback bits go noplace and I kept thinking, as they didn't tie them to anything and they had no affect on the plot, they were going to try an Arrival-like ending. They didn't tho, the plot threads they dropped stayed dropped and meaningless.
 

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TBH, me and the hubs saw it because we see anything Sci-fi and we both looked at each other at the end and couldn't figure out what we were supposed to take away from the film or understand at the end.

On the bright side, hello Oscar Isaac, how are you?

But yes, I agree with all of the above points, and didn't the trilogy reveal portman's character to be half asian? Chalk another one up for whitewashing. I heard the director read the first book, but not the rest. Do you think that is one of the reasons this movie felt so whack-a-doodle?
 

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I remember the book (well, the first one) being recommended to me a few years back. I never read it, although I may actually have a copy around here somewhere.

When I saw that a film was being made of it I thought vaguely, “cool”, but I also had the same reaction I had to its initial recommendation, that for this level of mystery and uncertainty and dread it needs to be really well written, and I had just finished Gene Wolfe’s Peace which is a high standard to meet.
 

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I'll wait for it to hit Netflix or Prime, but I'll definitely watch it. I love bad horror, as y'all know.

(sigh) me too. I was going to go see this, but not after the reviews it's getting. Well, I still have Black Panther and Ready Player One, I guess.
 

telford

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Thanks for the warning. The preview looked good. Pass.
 

cornflake

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I just learned this movie has an Alzabo. That's kinda cool.

That's actually the only effect that worked for me. There are some cool-looking deer that wander by, but the best description I've seen of them is that they looked like deer you'd buy off Etsy.

The other effects were split between 'oh, pretty/buy off Etsy,' and 'is that supposed to scare me/look disturbing? It's made of plaster and paper mache/duct tape.' The bear thing was well-done tho. Even the few jump scares were hella telegraphed.

TBH, me and the hubs saw it because we see anything Sci-fi and we both looked at each other at the end and couldn't figure out what we were supposed to take away from the film or understand at the end.

On the bright side, hello Oscar Isaac, how are you?

But yes, I agree with all of the above points, and didn't the trilogy reveal portman's character to be half asian? Chalk another one up for whitewashing. I heard the director read the first book, but not the rest. Do you think that is one of the reasons this movie felt so whack-a-doodle?

Heh a friend of mine said, 'but it has Oscar Isaac.' I said he's got like five minutes of screen time, total, and she lost interest in the whole thing.
 

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TBH I'm losing interest in even seeing this on 420. Alex Garland is far from the world's worst director, but if he's supposed to be the cutting edge among SF directors, it once again shows that the genre is relatively immature and paltry compared to its literary equivalent. I guess Harlan Ellison was right, bless his evil soul.
 

cornflake

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Did you see Arrival?

Smart, thought-provoking, beautiful, visually haunting, really stays with you.
 

Kjbartolotta

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Don't get me started.

EDIT on a night's worth of reflection: Y'know, Arrival wasn't that bad, I wish I had gone in with slightly lower expectations. Also, my opinion on movie SF might be an unpleasable hardcore position. But you know what movie was so great I saw it in the theaters twice? Alexander.
 
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