I caught Annihilation in theaters during its initial release and remember thinking it was alllllright. My initial rating came out as a 6/10, and while I knew it was a much beloved film by many for 2018, I mostly stepped away feeling like it was decent at best, a bit messy at worst.
During my time at inpatient, for about a week or two, patients weren’t allowed to have their phones. So, I visited a local book store to see if there was anything worthwhile. Seeing Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer made me go, “Oh, I’ve seen that movie. I’ll check out the book.”. With a short page count, I figured I’d be able to finish the book before my stay ended. Little did I know I was going to finish it in about 3 days.
The book follows the Biologist as she enters Area X alongside several other STEM women. Although, really, it begins already inside Area X, and we receive a few reflections from the Biologist about her time before entering Area X. The drama, tone, and general theme of the book explores the contrast between nature’s inherent ability for coexistence and The Biologist’s inability to connect with others. There’s a moment where she reflects on a time she either broke onto someone’s property as a teen (or, was squatting. I can’t remember) and sat in the backyard on a plastic outdoor chair. She looked at an emptied pool that had collected rain water, grown various fauna, and several animals and insects using it as a watering hole. It sparked her interest in the field, but it also caused her to reflect on what about herself found it so hard to integrate with the world around her. Everything else living connected with the world. Why couldn’t she?
Area X as this zone where-in all things are coalescing into one solely inhabitable thing is an obvious, hyperbolized metaphor for this experience, and the conflict comes in the desire for simple coexistence by absconding individuality, yet realizing to do so inherently defeats the individual. Area X is a fantasy, even if in the book its real, and The Biologist understands this. As she investigates the zone further, she understands this further, finally reaching a point where-in she self-actualizes in asserting her individuality yet still desiring connectivity; her individuality isn’t a hinderance but part of what makes coexistence possible.
Additionally, the book is largely set outside of a tower. Although, this tower is different: it’s spire only reaches a few feet into the sky, but it’s stairwell descends almost infinitely into the Earth. It’s described as a tower upside-down, and on the wall descending downward and downward are vines that spell out words. The words seem to have no pattern or sense, but for some reason become simultaneously more comprehensible yet less understandable the further down they go. Like someone aware of another’s sentience, even having it confirmed, although realizing it may have no sense; only sense enough to try. The lighthouse exists, although not in the same capacity.
As for the other characters, similar to Heinlein, VanderMeer plays with some psychic-like powers among his characters, embracing that strain of sci-fi that is both grounded and mystical. This further intercepts with the idea of individuality, coexistence, and the necessary need to remain independent in a communal setting. Otherwise, why have individuality at all if all are one?
The whole book has a throughline and it’s stupendously efficient and deeply moving, all on top of being very cool. I had started the second book, but it reads far more like a spy-thriller in that a new director is introduced to the facility, and I think I was about a hundred pages and I hadn’t entered Area X yet. I only put it down because my interests changed for a bit, not because it was bad. I’m sure the trilogy is very satisfying in its entirety, but the single book of Annihilation was an excellent standalone read.
The amount of changes made from book to film are, frankly, quite catastrophic. And it’s not for the better. The whole of the movie is about… I think… self-destruction? It’s not entirely clear. It’s less clear than the book, that’s for sure. And how it explores this idea is stupendously juvenile, even beautifying concepts of self-harm. Every character is described as a professional in their respective field, meanwhile all their dialogue is sophomoric at best, extremely bad at worse. What Garland does with these women sets back feminism by at least 2 waves, which still means we’re at, like, third-wave feminism, but that’s still brutal. Even The Biologist, performed by Natalie Portman in a white-washed role, is reduced to a woman who has “self-destructed” by being the other woman in an affair when she thought her husband was dead. Her entire ethic for understanding Area X is reduced to her interactions with one man and her guilt toward another. Her intelligence has no part in the quandary Area X demands she explore. There’s just so much done poorly here.
Kathryn rewatched the film as well, as we figured it’d make for a good podcast episode, and I got a text from her saying how she hadn’t remembered the film being so unenjoyable. I replied back with “It’s just a stupid movie based on a smart and moving book lol”. And to someone else who was curious about the film I said, “[Annihilation] felt like a movie cast with high school characters lol”. Everything has been reduced to the least intelligent version of itself. Frankly, there’s less intelligence in these characters than any of the men in Predator, as far as I’m concerned, if at the very least on par with them (sans Schwarzenegger who outwits the Predator). Things start guns blazing, yelling, and putting themselves at such utter risk.
And although I would say the worst quality of Annihilation is it’s bastardized rendition of the source material, completely absconding the original thesis of the book for this reskinned, reductionist rendition, the most noticeably bad quality of the film is its performances. Several people come out of this film looking bad, which means it’s ultimately not really their faults. I remember seeing Ex-Machina in theaters and finding Gleeson, Isaac, and Vikander just fine in that flick, but that may have been to do with individual talent or the smaller scope of the project. Meanwhile, in Annihilation, Jennifer Jason Leigh has never been worse. Her performance is so obviously a character trait, one that practically screams “PLOT REASON!” from the speakers, and how she carries herself is outright comical. Gina Rodriguez is the most “high school” out of the group, not only receiving the most consistently bad dialogue but clearly being given the worst direction. Tessa Thompson seems completely out of her element, almost seeming lost on set as though she were begging for sensible direction. And Tuva Novotny receives probably the worst dialogue in the movie (the conversation about self-destruction), having to deliver lines so bluntly see-through they might as well be used to sell Victoria’s Secret undergarments. Oscar Isaac and Natalie Portman come out just fine, Isaac being a director independent performer and Portman with a mix of her charisma, charm, and general talent. And Benedict Wong is barely in the movie and barely has to perform so he gets through it just fine. But, goodness, if there was ever a thing to point at to affirm this film’s absurdly bad directing, look no further than its performances.
Yes, the bear scene is great. Yes, crazy Oscar Isaac and the fungal corpse are fun. Yes, the final 10-or-so minutes are stellar. They would make for an excellent short film based on the book. But this story fails as an adaption of the material – only borrowing set dressing – and fails as a movie itself. It’s pacing is grueling, completely deconstructing any sense of wonderment, all made worse by silly podunk acoustic guitar notifying the audience, “You’re supposed to feel something here!”. It’s one of the least sincere movies I’ve watched in a long time, completely denying its audience’s ability to understand both the original source material and it’s own conceit. It even explains its thesis by having a professor explain something scientific in an opening scene. Or characters being attacked by a mutant alligator only to end up in canoes in the next scene. Like, come on guys, this is second-draft stuff.
Genuinely bad rewatch. Faux-smart. A movie that released at just the right time. It presents as just smart enough to be titillating, especially during the height of the MCU’s popularity. People were pining for smart movies, or at the very least different movies. Annihilation, however, is far more similar to it’s superhero counterparts than even it’s book. It’s shockingly dull, devoid of personality, and probably most disappointing of them all: it’s visuals aren’t that amazing.
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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!
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