***SPOILERS***
The word annihilation has two definitions. The first and most common to our understanding of the word is "complete destruction or obliteration." This definition shows us an object reaching a violent demise. It is finite. The second one, more closely associated with physics is "the conversion of matter into energy." This definition is a much more romantic idea of the word annihilation. It shows us that matter has no end. It just transforms. Reincarnates. It is immortal. And to fully appreciate a movie like Annihilation one must understand that the perception of a word, and what that word means to a person makes all the difference.
Annihilation is Alex Garland's film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel of the same name. It follows the story of Lena, a biologist played by Natalie Portman who ventures into a quarantined zone known as Area X to study a strange phenomenon known as "The Shimmer" that is growing increasingly bigger and threatens to engulf the environment outside of it. Lena, whose husband Kane recently returned from a classified mission into "The Shimmer" both changed and seemingly ill, wants to understand what is happening to her husband and volunteers to join a team of women venturing into ground zero of the quarantined zone. Lena is joined by psychologist and leader of the expedition Dr. Ventress, Cass, a surveyor and geologist, Anya, a paramedic, and Josie, a physicist. Tessa Thompson, who you may remember as the fantastic Valkyrie from Thor: Ragnarok, does a complete 180 from that character and plays the role of Josie with an understated grace and curiosity. Gina Rodriguez, of Jane the Virgin fame, shows her range and shines as Anya.
The movie does quite well at being a simple sci-fi/adventure/mystery film, but the film also reveals itself as an effective horror movie (there's a lot of genre mixing going on here). When the team finally enters Area X there is enough curiosity established that you're eager to understand what is truly happening inside the event, but once the team is inside the dangers begin to present themselves. From here the movie, with a lot of help from the score, begins to create an effective atmosphere of dread. There is no doubt that what's going on inside Area X is radiantly beautiful, and the colors used in the film are truly characters unto themselves, but what's happening is also strange and frightening. The movie really amps up the horror vibe about midway through when paranoia begins to set in, and the creatures begin to come out to play. The tone the movie creates, striking a balance between beauty and horror is really quite remarkable. As we make our way through this strange world we take in a multitude of lush greenery, vibrant multi-colored blossoms, and the wet, gasoline sheen framing it all like a melted oil painting. I was often reminded of What Dreams May Come or the food fight from Hook. There is also new forms of wildlife that resemble something from a fantasy movie. All of this is the result of mutations as DNA is refracted by "The Shimmer" and absorbed and mixed into the many lifeforms that inhabit the area. The resulting ecosystem is something entirely foreign to the world before, and this threat to an old way of life is the philosophy at the heart of the movie.
Mankind from the beginning of time has had to fight and stumble through the darkness of its deadly beginnings, evading larger and more deadly predators with nothing but its own cunning. In this way man has become inextricably tied to the weapons it has used, and the violence it has employed while using those weapons. Through this violent connection and the threats constantly looming just outside man's peripherals has come a deep mistrust of anything unfamiliar. Change has always seemed like more of an obliteration, rather than transformation. Progress is always viewed as an attack on tradition. Other cultures are always seen as trying to replace an established ones. Annihilation has a deep understanding of this fear of the unknown and plays it up in the final act when the lifeform at the heart of "The Shimmer" reveals itself. When Lena finally confronts the new lifeform threatening to change the world as we know it, it is with fire, man's earliest tool of progression and earliest weapon of destruction, that Lena destroys the creature. In this scene we watch as this new being with abilities far more advanced than humans and just beginning to understand the world around it confusedly burns, and the world that came with it burns as well; and depending on your perspective, this scene might come off as the necessary comeuppance to a creature threatening the sanctity of life as we know it or a severely affecting and heartbreaking death to a new and fascinating lifeform that offers understanding of our own world. However, as the final scene shows when Lena embraces her husband again and their eyes both shimmer, the mutations live on inside of them. Showing us that the current of change in inevitable, and it will eventually sweep us all out to sea. Whether we drown or not depends entirely on whether we thrash against it or let it take us.
