Annihilation (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Alex Garland (Ex-Machina)
	Actors: Natalie Portman (Black Swan, Star Wars 1-3), Jennifer Jason Leigh (eXistenZ, The Hateful Eight), Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac (Star Wars 7-9, X-men: Apocalypse)
	Country: GB, USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 07.04.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: When her husband (Isaac) comes back home one year after disappearing in a military operation, Lena (Portman) will see her questions answered when she is arrested by the same military group. However the truth will require more sacrifice.
Review: Watching this other Netflix production back-to-back with the The Titan reveals several resemblances: the military and their control, a female scientist, alien worlds... which I think are popular among the Netflix audience. After a little while I could see where the movie was going: a group exclusively composed of women (for originality) diving into the unknown and being decimated while slowly revealing the nature of the mystery. And it is the path it follows for some time, but this apparent banality is hidden behind increasingly intriguing visual ideas, that reminded me of the organic nature of David Cronenberg's work but in more colorful and less bloody, as you can see in the example frames shown at the end of this post (warning: graphic visuals not for the faint-hearted). And the characters turn out to have more depth that the usual monster fodder, in particular the one played by Nathalie Portman and driven by what happened to her husband. But what completed to sell me the movie is the finale that I may dare comparing to the one of (spoiler, highlight to read) 2001, A Space Odyssey. Yet another movie I regret not watching on a bigger screen. And I should watch for myself Ex-Machina by the same director Alex Garland.
Rating: 7 /10