Annihilation directed by Alex Garland

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I got a two for one Jumbo Jack at Jack in the Crack for filling out an online survey on my phone and killed time reading the opening Chapter of Bob Dylan's autobiography at the last remaining Barnes and Noble's in my world. Then as I walked across the parking lot to the dollar cinema in the sunny evening drizzle I saw a rainbow. There's a pot o gold somewhere in yonder Burlington Coat Factory! I just know it!


Annihilation, I'm pretty sure I saw this advertised on some streaming service already, its in its last days at the movie theaters. I am going to start with my verdict and warn of possible spoilers further into the review, cause its hard to discuss without getting down to plot as its a movie that relies on the reveal. Its a type of movie I like. I would say if  you like this type of movie just go ahead and buy it.

Its Natalie Portman, and Jennifer Jason Leigh leading a badass all female squad of military scientists through a mysterious zone.  If you are on board for that, and I definitely am, then you are halfway there because you also need to know that this is an Alex Garland movie. He is the writer of 28 days later, Ex-machina and a bunch of others, He started out a screenwriter and now both writes and directs. His movies are oblong and unusual, and what I have surmised from being mostly a fan of his work is that his movies are generally high concept but always rooted in character and take their time setting up the protagonist, but also his movies do not use a conventional three acts to tell the story, more like 5 or more, he keeps you guessing and viscerally engrossed  in the middle and requires you as a viewer to engage right when you might expect a normal film to be wrapping it up, that's when the story will turn and you will get slammed with the story arc moving in a way you didn't expect.  And see, I like that a lot, I think of that as just non standard, like a foreign movie, but I think most people especially with high concept action fare would describe  it as a fucking mess, or badly written. and he's made movies where I would agree with that critique, like Sunshine. But this movie Annihilation is a blazing guitar solo of a movie. If what I just described  appeals to you, Buy it now or Wait til it goes on sale and then pounce, buy it and watch it a few times. 


Spoilers, but not really spoilers ahead!




Its kind of like Predator or Aliens but with an all female scientist squad wandering through a Stephen King universe version of Apocalypse Now that culminates in something reminiscent to the end of the Moebius movie Blueberry meets The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Yeah! Some Dope Shit!

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