A friend of mine bought the weirdest triple DVD at a Goodwill ever - Annihilation, Arrival and the first Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider in a single case - and I couldn’t help but go off a bit on how much I’ve come to love this tough to love Alex Garland banger. I’ve seen it many times at this point, but decided to rewatch after writing the following and I do fully understand that the first 30 minutes or so are an almost tragically slow burn. Personally I think it helps emphasize just how rapidly the expedition goes off the rails and supports what I’m about to share that I said, but I’m only dumping this here curious to find out if any of you other popcorn munchers have been thinking about this movie more than you’d ever expected over the past five years and change.

In any case, we can all agree the sound design of the final half hour is unquestionably bonkers, yeah?


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Friend, all I can say is that the more you watch this movie (if you’re already predisposed to it) the less bizarre it gets. Without saying too much, a lot of alien and/or invasion movies explore how humanity reacts to esoteric threats. Annihilation, to me, is very much about how our own vessels are capable of equally strange if not stranger acts of defiance/betrayal.

Natalie Portman is awesome in this movie but I can’t help but feel like her presence convinces a lot of people the themes, or even plot, are supposed to be far more literal than they are. (There is, also, the domestic plot thread that feels shoehorned in to manufacture a personal connection for the audience, though I could get nerdy enough to argue it artificially starts the movie and holds it together because artificiality is what Alex Garland does best.)

But again, I could go on for paragraphs and hours. I love, love, love this movie.

Tomb Raider is cool too.


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