Annihilation (dir. Alex Garland)

All of the greatest science-fiction finds a way to challenge ideas as well as recreate the dreams of mankind. The greatest of auteurs, -from Stanley Kubrick to Andrei Tarkovsky- mastered it cinematically with an attention to detail and assured arrogance. Here, there's no exception to the rule -as Alex Garland's follow up to his first furore into futuristic science, "Ex Machina", cements himself as a pioneer in genre film-making: inexplicably blending genre-lines with a defter touch rarely bestowed on second-time directors.

If there was ever a time for more cinema to push boundaries and circumvent the usual February shlock, it's right now. Adapted from Jeff VanderMeer's first in a series of three novels, Annihilation is an examination of the nature of nature. Though all science-fiction ponders the notion of what it means to be human -and usually finds a way to counter-balance this argument with a exploitative and cynical representation of the future - at the heart of all extra-terrestrial fare is a propensity for shock and awe. Perhaps the greatest achievement -amongst a plethora of examples- in Garland's sophomore effort is the film’s ability to continuously keep you guessing whilst simultaneously nudging you toward the end of your seat. There’s little to no time to process what you’ve just seen -as before you know it- there’s something new to catch your eye.

The seemingly ordinary life of former Army soldier turned biology professor Lena (Natalie Portman) is interrupted briefly with the return of her solider husband Kane (Oscar Isaac), who appears in their house with no recollection of where he’s been or how he returned home. Before long however, they have both been kidnapped by the powers that be and station at area x: a vast detention center which sits opposite “the shimmer” - a contained disaster zone which has wrapped its way around a lighthouse in a dome like fashion. Enlisting herself to venture inside the bubble, she and a group of volunteers Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Josie (Tessa Thompson), Anya (Gina Rodriguez) and Cass (Tuva Novotny) - each with their own crosses to bear - venture into the perilous land to seek answers to the disappearance of those fellow soldiers (including Lenas husband Kane) who came before them.

When our drama changes it’s scenery to the inside of "the shimmer" - a vast ecosystem populated with cross-bred species and anthropomorphic shrubbery, experienced cinematographer Rob Hardy is there to perfectly paint a picture of an existence so far removed from the scientific and based in the realms of the extra-terrestrial - and it's hard to know where to feast your eyes upon. In an environment populated with unpredictability, Garland’s journey is ripe with the most breathtaking moments of true horror. Certain sequences remind you of the gut-wrenching tenseness of Ridley Scott’s Alien films (some could say they are too reminiscent but others would call it paying homage) and even the most seasoned horror aficionado would be hard pressed to feel anything else than pure dread during an extended sequence which gets into your psyche as well as burrowing under your skin. But it's not just monsters of unidentified genetics that become their greatest worry: our band of miscreants find footage of a previous expedition, led by Lena's husband Kane, which seems to indicate a disintegration of cognitive function from the men, a unexplainable side-affect of the environment's make-up.

Accompanying the tragedy on screen is a jaunting score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury - often times a sequence is made even more unsettling to the sounds of high-pitched string instruments - evoking the sounds of a missing child in desperate search for her mother, which never shy away from increasing the dread and sheer amount of tragedy on screen.

Portman is terrific - her character is by no means a hero, and it’s because of her transgression she has no qualms about entering the disaster zone. Fractured people often make the greatest martyrs, and in our central protagonist, a year might have passed since her husbands voyage into the unknown, yet it might as well have been 100 years: her guilt and her self-destruction manifests itself in a fog of resentment, quietly eating away at her sub-conscious and reminding her daily that her misgivings were the last thing her husband deserved.

Our horror set-pieces are unexpected and plentiful, surreptitiously sneaking up of you when you least expect it, during tonal shifts so deftly handled. To spoil the film’s final third would do it a disservice, as would watching the trailer. A finale so memorable and so wrapped up in portent is such a rare commodity in cinema nower days, as the usual de-facto shoot em up’s and CGI catastrophes fall far from cementing their place in your memory after you’ve left the theater. The denouement of "Annihilation" will surely be on everybody's lips upon their exit - and for all the right reasons one should hope- as the ambitions of the director take full flight in sequences enriched with nuance and profundity.

A worrying side-note of Garland’s drama is the studio’s decision to, after some lukewarm receptions from test screenings, abandon an international theatrical release in favor of a cost-effective streaming release. Top brass over at Paramount felt Garlands’ nihilistic ride “too intellectual” for audiences, so here in the US, Canada and in China, you can see this masterpiece on the big screen (where the director says he filmed it primarily to be exhibited at), whilst other territories can seek it on Netflix on March 12th. Though this shouldn’t dissuade the genre fans, and the small screen is big enough metaphorically to assuage the idiocy that producers seemingly perpetuate, and a cult status label is surely enough of a consolation prize for a non-international release.

Furthermore proving that gender should play no role in that of Hollywood blockbuster fare, our merry band of volunteers consist primarily of women, and there not shy with their rifles, either. However, controversy has inevitably been bestowed upon the film’s production: it’s become clear in future incarnations of the story that our titular heroes vary in their descent -from native American/Caucasian and Asian - which has led to campaign groups challenging the "whitewashing". This is a disappointing mis-step it must be said, especially in a film which has diversity and solidarity of race and gender so far engrained in it’s DNA. Though, however right these groups may be, it’s doubtful to resonate in such a form to relieve those feelings of angst, grief and loss which Alex Garland fuses with a masterful skill - in the best film of 2018 so far.

Rating 5/5.