Annihilation

Annihilation is a thrilling, thought provoking film about a massive growing, shimmering circle that is growing from a meteor struck lighthouse, and the journey into the shimmer to find out what it does to people and the environment and why it is there. I thought the movie was incredibly interesting (while gross in some parts) and did a great job at keeping you at the edge of your seat. There were many subtle clues about what the Shimmer did to people and what happened to things inside of it. Furthermore, there were also things that went unanswered that were left up to our imagination.

First off, one of the overarching themes that was shown throughout the movie was cell division. Repeatedly, Lena (played by Natalie Portman) was looking at cells dividing through a microscope, and Josie talked about it as well. Also, while Lena was looking for Sheppard (played by Tuva Novotny) she stumbled across an interesting looking deer, and while she was looking at it, it multiplied just like a cell. Also, the colored fungi looking stuff that grew on (and in) everything inside the shimmer was seen in multiple scenes dividing. It was hinted to later in the film that the multiplication of the cells resembled the dividing cells of cancer, which Dr. Ventress was found to have had when she entered. Because of the refraction of the shimmer, even the plants resembled things that plants shouldn’t grow into, because even genetic code was refracted. All the plants in a little town the team stopped in resembled humans. Then we found that if you wanted were going to die and wanted to be a plant, then you could. Which seems to be how Josie died.

As the research team journeyed further into the shimmer, the weirder (and more interesting) things got. A film was found of the old research team (containing Lena’s husband) cutting open the stomach of the one of the other members of the team and seeing something moving inside of him. It seemed that the men were manic. The research team found the dismembered and fungus overgrown body of the cut-up team member sprawled up the side of the pool wall. Next, they were ambushed by a dead bear (which killed Sheppard) and as it came back for the other team members, you could still hear Sheppard’s screams inside of it, making it seem that a part of Sheppard became the bear when it ate her.

One of the things that went unanswered in the film was the serpentine tattoo. I first saw it when Lena’s husband (who we later find out wasn’t his husband) has the tattoo when he comes back from the shimmer, which no one had ever done before. Then, when the research team first went into the shimmer and they realized they don’t remember the first few days they were in there, a bruise appeared on Lena’s arm not knowing where it came from. Very subtly, later in the film, the tattoo appeared, but not just on Lena’s arm. The entire team had the tattoo on them, and we later see that they were all infected. Making it seem that the tattoo marks the infected. Another thing I never could figure out was why the bear always only ate the throat of the victims.

Overall, I thought the film as good and was thought provoking, while always staying interesting and intense. Even though some scenes were weird and gross.