Annihilation 2018

     This film is adapted from the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.  Lena’s husband left on a secret Army mission and he returns a changed man.  He doesn’t know how long he was gone, he doesn’t know what happened on the mission and he was the only one who returned?  He’s put into isolation and Lena decides to go with a group of women on the same mission.  She was in the Army for seven years and that’s how she met Kane.  She’s a biologist and she will be going with an anthropologist, psychologist, surveyor and linguist.   Dr. Ventress, Anya Thorensen, Cass Sheppard and Josie Radek.  They will be the second team entering an environmental disaster zone.   

     There is a strange and unknown area called the shimmer in Area X on the southern coast of the United States.  The shimmer began at a lighthouse and the area of the shimmer continues to grow.  On the other side of the lighthouse is the ocean.   Once inside the shimmer, the women are unable to remember extended stretches of time.  They find a mutated alligator that shows signs of being hybridized with a shark and they also encounter a mutated bear.  As they continue toward the lighthouse they find an abandoned and decayed settlement with human-shaped plants in front of this area. Josie Radek believes that the shimmer is acting on organisms in the manner of a prism.  The DNA is being distorted and refracting.  I certainly would not want to be a member of this investigative mission!!  Everything is twisted and only the colors in the shimmer beautiful.  The people are capable and brainy but there are some creepy, scary and unsettling scenes.  3* (This movie is OK)

115 min, Adventure directed by Alex Garland with Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Kristen McGarrity, Benedict Wong, David Gyasi, Oscar Isaac, John Schwab, Sammy Hayman.

Note:  Imdb 6.9, 87% critic 66% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Amazon Empire Online 5*, Amazon 3.4* with 317 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Windsor Great Park, Windsor, Berkshire and Marsworth Airfield, England, UK.  The initial test screening was poorly received.  David Ellions, a financier at Paramount wanted changes made to appeal to a wider section of viewers  Essentially, it was thought to be too intellectual and too complicated?  Portman’s character needed to be more sympathetic and the ending changed.  These changes were not made because Producer Scott Rudin agreed with Director Alex Garland and the changes were not made.  Garland decided not to reread the novel Annihilation and chose to adapt this film like a dream of the book.  Oscar Isaac was also filming Stars Wars at the same time on an adjacent studio lot.  He often filmed scenes for both movies on the same day.