Review: Annihilation

By Benjamin Allen Dickson

Annihilation is a new Science Fiction/Horror film directed by Alex Garland, who made one of my favorite films of all time called Ex Machina. If you don't follow films closely, I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of either of these films, especially Annihilation, since this one came and left the cinemas in what felt like just a few days. Both of these films are some of the best science fiction movies in the last decade. Beautifully crafted and thoughtful, Alex Garland is truly making art here, folks.

I feel the best way to watch this film is to go in completely blind, which is why I won’t really mention the plot at all.  What I will say though, is this film is visually stunning, and a beautiful thought provoking experience. Very rarely do I have to calmly sit and and collect my thoughts during the credits of a film to soak it all in, but this film definitely did it for me. The film sort of struggles with its writing at times, parts felt amatuer-ish, but overall the writing is fantastic and helps create very interesting and believable characters. Props to the special effects team who worked on this film. The body horror Cronenberg-esque elements were done so so well, and the look of the alien/being feels so fresh yet so familiar at the same time. The imagery in this film is so creative, fluid and interesting along with gorgeous cinematography.

To add to just being a stellar film, the film has four perceptive and intelligent female leads. What angers me about this film is the fact that the general public doesn’t care about this film. You could blame it on bad marketing, but I just don’t understand how a movie like the 2016 Ghostbusters remake gets praised for being a feminist film, when the film portrays women in such a bad light. Annihilation on the other hand, an original story portraying smart, intellectual women gets no press at all for promoting feminism. I understand that since Ghostbusters is such a giant property it is much more likely to be a blockbuster in our society, but why are we calling it a feminist film when the entire movie is just fart and queef jokes? Is that how we are empowering women? Annihilation is, to me, a serious version of what everyone else saw in the Ghostbusters remake.