Annihilation

There is no slowing down as soon as the gates open with mystery for “Annihilation”. It feels like a very long time has passed since we got a groundbreaking alien phenomenon movie- sure, we’ve had several since 2018. But this is the one that raised the sci-fi bar. Director Alex Garland has such a knack for the genre (see Ex-Machina), and my selling point is how cleverly it explores its themes of grief and how humans have a tendency to implode. Usually, I take issue with films being open-ended due to facetiousness and a lack of creativity, but here it’s another weapon because you have to factor in The Shimmer’s abilities and cell manipulation. There may be a lot of moving parts for some who want a more direct movie. But jeez, the third act had me clenching the side of the couch, asking myself what actually happened. I absolutely recommend this to fans of the genre and want something with layers.