Movies: Annihilation

(Drivebycuriosity) - Are there alternate universes? Some scientists believe that our universe is not alone, they think that there can be trillions of parallel worlds with very different life forms. These worlds could follow very exotic laws of nature. What will happen if one of these worlds mingles with our? The film "Annihilation" might be a take on this question (imdb).

"Annihilation"is another masterpiece by Alex Garland, who had already impressed with "Ex Machina". The director enthralls his audience again, albeit "Annihilation" is not quite as outstanding as his first movie. Garland picturized a sci-fi novel by Jeff VanderMeer. Somewhere on the US south coast are strange things happening. Suddenly a shimmering electromagnetic field appeared, called the "shimmer", and began to spread. The world inside differs substantially from our world and people who went inside, didn`t return. Anyway, a  group of bold females, scientists & ex soldiers, takes the risk and enters the "shimmer" (this is a spoiler free blog. You can find a synopsis here wikipedia).

I enjoyed the speculative but logical plot and the surreal world inside the "shimmer". Apparently a very peculiar evolution is happening there.  The "shimmer" is a dangerous place but also fascinating and so beautiful that I would have liked to explore it by myself - thanks to the amazing cinematography and the art of SX effects. There are of course influences by other sci-fi movies like "Alien" and "2001: A Space Odyssey".

The movie is a proof that well made science fiction could be a lot fun and also be thought-provoking.