Björk's most ambitious video to date!

I watched **Annihilation** on Saturday after being pretty excited to watch the movie for the past couple weeks as it was coming from Alex Garland, the director of the fabulous **Ex Machina**. I'm not going to lie though, I was a little bit disappointed in the end. Not because the movie was not good by any means. It was actually a very well done film with stunning visuals and art direction. It's just that I felt like it had the potential to be a "great" movie, and just fell a bit short in the last quarter/third of the movie or so. I think that opinions on the ending sequence has varied quite a bit. Some people love it and have raved about it. I, on the other hand, felt that it was a just a tiny bit lacking and while visually stunning, not super original or "groundbreaking". I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't connect as well with the final quarter of the movie though (if that makes sense) without spoiling some major parts of the film. While the movie is based on a trilogy of books (I've heard that it diverges quite far from the books though), the film borrows heavily from Tarkovsky's **Stalker** (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). The influence is noticeable throughout, not just from both movies having a Shimmer/Zone. If you're a fan of Stalker (1979), I'd definitely recommend checking Annihilation out. As I mentioned before, the visuals were stunning, and I thought that the set pieces and scenarios that evolved over the first 2/3 of the film were very well done. I liked the balance of the film being a thriller (both physically and psychologically), while adding lots of thinking points and contemplative questions of "who we really are", "what is actual destruction", just to name a few. The cast was well done for the most part, albeit I wish that the characters other than Natalie Portman's protagonist could have been developed a bit more. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and thought it was a grand visual experience. I was just disappointed a bit perhaps because I was expecting a bit too much coming in, and from what the first 2/3's of the movie set up. Also of note, the trailer definitely markets this film as something like a female Rambo/Predator action flick, which it really isn't. In the end, I think that I would give the movie a solid 7.5/10.

I now take "From the writer and director of Ex Machina" as a warning.

What a visually stunning, thought provoking, and uncomfortable (I mean that in the best way possible) movie. Alex Garland knows how to make a hard sci-fi movie and he needs to do more. The visuals and the score are just so trippy and creepy that you just can't look away. Natalie Portman showing off her amazing acting skills. Tessa Thompson and Oscar Issac are both good too. [spoiler] The whole lighthouse scene I was mesmerized. What an awesome scene. The way the alien started to take form of Lena's face really freaked me out. The lighthouse burning with Lena watching it might be my favorite shot in the movie. And then to end it with Lena and Kane back together but not themselves was a perfect ending. Kinda the same way Ex Machina had a great ending. [/spoiler] EDIT: Even better on rewatch. This is a drop dead gorgeous movie. Watching it in 4k HDR is mesmerizing. The color palate jumps out at you. The score is haunting, especially near the end. The lighthouse is still very uncomfortable.

Goddamn, Al Gore was right...ManBearPig is alive and scary as shit