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Thread: Annihilation (February 23, 2018)

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    Annihilation (February 23, 2018)

    Plot
    A biologist's husband disappears. She puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not quite find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor.

    Annihilation is an upcoming British-American science fiction thriller film directed and written by Alex Garland based on the book of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer.


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    ooooh color me interested. i really like Alex Garland, and Jeff VanderMeer wrote a book series that the band Murder By Death did some music for.

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    Annihilation is the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, the other two being Authority and Acceptance. I love those books and I've been waiting for this movie since it had been announced even though I'm sometimes annoyed by Natalie Portman.

    From what I've seen it this trailer, it looks like they have captured the book very nicely.

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    PO'TMAN MOTHAFUCKA!!!!!! I'll totally see this as I enjoyed Ex-Machina.

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    Having never heard of the books and having no clue about them, this film looks goddamn incredible. I'm all over this.

    I love mildly enjoying a trailer and then seeing/hearing one thing that just grabs me and says "YEP, NOW I'M IN." The design on those flowered bodies. Oh my god. Take my money.

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    I can't say I enjoyed the first book (and I haven't read the second two) but It's certainly stuck with me in the way good art does. I hope the movie does it justice.

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    Annihilation



    saw this today and was completely blown away.

    part of me wants to read the books but i also kind of want to just have the movie, as i think it was pretty flawless. i just want to show it to everyone i know so we can talk about it.

    p.s. this is the Netflix non-US poster since they're handling distribution/streaming outside of the US, which is the only territory getting it in theaters for some reason. but it's way better than the US poster.

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    I saw it Tuesday and really enjoyed it. Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow's score was sublime, especially near the end. It's a shame Paramount is treating it like total shit, because we need more weird R-rated sci-fi films.

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    I really dug this movie. It was disorienting at times but beautiful throughout. I’ll need to see it again for sure.

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    I read the book a couple years back. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it did have some cool stuff going on. I thought it was pretty neat and innovative how he basically just took the whole Lovecraftian cosmic horror of the unknown concept and applied it to ecology and the environment. It was a fun, quick read.

    But when I saw the trailer for this, I kind of lost my interest in seeing it. It just looks so different. I don't get why they show all those monsters and creatures and shit. There's none of that in the book. The book has this lurking, ominous tone, and the horrific stuff is always far in the distance, out of sight. It's more about enjoying the weird, evocative mystery of the place. So why the fuck do they show Natalie Portman screaming and blasting away on a fucking machine gun in the trailer? It just doesn't seem like they retained the mysterious vibey shit that made the book fun for me.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mantra View Post
    I read the book a couple years back. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it did have some cool stuff going on. I thought it was pretty neat and innovative how he basically just took the whole Lovecraftian cosmic horror of the unknown concept and applied it to ecology and the environment. It was a fun, quick read.

    But when I saw the trailer for this, I kind of lost my interest in seeing it. It just looks so different. I don't get why they show all those monsters and creatures and shit. There's none of that in the book. The book has this lurking, ominous tone, and the horrific stuff is always far in the distance, out of sight. It's more about enjoying the weird, evocative mystery of the place. So why the fuck do they show Natalie Portman screaming and blasting away on a fucking machine gun in the trailer? It just doesn't seem like they retained the mysterious vibey shit that made the book fun for me.
    i read a few articles today about the differences between the book and the film. i think you should definitely see it, despite your reservations. curious to know what you think.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BRoswell View Post
    Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow's score was sublime, especially near the end.
    some of the acoustic guitar stuff felt a bit out of place (the bits of score earlier in the movie) and repetitive, but the electronic and other elements were fantastic.

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    Quote Originally Posted by eversonpoe View Post
    some of the acoustic guitar stuff felt a bit out of place (the bits of score earlier in the movie) and repetitive, but the electronic and other elements were fantastic.
    I agree that it felt out of place, but it almost seemed like it was done on purpose. That cue always seemed to pop up before shit went down.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mantra View Post
    But when I saw the trailer for this, I kind of lost my interest in seeing it. It just looks so different. I don't get why they show all those monsters and creatures and shit. There's none of that in the book. The book has this lurking, ominous tone, and the horrific stuff is always far in the distance, out of sight. It's more about enjoying the weird, evocative mystery of the place. So why the fuck do they show Natalie Portman screaming and blasting away on a fucking machine gun in the trailer? It just doesn't seem like they retained the mysterious vibey shit that made the book fun for me.
    No spoilers, but I will say that stuff makes up a tiny percentage of the film. Paramount seemingly wanted to promote it as some sort of sci-fi action thriller, but it's not that at all.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BRoswell View Post
    I agree that it felt out of place, but it almost seemed like it was done on purpose. That cue always seemed to pop up before shit went down.

    No spoilers, but I will say that stuff makes up a tiny percentage of the film. Paramount seemingly wanted to promote it as some sort of sci-fi action thriller, but it's not that at all.
    yeah, that's true. it did always seem to happen right before stuff happened.

    and yeah, it really wasn't well-represented by the trailers.

    also, did anyone notice that Spoiler: the house in the shimmer was like an older version of lena's house? that gave me goosebumps.

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    Quote Originally Posted by eversonpoe View Post
    also, did anyone notice that Spoiler: the house in the shimmer was like an older version of lena's house? that gave me goosebumps.
    I noticed that too. I thought maybe Spoiler: The Shimmer was playing havoc with Lena's memories and causing her to see her house.

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    I saw this today and liked it. I had read the book and they are definitely tow different things. Which to me is a good thing because it allows me to appreciate the medium and the creator's intent for what they both are.


    I have not read the whole trilogy, just book one and part of book two. I really enjoyed the first book, it has a bit of a hallucinatory effect with how it deals with identity, reality and even language.


    The movie comes at it much differently (if I had to say a more palatable for the masses "movie" kind of way, but not an in overly lazy or "dumb-ing down way"), but still, I think, accomplishes some of the same vibes and concepts of the book. It looked great and overall the narrative was effective, but that would be my only complaint. I feel like maybe there was a better way for the movie to unfold or reveal itself.


    I still think I like Ex Machina better, but based on Annihilation, excited to see where Alex Garland goes next.

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    i really didn't like it and wanted to so badly, but i'll try it again on streaming.

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    Quote Originally Posted by frankie teardrop View Post
    i really didn't like it and wanted to so badly, but i'll try it again on streaming.
    any particular reason?

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    plenty. i found the cgi to be a rough go, the dialogue forced and weak, the plot to be very incoherent, and the overall of the visual tone felt like a cheap instagram filter. i also found it to be slow and monotonous.

    for the record, i generally love slow paced films (70s horror fanatic) and i love almost all of garland's previous efforts.

    it also reminded me of better works- solaris, invasion of the body snatchers, the day of the triffids, etc.

    i wanted to like it because it's just weird enough to be exciting, and it's worth supporting risky sci-fi films to prove that there's a market out there outside of marvel. the trailer looked phenomenal and i saw it opening night.

    it's my understanding that there was a lot of meddling going on behind the scenes, and even though garland may have won and gotten to make his vision, perhaps something was lost in the process.

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    I liked it but will unlikely feel the need to see it again. I don't know if it was because I was in a older theater but the soundtrack felt a little loud at times. Overall it reminded me of Arrival meets Event Horizon.

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    Saw it yesterday and was underwhelmed. It wasn't deep nor was it scary, though it was kind of trying to be both. Didn't succeed in either. It was pretty to look at but that's about it.

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    I was so excited to watch this after reading about it about a month ago as one of the best Netflix films to catch when released, me and my girlfriend watched it on Friday and were loving it until the last quarter pretty much. It seemed pretty aimless but a really good film until Lena went into the hole at the end and the mirror alien came alive, it seemed totally random and out of nowhere, the end where she met Kane again and it was hinting about them both being replacements with the alien gene I did enjoy, but I can't say it lived up to the hype.

    The Shimmer was beautiful though, I loved the colours they used and the scenery - beautiful stuff.

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    Liked it, especially the "pig-bear" (?) scene was seriously terrifying, the voices it was making... arrgh, help. Also, the background colors during end titles were beautiful (not joking). Natalie is not very good actress though (e.g. Kate Winslet is, for comparison).

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    Quote Originally Posted by Substance242 View Post
    Liked it, especially the "pig-bear" (?) scene was seriously terrifying, the voices it was making... arrgh, help. Also, the background colors during end titles were beautiful (not joking). Natalie is not very good actress though (e.g. Kate Winslet is, for comparison).
    what makes you say she's not a good actress? other than the star wars prequels, she's fantastic. especially in this. she has an almost clinical detachment while also going through something extremely emotional. it's an impressive balance to strike and i think she handled it beautifully.

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    Read the book this week on a long train ride, then watched the movie. Liked both quite a bit!

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    Also, something that's baffling to me: Here you have a movie with not even just one female lead but with a cast dominated by women. Two of those being of color, while another character is decribed as being gay. An intelligent and challenging movie that's not making a lot of fuzz about it. And yet, with all that black dresses at those award shows and #metoo and Hollywood, no one seems to care about Annihilation, but is rather creaming their pants for the next uninspired comic bbook adaption.

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    This movie was basically perfect. The CG was a little rough at times (alligator...doppelganger), better at others (bear). Portman is stiff (SHOCKER) at times. Other than that, no complaints. The ending was amazing, the music from Geoff Barrow of Portishead and Ben Salisbury was gorgeous, oft-putting and wholly unique. Alex Garland can do no wrong. People complaining about original sci-fi storytelling in cinema need to see this man's stuff.

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    Gee it's almost like they are posturing and the whole focus of that town is about something else entirely....


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