Annihilation
★Skip itIs Annihilation worth watching? (No spoilers)
Tries to be a complex, rewatch-to-understand sci-fi film and doesn't pull it off. Flat characters, a thin world and a twist ending that overwhelms everything. A great cast can't save it. The score, though, is absolutely iconic.
⚠️ Spoiler warning: everything below the quick take, including the full review and ending explained, contains spoilers.
Annihilation review
Some films have such a complex narrative, plot, and world it's impossible to fully comprehend the first time through. Others attempt this, but fail through a lack of compelling story, any real backing to the world, and an overwhelming twist.
Unfortunately this movie was the second. Even a great cast couldn't save it. From the flat characters to the lame ending, every moment felt wasted.
The score is a different story. Absolutely iconic in every way, it is clear why it penetrated pop culture to this day.
Is Annihilation scary?
Scare level: 2/5
It has a few genuinely scary scenes, especially the mutated bear, and some body horror. Most of it is eerie and unsettling rather than scary.
Annihilation ending explained
Lena reaches the lighthouse at the center of the Shimmer, a zone where an alien presence copies and mixes DNA. Inside, she finds a video of her husband Kane killing himself and being replaced by his duplicate. Then the alien presence creates a mirror copy of Lena, which mimics every move she makes. She tricks it into holding a phosphorus grenade, it burns, and the lighthouse and the whole Shimmer go up in flames.
Back at the base, she's questioned about what happened. She reunites with 'Kane', who admits he isn't really Kane. They hug, and both their eyes shimmer.
The ending suggests that Lena may also be a copy, or at least that she's been changed by the Shimmer too. The film ties it to self-destruction: everyone who went in was already breaking themselves down in some way, and the Shimmer just does it on a cellular level.
My take: the twist overpowers a story that never gave me enough reason to care.
Does Annihilation have a post-credits scene?
No. Annihilation has no mid-credits or post-credits scene.
Movies like Annihilation
- Under the Skin (2013) ½ – eerie, ambiguous sci-fi about an alien that imitates people
- The Thing (1982) ★★★½ – an alien that copies whatever it touches
- Arrival (2016) – a scientist and a strange first contact
- Stalker (1979) – explorers walking into a zone where nature breaks the rules