Annihilation

[Bluegrassdevil1]

So... did anyone see it this weekend?

I checked it out today. I have read the book series (fine for passing the time in an airport), I enjoy Garland's work, and I thought the movie was a fine time at the movies.

Personally, I took the film, which from my vague recollection, is quite different from the book series, as sort of a cancer metaphor (cancer themes were pretty heavy in the film), so I suppose that is interesting.

I quite enjoyed the all female led action idea, and the vague Alien homages. I am unsure if the film would appeal to a mass cinema audience, but it is ideal for a Netflix jaunt.

If I am correct about Jason Evan's "terrifying scene" note... and it involves chairs... yes, it was profoundly unsettling.

[JasonEvans]

If I am correct about Jason Evan's "terrifying scene" note... and it involves chairs... yes, it was profoundly unsettling.

Yup. even thinking about the terror in that scene still wigs me out today.

A buddy of mine also came away from it with the cancer metaphor. Someone else theorized that it was a metaphor for marriage, though I like the cancer comparison better.

Spoiler text below for a discussion about the ending:

Spoiler!

What did you think of the ending? I found all the stuff in the lighthouse a bit too trippy. Why did some people go insane in the lighthouse but not Portman? Why did the alien doppelganger blow itself up? What did the meaning end with Portman and Oscar Issac both having glowing eyes? I guess what happened was that the lighthouse scene was not completely truthful and that Portman was the one who blew up in the incendiary grenade and the alien is the one who comes out alive to tell the story to Bennedict Wong. That's my guess but a lot of what happened at the end was inexplicable. I guess that is ok to some extent, but the movie did such a fabulous job explaining things along the way, I sorta hate that it took its deepest mysteries and did not bother to answer them.

-Jason "anyone else see it?" Evans

[Bluegrassdevil1]

Yup. even thinking about the terror in that scene still wigs me out today.

A buddy of mine also came away from it with the cancer metaphor. Someone else theorized that it was a metaphor for marriage, though I like the cancer comparison better.

Spoiler text below for a discussion about the ending:

Spoiler!

What did you think of the ending? I found all the stuff in the lighthouse a bit too trippy. Why did some people go insane in the lighthouse but not Portman? Why did the alien doppelganger blow itself up? What did the meaning end with Portman and Oscar Issac both having glowing eyes? I guess what happened was that the lighthouse scene was not completely truthful and that Portman was the one who blew up in the incendiary grenade and the alien is the one who comes out alive to tell the story to Bennedict Wong. That's my guess but a lot of what happened at the end was inexplicable. I guess that is ok to some extent, but the movie did such a fabulous job explaining things along the way, I sorta hate that it took its deepest mysteries and did not bother to answer them.

-Jason "anyone else see it?" Evans

Honestly, once the Richard Feynman/Marie Curie devotee opted to become a flower child, I found myself accepting that everything was going to be a touch bonkers. I suppose your viewpoint is correct, but I do find that Garland does tend to disappear up his own tookus (Sunshine went zombie; Ex Machina, with the skin that magically fit).

I do believe your marriage metaphor/connection could absolutely be true, which would make the ending sort of an evolutionary Adam and Eve, with the lighthouse being the tree of life and/or Garden of Eden.

If Garland was going for cancer (I cannot remember if the books were comparatively metaphorical), then the final reunion could be a "cancer forms when the body's normal control functions stop working" symbolism, so the old cell (the Biologist) must form with the new, abnormal cell (The Soldier). But I suppose that is marriage/procreation as well, so... I have no flipping idea.

[luburch]

Yup. even thinking about the terror in that scene still wigs me out today.

A buddy of mine also came away from it with the cancer metaphor. Someone else theorized that it was a metaphor for marriage, though I like the cancer comparison better.

Spoiler text below for a discussion about the ending:

Spoiler!

What did you think of the ending? I found all the stuff in the lighthouse a bit too trippy. Why did some people go insane in the lighthouse but not Portman? Why did the alien doppelganger blow itself up? What did the meaning end with Portman and Oscar Issac both having glowing eyes? I guess what happened was that the lighthouse scene was not completely truthful and that Portman was the one who blew up in the incendiary grenade and the alien is the one who comes out alive to tell the story to Bennedict Wong. That's my guess but a lot of what happened at the end was inexplicable. I guess that is ok to some extent, but the movie did such a fabulous job explaining things along the way, I sorta hate that it took its deepest mysteries and did not bother to answer them.

-Jason "anyone else see it?" Evans

Caught a showing last night. Probably my favorite film of 2018 so far.

Spoiler!

I believe Portman made it out, but it is clear that the virus/mutation/whatever is inside of her. Notice the tattoo that she didn't have at the start of the movie? I think the "doppelganger" in the lighthouse was confused. Issac clearly wasn't himself, but that didn't matter to Portman at the end. Possibly because she knew she wasn't the same as when she went in the shimmer? I haven't had the opportunity to read any theories online yet, but I'm sure there are some great ones.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

I saw this with my girlfriend and her mother this weekend. I had suggested we see Black Panther; somehow we ended up here instead, and I've been trying to figure it out ever since.

So, let me say this...I'm glad I saw it, and I will definitely watch it again once it hits iTunes or whatever. I enjoyed the process of the movie, it was beautiful to watch in parts, deeply unsettling in others, but by the end I was pretty much lost as to what I was watching. I had the same 2001 comparison in my head, and strangely enough, I had the same thoughts regarding the movie possibly being about cancer. There was clearly a constant theme regarding evolution, and mutation, and change, throughout the move. My immediate thought when the grenade went off was that Natalie Portman had possibly cured cancer, or the alien was cancer, or who knows. It's funny, though, because I went to reddit to see what people thought of the movie, and I didn't see the cancer idea brought up anywhere. I figured I missed the point of the movie entirely until I saw some people with the same thoughts here. Duke minds think alike.

There's clearly no right interpretation to this movie. It's deliberately ambiguous, and while it may be fun to debate, you can pretty much take out of it what you want. As for the last scene, my assumption was that Oscar Issac was a complete fabrication, a clone of sorts, while Natalie Portman had changed--as everyone who enters the Shimmer does--but her change was more of an evolution from who she used to be.

My girlfriend was upset that most of the movie was so quiet that she couldn't find an opportunity to eat her sushi that she had smuggled in, and so that may have colored her opinion of the movie, but suffice to say she was not a fan. This is--as has been said--most definitely not for everyone. You really have to be up for this kind of thing, but it's definitely a trip if you're up for it.

[Wander]

Saw it! I think the cancer interpretation by several previous posters is clearly correct:

1. The movie made sure to point out that three of the main characters had a connection to cancer.
2. Lots of imagery and talk of cells and the shimmer "expanding."
3. The physicist character's choice was extremely reminiscent of choices made by terminally ill patients.
4. The grenade situation was a reference to chemotherapy.
5. The ending represents the cancer coming back after the chemo destroyed most of it.

As for the lighthouse scene, Natalie Portman tricked the alien into blowing itself up once she realized it was copying all her movements. Brought back memories of fighting Dark Link in Ocarina of Time...