Women of Action: Annihilation
A test screening of Annihilation led a Paramount financier to call the movie “too intellectual” and “too complicated”. That doesn’t bode well for me. I’m the first to admit that I’m not the brightest guy in the world and with a name like “Annihilation“, I’m expecting a certain level of shit getting f*cked up! Let’s see if these Women of Action can bring it?
I have decided against writing a review of Annihilation and would prefer to focus this post on the badass ladies who enter the dreaded “Area X”, where no man but one has returned from. The film itself was very strange. I haven’t read the books that its based on but have heard that they are wild, creepy, and nearly un-adaptable to film. It seems that director Alex Garland didn’t have a shot-for-shot adaptation in mind for the film so it’s obviously ruffled some feathers of the fans but I found the movie to be slow, beautiful to look at, well acted, and yet, disappointing.
Biologist Lena (Natalie Portman) joins up with the group of female expedition into The Shimmer. Lena is also the wife of the only survivor to exit the mysterious area and a former soldier who can handle a fireman. That should be good news to the expedition team sent into Area X as the scientific knowledge they carry means little if you’re getting mauled by a mutant bear.
Jane the Virgin‘s Gina Rodriguez joins the cast as what I would call the “stereotypical gay tough chick”. She, along with Tessa Thompson and Tuva Novotny are given very little in the way of character other than a quick attribute here and there. In the end, the movie falls squarely on the shoulders of Natalie Portman.
Portman is always a game actress and I feel like I write about here every few months for one action movie or another that she’s done. Her career is filled with well-made and well-acted films that she’s almost the female equivalent of Tom Cruise in my eyes. Annihilation is no different for her. She carries the movie, the story, and the action. It’s a wonderfully made movie, even with all of its flaws, and a big reason for that is the way that Portman brings Lena to the screen. Should there have been more action for a movie called Annihilation? Yup. But let’s just be thankful for the man-bear-pig creatures that we got.
