ANNIHILATION (Official Thread)(on UK Netflix now)

[Bigblackted4]

I can't answer for him but I would like to add what I liked about Arrival that I didn't like (on first viewing at least) about Annihilation.

*Arrival Spoilers*

I don't like labeling shyt "deep profound" because one mans deep question is another mans obvious answer, so I don't wanna get into pissing matches about what is deep or not. But the question that Arrival presented to me that resonated emotionally was "Is it better to love and have lost than to have never loved at all?" It's a very old question, something I've been intrigued by since high school after my first breakup. And the way it cleverly stitched that question into the emotional center of a hard sci-fi alien contact film was something I was hit hard by at the end.

It recontexualizes all of the "flash back" scenes prior to it, and suddenly Amy Adams subdued interactions with her daughter make a lot more sense, and is pretty heartbreaking in hindsight. She knew that she was going to fall in love, have a daughter, watch that daughter deteriorate and die, and lose her relationship because of it, but she still chooses to live through it. Arrival resonated emotionally with me because of that. The structure of the film was rewarding. And it needed that structure to work.

While I think I followed all of the flashbacks and cerebral questions and themes about depression and suicide in Annihilation, viscerally, none of it resonated with me emotionally. I watched it detached, intrigued, but not really invested, never really inserting my own emotions and thoughts into any of the characters.

I've been depressed, I've been sick, I've been suicidal, but for some reason those themes still never made me feel anything while watching it be explored with those characters. And I never really felt like the out of sequence structure gave me anything rewarding, outside of a vague sense of mystery and suspense. But mystery and suspense was already there, it didn't need that structure.

I felt investment in Amy Adams final decision, in as much as she can make decisions in a closed time loop. For that reason, Arrival worked on a level for me that Annihilation never really reached.The flashbacks coalesced into something that worked plot-wise and thematically. Not really sure it did in Annihilation.

Maybe that'll change on subsequent viewings because Annihilation does have a lot to offer in visuals and concepts. I just hope when I watch it again it'll actually make me feel something (other than dread, it hit the ball out of the park when it came to that.)

Sold me on at least giving Arrival a try

 

[Bigblackted4]

On a meta level of storytelling.

It's basically a story about coping with infidelity and people changing through grief. You become something else.

Just imagine the shimmer as grief/depression and all the characters battling through their hardship as the blueprint of the film.

I get that part just some questions about what the Shimmer actually does to you. I’ve read some responses that help

 

[bordeaux]

i enjoyed it for the most part. i didnt like the ending. but didnt dislike it either if that makes sense. some very cool concepts and visuals. and just like ex machina i found myself thinking about it long after. so, i guess it delivered there.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Interesting shyt is that I heard the main thrust/message of the movie is nothing like the novel. He basically takes the general world and then changes the interpretation of it into something else entirely.

The Movie Version of ‘Annihilation’ Isn’t an Adaptation—It’s a Transformation - Electric Literature

 

[Bboystyle]

Interesting shyt is that I heard the main thrust/message of the movie is nothing like the novel. He basically takes the general world and then changes the interpretation of it into something else entirely.

The Movie Version of ‘Annihilation’ Isn’t an Adaptation—It’s a Transformation - Electric Literature

This been known since it hit Netflix. Thanks for waiting a year to join us

 

[Professor Emeritus]

This been known since it hit Netflix. Thanks for waiting a year to join us

I've known since I first read that article two years ago, only just now found the thread and didn't see anyone else mention it.

 

[Lootpack]

Get so paranoid whenever I hear that musical piece during the humanoid encounter. Haunting stuff. Wish I could be in the theater for that scene.

 

[Silver Surfer]

It was weak

 

[Benjamin Sisko]

Just watched it today and someone tell me wtf happened in the end??

why did Josie (the black girl) turned into a plant??? I thought her “death” was cheap.

what was the purpose of mimicking, cloning humans??

How in the world she was cloned??

 

[Benjamin Sisko]

On a meta level of storytelling.

It's basically a story about coping with infidelity and people changing through grief. You become something else.

Just imagine the shimmer as grief/depression and all the characters battling through their hardship as the blueprint of the film.

But the protagonist got out in the end yet it was implied she was the clone?? I think they messed up big-time

 

[MenacingMonk]

Just watched it today and someone tell me wtf happened in the end??

why did Josie (the black girl) turned into a plant??? I thought her “death” was cheap.

what was the purpose of mimicking, cloning humans??

How in the world she was cloned??

The being had no real purpose but to create a hybrid world.

Tessa’s character probably knew they weren’t leaving alive, and I think she was already changing to be one with the place, so she just went with it. That’s how I see it.

 

[hex]

Just watched it today and someone tell me wtf happened in the end??

why did Josie (the black girl) turned into a plant??? I thought her “death” was cheap.

what was the purpose of mimicking, cloning humans??

How in the world she was cloned??

My post explaining how I interpreted it:

ANNIHILATION (Official Thread)(on UK Netflix now)

Fred.

 

[Sghost597]

But the protagonist got out in the end yet it was implied she was the clone?? I think they messed up big-time

But don't people that pretend to be the victim usually make it out in the end? Yes

 

[kingofnyc]

so this was one of those let’s make a movie just to make a movie

WELP , that’s about an hour and 45 minutes I’ll never get back

 

[The Prince of All Saiyans]

you let an entire movie finish without making a move ?

about 5 mins in imma be like, i think i need to take my pants off to get more comfortable