Annihilation

Spoilers.

From Alex Garland, the writer of one of my favorite movies, 28 Days Later. I wanted to be biased for this film.

Biologist Lena (Natalie Portman) goes through a mysterious shimmering wall in search of answers as to what it is and what it did to her husband Kane (Oscar Isaac). Lots of super weird things happen that are ostensibly explained through the imagery of a cell replicating and an overarching idea of biology blending inside "The Shimmer." In the end she more or less knows what happened to her husband due to some videos he shot while inside, and even gets him back, but overall the mystery is little more than an occasionally creepy or cool roller coaster of disappointments.

Whenever a Why is explained about The Shimmer, it's not a revelation. It's just ... "Oh ok."

I don't mind it out of principle. I'm totally okay with a movie not explaining itself, or using an umbrella explanation like "this unexplainable thing is making unexplainable things happen." I quite enjoyed it earlier this year when The Cloverfield Paradox utilized it. The two were received like polar opposites, but from my seat -- at home on my couch -- they're remarkably similar. Annihilation felt very much like a Netflix film -- in both the good way and the bad. Bad in that it was less than advertised, and good in that it was an original and well-assembled film.

It has practiced pacing, a slow increase of tension throughout, and a firm grip on how to build a quality moment. Each one gets ruined later of course. Sometimes preemptively through flash-forward interrogation scenes. It's like the exposition scenes are there because there was no confidence in the audience's ability to understand visual storytelling. The dialogue is reiteration of what we've seen but simplified; making it all feel mundane. But the curious moments in and of themselves work well. Disregarding the glaring soft white light, the cinematography is thoughtful and fits the style, and there are moments when the score is mesmerizing.

I presume the idea was the lights and colors were blended like everything in The Shimmer -- a neat idea in theory, but visually unpleasant. It gave an eye-ache. 

It's in the details that the movie most shows signs of life. Though many moments were ruined by the too-revealing trailer, including the return of the bear. Though it having Sheppard's voice was still a wonderfully disturbing feature. Also interesting: the guy who'd grown into the wall like a clicker from The Last of Us, the tree people, Kane's bear-rose tattoo, Lena's tattoo which appears on her arm and is also visible on Anya and Last of Us Dude; and the end sequence was extremely unusual to say the least. Things like the tattoos are just tidbits. Others like Dude and the trees are explained in ways that sucks out all the wonder while never satisfying your curiosity.

"Everything gets blended." Great, cool idea, but that's not an explanation, it's just a description of the result. Why? How? Is it good or bad? Why should we care? Scientific terms are used, but it's not challenging to understand. This movie was advertised like another Interstellar; promising mind-bending, science-y scifi. It spends half its time in exposition, but it never goes deeper than the main idea. I can't have my mind blown over the same thing twice, no matter how many times its illustrated. And they introduce many potentially strange things, only to explain them away in the same disengaging way over and over.

The rules were all-encompassing, so I accepted everything that happened unfazed.

The movie falters equally as a horror film, for the same reasons -- less than advertised, and lack of exploration leaves potentially disturbing elements as merely weird, so the terrifying things such as the bear are left as fleeting external threats. It's unclear if the alien being was meant to be viewed as a threat. Characters talk about it in an understanding way, but it's pattern is one of causing death, and the film ends with Lena tricking it into self-destructing instead of herself self-destructing for it. The Shimmer still exists inside Lena and Kane, so presumably it lives on -- but if it's a representation of self-destruction, isn't that bad?

"It wasn't destroying. It was making something new." "Making what?" "I don't know." That exchange sums up everything. We're meant to look at it positively but are given no reason why. Not even a vague one that invites interpretation. It seems to clash with the film's theme of self-destruction and replication. There's also a cancer thread that goes maddeningly unexplored. The movie only ever points out things; details that tie together into a meaningless theme. It's all very tidy and interesting, but at some point, I need satisfaction, and something concrete to hold on to.

"Kind of a lame movie." -- My Dad. It's not that it lacks the proper features; it just doesn't work them properly. 

As a drama, it's weird and very hit-or-miss. I liked what the actresses did to give an extra smidgen of personality to their characters, but the supporters are given one or two lines of exposition dialogue as their character development, and it doesn't go far. I liked Sheppard's quiet, matter-of-fact manner. And a clear thematic reason for all the cancer mentioned was missed. Oscar Isaac and Natalie Portman are good together. So good that I found it a stretch that she'd cheat on him. The idea is introduced that self-destruction is in our DNA, so she can't help it, but the ending was meant to counter that, I believe.

Never lacking something odd to look at, the main fault I have with Annihilation is that I looked hard for answers to the mysteries beneath the oddities, and the hidden intelligence I thought I'd been promised; I was prepared and ready to have my mind challenged, but I never found anything inside to interpret. It was all a pretty shell; and when laid bare, the fascination crumbles.

Thor: Ragnarok

Spoilers!

It's Thor's third movie, and he breaks out of the mold, traveling to before-unseen worlds, making new friends, and getting a bold haircut. Ragnarok is the Norse apocalypse, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) thinks he's got it all under control, but then the goddess of death, Hela (Cate Blanchett) is unleashed, and overthrows Asgard while Thor is stuck on a forgotten planet with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) fighting in gladiator matches with Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) for the entertainment of Jeff Goldblum. And, of course, the entertainment of us.

 One thing's for sure: that Led Zeppelin song is the movie's MVP.

This movie sells itself on entertainment, and sells itself BIG. Its success in that area is pretty undeniable, unless you are completely against the kind of entertainment Marvel produces. All the earmarks of Marvel Entertainment are there, and cranked up so high that it sparkles like lightning in Thor's fingers. It's full of dazzling colors and shapes and is filmed with bold visual flair; it runs a mile a minute, always moving with action, or bantering conversation, or cracking a joke. Entertaining, entertaining, entertaining -- for the whole runtime, you barely have an opportunity to stop and wonder why you should care.

That may or may not be by design, but it might as well be, because if the film slowed down enough for you to think to yourself, "Well that was fun, but when will Thor face his demons? How is his relationship with Loki gonna develop? What are the stakes here if Hela wins?" then you might begin to see that there's no meaning to be found among all that razzle-dazzle. The boxes do get ticked, but only on the most base level. Like, Thor does have demons to face in a vague "all seems hopeless" moment -- and learns the exact same lesson that 15-year-old Peter Parker did a few months ago, but with significantly less magnificence than Spidey.

It works best as an action-comedy. But even comedies need some kind of emotional grounding.

And Loki and Thor clash amusingly as Loki is bad then good then bad then good then bad and then good again. (Yes, that's an accurate number of flip-flops.) But their complicated relationship isn't explored so much as it's referenced. "Remember that time you faked your death and took over Asgard? Yeah, that made me mad." When they talk about how Loki being mischievous is just his nature, and Loki looks like he's wondering if it really is, things begin to touch on something deeper, but it goes no further than that. In the end when Thor assumes he's gone bad again and says if he was really there he'd hug him... and then he is there... how about we get to see that hug? Why is this movie so afraid of emotion?

Hela is literally destroying Asgard and killing its citizens, and in the end Thor must let Ragnarok come upon Asgard and destroy it just to defeat her. This is big, serious stuff, but it doesn't feel it. It's done so flippantly. Honestly the movie's best arc was my man Karl Urban's, who goes from big doofus, to aspiring evil, to moral questioning, to cool and heroic, all as a side character. And then of course his death is careless, though I guess it was meant to be emotional. Hulk is there for the laughs, and the new girl Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is cool and tough, but neither get more than the requisite glimpse into the depths they might have reached.

Everything look great! But, everything looks great.

But yeah -- haircut. Hulk the superstar. Jeff Goldblum just being himself. Hela's horn helmet. The wacky trash planet. Director Taika Waititi's overdone cameo as rock-monster guy. And they play Immigrant Song TWICE. Who needs character or themes anyway? Well, I do -- but the fact is, I enjoyed watching this movie. I was ready to be entertained and the film was eager to entertain. But now the entertainment is over and I'm left with no connection to the movie. There's nothing to hold on to. And that kills rewatchability. If I ever watch it again I'll probably sigh at the jokes instead of laugh, and wish for the Shakespearean character drama of the first film, which rises higher in my esteem with each new installment.

Enjoy the spectacle, but don't look for a heart among the spectacular chaos; you won't find one. On the surface, Ragnarok is as toned and muscled as its title hero. Underneath, it's actually as bare-boned as the slack-jawed skeleton that's hanging out with him at the beginning. There's a certain charm to being duped with so much careless glee, but the spell can only last so long.