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Annihilation
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No theatrical release in Ireland. Straight to Netflix on March 12th.
http://entertainment.ie/cinema/news/Annihilation-will-not-be-released-in-cinemas-in-Ireland/401062.htm
I thought it might be one for Dublin Film Festival
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"The full details of the soundtrack album for Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Annihilation have been revealed. The album features the film’s original music composed by Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow (Free Fire) who previously scored the director’s 2015 feature Ex Machina."
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Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 31,417 CMod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 30117
This can't help but exist in the shadow of Stalker. Garland is obviously no Tarkovsky, and the self-invited comparison to the master isn't entirely flattering. But despite that, Annihilation manages to emerge as a pretty interesting work that has plenty to offer.
It's a confident work visually, making it more of a shame that Netflix were cruel enough to deny it a big screen release. The idea of refraction is the central visual feature of the film (along with the colourful flora andsometimes faunaof the Shimmer) and it's realised well - not just in the Shimmer, but foreshadowed early by many shots through water, transparent curtains or other obstacles. That also echoes the emotional haze many of the characters - of which there are actually very few - are going through. The landscape is a curious, hypnotic thing here - a sort of hyper-reality that's undermined by characters' (who are determinedly dour to a fault) propensity to explain what's going on - a touch more mystery wouldn't have gone astray, even if some of the explanations have poetic consequences (one character giving in to her inner flower). Also: lens flair with purpose!
Where it most obviously departs from Tarkovsky is in its genre leanings - this is sedate by Hollywood standards, but still a relatively straightforward adventure / slasher flick for much of its running time. It's tedious at times in that respect, while surprisingly effective at others (one creature has a creepy gimmick that works very well indeed even if the accompanying CG doesn't hold up 100%, especially in small screen HD). Its character motivations -all dealing with some form of familiar grief or trauma- don't break new ground nor are they particularly deeply explored, but they do the job. The climax is clearly a high-point here -a sort of extra-terrestrial incarnation of the landscape we've just spent an hour in, where the exposition stops and the filmmaking - sound, visual effects, character arcs and even environment - start working in cogent harmony. It doesn't quite follow through with it's underwhelmingly ambiguous ending, but hey ho.
It's a strange mix overall: it doesn't all work by any stretch, but enough does to more than carry the film. It actively asks us to compare it to one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made - one of the greatest films full-stop - and naturally doesn't come remotely close to it. But it's still reasonably successful on its own terms, and definitely several cuts above most mainstream sci-fi.
Just to repeat though: give us our goddamn cinema releases Netflix 0 -
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johnny_ultimate wrote: »This can't help but exist in the shadow of Stalker. Garland is obviously no Tarkovsky, and the self-invited comparison to the master isn't entirely flattering. But despite that, Annihilation manages to emerge as a pretty interesting work that has plenty to offer.
It's a confident work visually, making it more of a shame that Netflix were cruel enough to deny it a big screen release. The idea of refraction is the central visual feature of the film (along with the colourful flora andsometimes faunaof the Shimmer) and it's realised well - not just in the Shimmer, but foreshadowed early by many shots through water, transparent curtains or other obstacles. That also echoes the emotional haze many of the characters - of which there are actually very few - are going through. The landscape is a curious, hypnotic thing here - a sort of hyper-reality that's undermined by characters' (who are determinedly dour to a fault) propensity to explain what's going on - a touch more mystery wouldn't have gone astray, even if some of the explanations have poetic consequences (one character giving in to her inner flower). Also: lens flair with purpose!
Where it most obviously departs from Tarkovsky is in its genre leanings - this is sedate by Hollywood standards, but still a relatively straightforward adventure / slasher flick for much of its running time. It's tedious at times in that respect, while surprisingly effective at others (one creature has a creepy gimmick that works very well indeed even if the accompanying CG doesn't hold up 100%, especially in small screen HD). Its character motivations -all dealing with some form of familiar grief or trauma- don't break new ground nor are they particularly deeply explored, but they do the job. The climax is clearly a high-point here -a sort of extra-terrestrial incarnation of the landscape we've just spent an hour in, where the exposition stops and the filmmaking - sound, visual effects, character arcs and even environment - start working in cogent harmony. It doesn't quite follow through with it's underwhelmingly ambiguous ending, but hey ho.
It's a strange mix overall: it doesn't all work by any stretch, but enough does to more than carry the film. It actively asks us to compare it to one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made - one of the greatest films full-stop - and naturally doesn't come remotely close to it. But it's still reasonably successful on its own terms, and definitely several cuts above most mainstream sci-fi.
Just to repeat though: give us our goddamn cinema releases Netflix
nice review.0 -
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