Annihilation

La scène avec l' « ours » qui grogne et l'enregistrement psychopathique de l'éventration sont les moments marquants de ce film de science-fiction brouillon et dilué, qui éveille vaguement la curiosité pendant les deux premiers tiers, mais qui finit par sombrer dans une mystérieuse déception composée de thèmes dont la moitié sont complètement plats et n'aboutissent nulle part, tandis que l'autre moitié est certes très intéressante, mais finit par culminer en une conclusion insignifiante de la part de la héroïne qui dit « je ne sais pas ». (07/06/2018)

Une version plus académique de The Thing dans la jungle verte (et sur la plage). Une idée initialement grand public avec une touche légèrement B-movie mais avec des idées intéressantes, qui atteint son apogée dans une rencontre rapprochée du troisième type jamais vue auparavant, fascinant par sa fantaisie étendue et son besoin stimulant de trouver le plus de réponses possible. La scène finale est un retour aux règles du genre mais fonctionne délicieusement. Garland n'est pas un faiseur à succès, c'est un hardcore de la science-fiction. Arrival parlait de la relativité de la perception du temps, Annihilation parle de la relativité des formes biologiques de la vie. Une science-fiction complètement différente, mais dans les deux cas brillante, ambitieuse et innovante en termes de contenu. JEREMIE (24/12/2018)

The less sense there is, the stronger the fate, or how not even a mutated extraterrestrial ecosystem isn’t enough for someone to act with some sense with their protozoan intelligence, isn’t it, Marceloo? But on the other hand, I wouldn’t take Annihilation as a deeply philosophical work, either – the fact that anyone can get frustrated because of that is funny. Portman and four more scientists, about whom a lot can be written (though certainly not that the director has made them likeable) go to investigate a Zone… and they find pretty much what the trailer promised, although there is less survival and mutated creatures than expected. Then it nicely goes to a highly atmospheric and wordless mind-fuck, but there’s nothing unpredictable about it, either. In a Nolan film, Nataly would have spoken a lot in the end and that would be it. I really enjoyed Annihilation, it’s visually excellent, the special effects are engaging and here and there it pushes the mind into a nicely dark direction. But I have a soft spot for sci-fi premises like this, in any media, and I’m really interested in the book version now. But I don’t think this film is that awesome, really; my expectations were perhaps a little higher. (12/03/2018)

I appreciate Garland for one thing: how he is able to seduce critics, through his bloated and, in this case, nonsensical B-movie, to write about sci-fi masterpieces. Which is the case of a film that looks quite bad on television and is vague everywhere where it should be concrete and concrete everywhere where it should be vague. Truly a daring film. (14/03/2018)

It’s great that Netflix, as part of its sci-fi mission, shoots stories that are part of the current new weird novel trend. I actually discovered the author of the source novel – Jeff VanderMeer a few months ago in the form of his book Veniss Underground and I was fascinated by his brutal surrealism. In case of Annihilation, it’s not that obvious but still similar. Had Giger been still alive and participated in the creation of this movie like he did in the case of Alien, it might have been a unique work. It’s still quite decent as it is, though. I was ecstatic even though I’d have appreciated more visual ideas in that bubble. (16/04/2020)