Natalie Portman's ANNIHILATION

[YJ02]

This movie gets great reviews, but IMO, it is another instance of the critics' opinions not matching that of viewers(?)

Apparently, those who liked it hail it as a "non cliche film, that bounds on sci fi and poetry (huh?) and raises important philosophical questions"

<<In my best Butthead impression>>> "Ugghhhhh ....OK?"

here is what I watched:

A entirely Earth based plot that has some type of alien bio-former brought to Earth in a meteorite hit. It is expanding (memories of UNDER THE DOME) slowly behind the "Shimmer"

Once in, everything alive is subject to cellular refraction from the shimmer and the movie bounces from sci fi to horror to love story to deranged buddy flick.

Spoiler

// the only "philosophical" question I saw was just how much Portman's character hand wrings and soul searches over having an affair with a fellow professor. All the while her team mates are being consumed by freaks or walking into oblivion //

I didn't think it was bad per se, just kind of a waste of time.

Its on Amz Prime

 

[Overmind One]

"non cliche film, that bounds on sci fi and poetry"



Sounds like mixing broccoli with chocolate chips and anchovies.

 

[Tripler]

This is reminding me of that dumbass movie Arrival only worse as being a huge let down . Arrival had no horror other than the cinematography . OMGOSH I could not turn that movie off soon enough .
Will give it a hop skip and a jump of avoidance !

 

[PussyGalore]

This is reminding me of that dumbass movie Arrival only worse as being a huge let down . Arrival had no horror other than the cinematography . OMGOSH I could not turn that movie off soon enough .
Will give it a hop skip and a jump of avoidance !

I just watched Arrival. You're right, it was very dumb ass. The cinematography was ridiculous. Clearly the director was in love with himself and thought the shots would be super cool when really they just turned out to be tedious and self-indulgently boring.

This Natalie Portman movie sounds similar to Arrival in that a female protagonist focuses on her personal problems despite the fact that a globe-changing event is happening right next to her.

 

[YJ02]

its ironic you guys mention arrival with this

some of the "OMG!!" reviews say that ARRIVAL and ANNIHILATION were masterpieces that complement each other

I, of course, do not agree....

 

[PussyGalore]

Oddly enough I just got Amazon Prime so I might check this one out when I have spare time. But if it's as bad as you guys say I will bail on it quick.

 

[Tripler]

Arrival was , hey look , camera is facing the ground and now it's panning upward . So let's keep doing that multiple times during the movie ... As the Director I am so SMRT !!! It's so artsy fartsy and my peeps are gonna love it !

And it was complete crap ...

 

[PussyGalore]

Arrival was , hey look , camera is facing the ground and now it's panning upward . So let's keep doing that multiple times during the movie ... As the Director I am so SMRT !!! It's so artsy fartsy and my peeps are gonna love it !

And it was complete crap ...

That's exactly what it was. The slow panning camera gimmick was annoyingly distracting. It kept pulling me out of the movie. It seemed like something a film student would do, not a professional.

 

[Tripler]

I lost count as to how many times that asshole did that . Once , fine , but not every godam 15 mins in a movie that is boring as shit to start with and I still have no idea as to how this movie resolved itself . Absolutely no clue ... The aliens left . that's all I know and they did not blow themselves up because she could speak Chinese or something ? WTH !

 

[YJ02]

Oddly enough I just got Amazon Prime so I might check this one out when I have spare time. But if it's as bad as you guys say I will bail on it quick.

thats when i watched it--spare time. now i want it back....

I'm calling Bezos and telling him about it

 

[PussyGalore]

I lost count as to how many times that asshole did that . Once , fine , but not every godam 15 mins in a movie that is boring as shit to start with and I still have no idea as to how this movie resolved itself . Absolutely no clue ... The aliens left . that's all I know and they did not blow themselves up because she could speak Chinese or something ? WTH !

I had to Google what the hell happened in that movie and I still don't really understand it. A movie shouldn't make you go to the Internet to figure it out. Even worse, a movie shouldn't be so bad that the Internet can't explain it.

I'll write a spoiler to explain things but honestly the movie is just so stupid that I'm at a loss to edify people on it. The best I can figure out is there's something about the way the aliens perceive time and their language and when Amy Adams (I don't remember her character's name) learns their language she magically experiences her life all at once. That's how she knows what to say in Chinese because as she's on the phone in one place in time she's experiencing the future where she talks to the Chinese dude at the gala sometime later -- but it's all happening at once. He tells her his wife's dying words at the party in the future which she accesses in the past in order to save her bacon, if that makes sense (and believe me, it probably doesn't).

There's a ton of plot holes in Arrival and stuff that is just plain stupid. Please don't get me going off on a tangent about it. Bad movies like this can really get me going sometimes and I just don't wanna go down that rabbit hole.

Spoiler

The main plot point of the movie seems to be Amy Adams making the decision to have a child with Jeremy Renner while knowing that their child will die of cancer in her teens. Of course she doesn't tell Renner that their child is going to die which is why he leaves her later on. So the big moral question of the movie has nothing to do with aliens really. It has to do with the hypothetical question of is it moral to bring a life into this world if you know that life will suffer and die? Was it selfish of Amy Adams to get knocked up and bring her daughter into the world knowing that girl would die a horrible death in the future? Was it her right to keep her husband in the dark until after their child was born and he was bonded to the child?

So there you go, that's the big moral dilemma. The aliens are really just window dressing for a stupid question about a woman's right to choose, even before conception occurs. God, just thinking about this tripe gives me a headache.

 

[YJ02]

and in arrival, how can such freaky looking aliens be able to construct such ships?

do they even have opposing thumbs?

 

[Tripler]

I was gonna mention that . There space squids or octasquids . So it's time travel with self loathing and causing horrible family pain thrown in huh ... Wow ... What a winner of a movie ,,, And why do they even come in the first place ? There is absolutely no reason for them to even stop by earth to chat up Adams unless Octasquid has the hots for the Amy character , but he blowed up real good !!!

 

[PussyGalore]

I was gonna mention that . There space squids or octasquids . So it's time travel with self loathing and causing horrible family pain thrown in huh ... Wow ... What a winner of a movie ,,, And why do they even come in the first place ? There is absolutely no reason for them to even stop by earth to chat up Adams unless Octasquid has the hots for the Amy character , but he blowed up real good !!!

The movie is also a covert treatise on the philosophy of determinism verses free will. It's supposed to get you to ask the question of do we have free will and can we make choices about our lives or is everything preordained and we can't change anything because we're locked into "determinism"?

The takeaway from the movie seems to be that everything is already determined and we're just puppets playing out our roles. It's really kind of bleak and depressing if you think about it.