Writer-director Alex Garland brings his trademark visual style and sci-fi experience to "Annihilation," an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's book of the same name. Natalie Portman plays Lena, a biologist who joins an expedition to explore the Shimmer, a mysterious area that was formed after a meteorite hit Earth. Lena's husband (Oscar Isaac) had gone on a previous expedition to the Shimmer and suddenly died not long after his return home. Searching for answers and a way out of her grief, Lena joins four other women on this mission into the Shimmer, where they soon discover that nothing is as it seems.
Alex Garland made a name for himself in horror and sci-fi by writing films such as "28 Days Later," "Sunshine," and "Ex Machina," which he also directed. Like these other films, "Annihilation" marries high visual style with elevated storytelling as the film follows Lena and her companions into the unknown, literally and figuratively. The film is notable for its nearly all-female cast, as Natalie Portman is joined by Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson and Tuva Nuvotny on the expedition into the Shimmer. "Annihilation" uses exciting visual effects to create this alien world with strange creatures, much like "Men in Black," so follow the team into the Shimmer if you want to see an intense and stimulating sci-fi tale.
