Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Annihilation 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

The Shimmer Shines Brighter on UHD.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 20, 2018

Alex Garland, writer of the wonderful Sunshine and director of the critically acclaimed Ex Machina, has tackled his most ambitious project yet in Annihilation. But is it his best? The thought-provoking Sci-Fi film unites a pair of Star Wars icons as a couple whose lives are forever changed when they individually enter into an alien environment that is growing, expanding, and evolving right here on Earth. The film is based on a novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. The story is sort of like Under the Dome meets Event Horizon, a meshing of two intriguing ideas that allow for a dark tale of human nature and evolution under entrapped duress on one hand while capturing some gory action and excitement on the other.

Lena's got a gun...part of the world's come undone.

Lena (Natalie Portman) is a professor of biology with a military background. Her husband Kane (Oscar Isaac), also military, has been gone for over a year, having never returned from a classified mission. She's struggling to move on with her life, but her world is at once both turned upside down and returned right side up when Kane walks through her door. Unfortunately, his health quickly deteriorates and en route to the hospital he and Lena are rerouted to a secretive military facility near what Lena comes to know as "The Shimmer," a small corner of the world that is being taken over, and biologically altered, by a mysterious alien force. With Kane in a coma, Lena agrees to join a team with the goal of entering The Shimmer and reaching a lighthouse within, which was the original point of impact for the alien takeover. It's a dangerous mission with a low probability of success; none who have entered, outside of Kane, have ever returned. Inside, Lena and her team discover a world that's equally amazing and deadly, holding many secrets and many perils that threaten not only their world and their bodies, but also their minds.

Annihilation is a methodical motion picture. It is quick to build intrigue and intensity but slow to expand on either. Garland rushes the viewer into a tale of character curiosity and alien environmental alteration, hinting at several of the story’s critical developments within the first few minutes but slowing down to explore the significance of most every primary and support construct along the way. The movie’s linear narrative is interrupted by flashback on several occasions, as Lena’s time in The Shimmer forces her to reexamine her life and consider her fate. Amongst several moments of high intensity action and stomach-churning violence, as the film and characters survey the beauty and bastardizations that have quickly evolved in The Shimmer, Annihilation explores some very interesting ideas and introduces subtle hints of deeper themes amongst the more foundational journey into madness and the unknown.

It is perhaps that Garland has created a world that is physically familiar and aesthetically pleasing but also mentally maddening and oftentimes crudely horrific that keeps the audience drawn to the world of The Shimmer, engaged in the story and concerned for the almost certain deterioration of the group that enters is deceptively dark clutches. That juxtaposition is a powerful tool that the film employs in nearly every sequence, allowing individual shots and longer scenes to build towards moments of not always narrative surprise or technical ingenuity but certainly the world's, and by extension the story's, next evolution. Garland's world is fantastic, but it never looks or feels grandiose. It's careful in what it reveals, strict in its depiction of how the alien entity has reshaped the world. It's very grounded in its fantastic constructs, which are sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly woven into the narrative's greater fabric. The film is bold in many of its choices but not so bold, usually, to cheapen any of the critical visual or narrative components that define it.

With that in mind, the film suffers through a few drawbacks that render it a less-than-perfect Sci-Fi film. At the same time that it truly excels in some ways, Annihilation plods through a handful of hackneyed ideas and trite tries at visual and aural sophistication, sometimes at the expense of both narrative structure and flow. For as wonderfully realized as the core production may be, for as intense as several scenes play, for as generally strong as the acting may be, Garland plugs in several moments, qualities, and characteristics that never quite match the total tonal balance. Whether oversimplified industrial sounds dotting the finale or a see-them-coming-a-mile-away final pair of shots, the film feels occasionally flimsy, even as its core remains stout and strong. It strives for a balance of beauty and terror, of foreboding and urgency. It’s a balance Denis Villeneuve's brilliant Arrival achieved with grace and grandeur. Annihilation finds less success in its totality but is certainly a high quality example of high concept Sci-Fi moviemaking.

Annihilation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Annihilation's 2160p/Dolby Vision-enhanced UHD release, well, annihilates the companion Blu-ray. To be sure, this movie is not a looker in the traditional sense, and particularly on Blu-ray. The movie is digital and relatively flat by its nature, a little soft and without much in the way of truly spectacular coloring (beyond natural greens) or highlight-reel texturing. Both are sured up, oftentimes to (comparatively) spectacular result, on the UHD.

This disc's Dolby Vision color stands as the unequivocal visual highlight. The color palette is much more stable here. Shades are significantly more firm and stout, sure and capable. The Blu-ray often plays with an unattractive haze about it. It's still there on the UHD to some extent -- it seems part of the filmmaker's vision for the movie -- but it's been considerably reduced, replaced by a more carefully tuned contrast that doesn't render highlights so aggressively blown out and the spiky noise so pronounced. Take a dialogue scene in a large open space early in the film. Light bounces off the white walls so aggressively that, on the Blu-ray, details are lost and a thick haze appears to envelop the characters. On the UHD, the white balance is much more precise and the haze is largely gone. Low-light noise is much more stable and blacks and shadows more refined under the Dolby Vision parameters. As the action shifts to The Shimmer, skin textures tighten, clothing hues -- mostly shades of beige and green -- are more refined, and greens offer a significant boost in pop and intensity. The Shimmer's full spectrum color waves, which kind of look like large, globular bubbles reflecting sunlight (with splotches of purples, greens, reds, etc. floating about), are much more sure and punchy than they are on Blu-ray.

The film was reportedly shot at 6K and finished at 4K. Increases in sharpness and detail are not as significant as is the boost to color, but they're easy to spot and the firmer color saturation certainly aids in bringing out the best details. Textural increases are more conservative than they are radical. The image brings out finer facial textures, more capably presented clothes, and sharper vegetation throughout The Shimmer. Overall image clarity is boosted by a good margin, and the UHD's cleaner look and more capable colors enhance the complimentary boost in detail. The film plays much better, and looks much better, on UHD. Even for a movie such as this, which isn't exactly a visually stunning film (at least in a traditional sense), the UHD format carries it to much greater heights over the comparatively bland and unsightly Blu-ray.

Annihilation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Annihilation's Dolby Atmos soundtrack makes for a wonderfully adept compliment to the movie. The film opens with a few quality, albeit subdued but scene-critical, effects, such as buzzing fluorescent lights and chilling musical notes that play with a nice sonic diffusion and modest, but noticeable, overhead presence. Music takes full advantage of the space given to it. The reunion scene early in the film sees the song that plays atop push into every channel, with vitality and clarity alike hallmarks. The overhead channels engage with some regularity and push through support for music, atmospherics, and intense action effects. Helicopters fly around, and above, the listener 11 minutes into the movie with obvious movement through the rears and across the top end. Intensely swirling effects and aggressively positioned music 93 minutes in sets the scene for the approaching climax, which offers much the same type of intensity, complimented by a substantial, at times, low end push. Action scenes come alive with chaotic intensity. Growls, gunfire, all variety of high-octane sound elements push into the stage with highly efficient placement, a strong subwoofer component, and plenty of raw power. Jungle ambience is very refined and is well received by the ears. There's a seamless sense of space, an organic openness to the track that brings an eerie familiarity and a sense of dread to The Shimmer. Dialogue is reproduced without flaw for the duration.

Annihilation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Annihilation's UHD disc contains no extras, but the bundled Blu-ray does. Below is a review of what's included thereon. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Part 1 - Southern Research (1080p): Includes two parts. Refractions (11:20) explores the challenges of translating the book to screen, story themes, crafting the movie's visual style and structure, digital support challenges, real-world visual inspirations, and more. For Those That Follow (15:04) explores the characters and the actors who portray them while discussing the individual and collective qualities they add to the story.
• Part 2 - Area X (1080p): Another two-part feature. Shimmer (12:12) covers the value of shooting in sequence, filming in the UK, set construction and design, making challenging practical and digitally supported scenes, and more. Vanished Into Havoc (15:03) takes a more detailed look at making practical and digital support effects in the film.
• Part 3 - To the Lighthouse (1080p): The third and final two-part feature. Unfathomable Mind (11:46) covers the science, look, and visual construction of The Shimmer, both the outer shell and some of the visuals within. The Last Phase (8:06) looks at the qualities Director Alex Garland and the crew brought to the shoot. It also explores the film's appeal as both an entertainer and a thought provoker.

Annihilation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Annihilation teems with strongly developed and richly realized ideas, but it also falls just short of greatness. For all of the magnificence -- the characterization, the world building, the juxtaposition of beauty and grotesque violence -- it cannot help but to lean on cliché in several moments, and its final shots are dull, stale, and predictable. It's still a good-to-great film that's this close to standing amongst the genre's greats. Paramount's UHD is a very substantial step forward from the Blu-ray in terms of better defining, coloring, and shaping the viewing experience. The Atmos soundtrack is great and the supplements are thorough and enjoyable. Very highly recommended.