Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Annihilation Blu-ray Movie Review

Does The Shimmer Shine on Blu-ray?

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 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Annihilation is a movie that is not particularly concerned with visual dazzle, favoring its own narratively complimentary texturing over visual delight. That is not to say that the movie does not look good, most of the time, on Blu-ray; there are many things to like about Paramount's transfer, but those simply in search of an eye candy 1080p presentation need not look here. The image can be hazy, and it opens hazy. Natural light pours into the frame, yielding a washed-out appearance, at least in certain shots and across particular portions of the frame. Natural sharpness and color vitality are not high priorities for this image. Both are adequate outside The Shimmer and within it, with various elements -- the gear the characters wear and carry, lush greens inside The Shimmer -- standing apart, but the image favors a modestly dreamlike, somewhat skewered, noisy, flat, claustrophobic sort of feel that is clearly intended to compliment to the movie' story and tone by fading into the background. Essential details hold firm enough, core colors find fair saturation even when competing with overexposed skies, and black levels are impressively deep though marked by a spike in sharp noise. The companion UHD release looks much better overall.

Annihilation 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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Annihilation offers several features that tell a detailed story of the film's production. A DVD copy of the film and a UV/iTunes digital copy code are 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 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 Blu-ray features a decent 1080p transfer that's put to shame by the vastly superior UHD image. Both discs feature stellar Dolby Atmos soundtracks and some good extras. Recommended, but buy the UHD instead if able to choose between the two.