‘Annihilation’
If 2015’s Ex Machina showed the promise of writer/director Alex Garland coming into his own with a visually striking tale of a near-future where leaps forward in technology blur the lines around what we define as human, then Annihilation delivers on that promise. And then some. Anchored by a confident and compelling Natalie Portman, the film takes a team of five women (scientists, military, medical) inside a mysterious extraterrestrial phenomena called the Shimmer. It’s a great group of actresses — Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Tuva Novotney join Portman — playing an endlessly fascinating team of women. The visuals are astounding, and the when the story dives headlong into examinations of self and self-destruction, the movie really takes a leap. The final scenes of Annihilation will be pored over by sci-fi and cinema fans for a long time, and not just in an attempt to figure them out.