"You really have no idea what it was. "

The movie adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel Annihilation represents a very specific area of science fiction storytelling:  the alien enigma.  Very few of those stories end with a resolution to the central mystery, and Annihilation is not an exception to the rule.

It's been described as a combination of Contact, Arrival and The Fountain, but none of those references really touch the core of the movie.  For a better cinematic starting point in the challenges of comprehending the unknown, I'd suggest 2001, the 2010 guerilla film Monsters*, or either of the movie adaptations of Solaris, Stanislau Lem's classic SF novel.

As in those films, the unknown in Annihilation remains just that: unknown.  The mystery is never solved or understood, and we are left to judge it only by its ambiguous effects on those who have attempted to explore it.

At the core of Annihilation is the Shimmer, a zone of anomalous effects that surrounds the impact point of a meteorite at a lighthouse on the Florida coastline.  The slowly expanding Shimmer has defied analysis, and no one has returned from any of the attempts to explore it.

This changes at the start of the film with the unexpected reappearance of one of the mission members: Sergeant Kane, the husband of cellular biologist Lena, played by Natalie Portman.  Kane, who has been missing for a year, is disoriented and suffering from some kind of physical trauma when he returns to their home.

Taken into custody by the government on their way to the hospital, Kane and Lena are transferred to Area X, the research base for examining the phenomenon, where Lena decides to join the next group of explorers to enter the Shimmer as Kane slowly deteriorates in quarantine.

Annihilation's disjointed, staccato pacing only emphasizes the strangeness of the environment that the five-woman team of scientists ventures into.  This small group of interlopers offers a full spectrum of responses to the strangeness of the Shimmer and its disconcerting effects on their minds and bodies: confrontation, defiance, curiousity, acceptance, and fear, as demonstrated through strong performances by the excellent ensemble cast of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Portman, Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson, and Gina Rodriguez.

My main criticism of the film is that it doesn't go far enough in its evocation of the alien - I expected it to be far more extreme in its depiction of the oddities created by the Shimmer.  Only during the final scenes at the impact point of the meteorite does the movie attempt to fully reach into the bizarre possibilities of alien existence.

 

It's hard to say whether Annihilation succeeds or not - that would depend entirely on what you think it's trying to do.  It's deliberately non-linear, ambiguous and open ended, and as such it falls well outside of the standard approach to storytelling.  It may be that its success lies in exactly that, its lack of answers to the questions it raises.

- Sid

* In which the Mexican/US border is defended by a massive wall, in case you were wondering where Donald Trump gets his ideas.

One single tribe.

"What happens now determines what happens to the rest of the world."

T'Challa, Black Panther

Black Panther, the 18th film set in the Marvel Comics Universe, has proven to be an incredible success.  The movie is full of powerful dramatic performances by a superb cast of actors, and its record-breaking box office performance clearly demonstrates that the story of T'challa, king of Wakanda, resonates with audiences on an international level.

That being said, I have to confess that there were some parts of Black Panther that disappointed me.  It may be caused by sheer familiarity with the various obligatory tropes and themes, but there weren't very many places where the movie surprised me - let's be honest, T'challa's journey from victory to defeat to victory is very much what you would expect it to be.

In fact, his opponent's journey is a more interesting one in some ways, to the point where Erik Killmonger comes very close to being the hero of the movie.  It would only take a very slight change in the plot for the film to become the tale of a lost son of Wakanda who returns from exile after the cowardly murder of his father, and then fights the son of the killer for the throne of the country, after which he will have the opportunity to use his new position to change the outside world.

Ultimately, the thing that does set Black Panther apart from the standard superhero movie formula is the cultural and moral background to the story, as symbolized by the country of Wakanda.

 

An impressive creation that draws upon a myriad of cultural influences to create an idealized African city-state with one foot in the past, and one in the future, Wakanda combines tradition and innovation:  its skyscrapers feature elements from thatched huts, its scientists wear clothing patterned after classic African tribal costumes, and it relies upon both technology and ritual observances.

Wakanda is also a thought experiment, the idealized dream of African country that has been free from the consequences of exploitation, colonization, and war.  However, the dream is a tainted one: the Wakandans are very aware of their privileged status compared to the countries that surround them, and justifiably fearful that to extend a helping hand would be to share the issues that plague their neighbours.  As W'Kabi, leader of the Border Tribe, says to T'Challa, "You let the refugees in, you let in all their problems."  As such, they are only willing to provide minimal aid to other countries through undercover operatives.

The dream is also something of a sad one when it is compared to real world. Wakanda is a what-if Africa, one which stands in stark contrast to the problems that have plagued the real African subcontinent for generations, problems caused by both long-standing tribal conflicts and the unwanted interventions of European interlopers.

It is the problems of Africa and of the underprivileged around the planet that provide the real story for this movie.  The underlying theme of Black Panther deals specifically with the fundamental question of intervention versus inaction, of community and unity, of whether or not power should be used to help the weak, even if it means the end of one's own comfortable security and the possibility of mutual failure.

 

In the final analysis, the hero decides to do exactly what heroes are supposed to do:  save the world.  Except in this case, he decides that the world should be saved for everyone, by a little bit, every single day.  It's a shame that there aren't more heroes like that in the real world.

- Sid

Not to mention the Lululemon League.

Of course, the Vegan Tyranny.  Just past the Yoga Confederacy, and perhaps sharing borders with the Gluten Free Republic.

- Sid

P.S. To be fair, this probably deserves a little more explanation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega