This weekend at the movies, get ready to have your mind blown. A few years ago, you might remember a sci-fi movie called “Ex Machina.” It was from a first time director named Alex Garland. That movie was incredible. In fact, it won an Oscar, and now Alex is back with his second movie called “Annihilation,” and it is a trip.
Speaking of trips, I flew to L.A. to chat with the cast.
In “Annihilation,” a huge aurora borealis looking wall called “The Shimmer” has appeared out of nowhere.
Chris Van Vliet: “How do you describe The Shimmer?”
Natalie Portman: “The Shimmer is this environmental phenomenon that nobody really understands that’s killing everyone who goes in.”
It’s killed everyone except for the husband of Natalie Portman’s character, played by Oscar Isaac. He went into The Shimmer and came back, but now he’s in pretty rough shape.
It’s time to let the ladies have a crack at it!
Natalie and four other women have volunteered to go in and try to figure it out.
Jennifer Jason Leigh: “The Shimmer is kind of like a division, a dividing line, except it’s not a line because it keeps moving closer and closer.”
Things are different inside The Shimmer. There’s no concept of time, compasses don’t work and there are strange cross-bred animals.
Gina Rodriguez: “It’s made to make you wander into worlds in your own mind that you’ve never entered — in your subconscious, deeper into our desires and fears.”
The movie is absolutely mind-bending, but the ending still has me wondering exactly what the heck happened.
Chris Van Vliet: “Is it OK that I didn’t understand what happened at the end of this?”
Jennifer Jason Leigh: “I think it’s OK.”
Natalie Portman: “It’s one of those rare movies that you can go and talk to your friends about for hours after and debate, and everyone’s going to have a different opinion.”
Perhaps Tessa Thompson summed it up best when she told me…
Tessa Thompson: “I think this film is more a question than an answer.”
“Annihilation” is in theaters on Friday.
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