Flicks, Steve Newall
Alex Garland’s sci-fi Annihilation arrives with a ton of anticipation, deflated somewhat by being consigned to Netflix and forcing its psychedelic, mind-bending, components onto a smaller screen than ideal. To some, the film’s dismissal by producer David Ellison as “too intellectual” and “too complicated” for commercial success was just another factor in its attractiveness. While generating an eye roll at the time, Ellison was probably right as Annihilation veers closer to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker than it does the likes of Predator or Alien - though it's not as much of a slog and has often stunning composition and special effects as opposed to, say, wind blowing some grass (see also: The Happening).
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