10 Movies You Weren't Supposed To Understand
5. Annihilation
Annihilation is a movie that is all show and no tell. It immerses you in a world of fantastical visuals and an overwhelming score, but doesn't ever really stop to explain what is going on.
Of course, the audience is initially given titbits of pseudo-science-explanations that are purposely vague and puzzling, but these do little to properly explain the more overzealous and bewildering sequences the thriller builds to.
This, of course, is done purposefully. We begin the movie believing that our protagonist Lena, with her scientific background and level-headedness, will be able to figure out and solve whatever is happening within the "shimmer": the landing place of a meteor that has caused a strange biological occurrence to begin in the surrounding area.
But as the expedition gets more out of hand, and Lena loses more of a grip on the situation, we too lose our grip on what is happening. The reality inside of the "shimmer" is fragmented and blurred. People, plants and things evolve and change, the DNA of our world is subject to change inside the "shimmer" and we watch with fascination and confusion as Lena does.
Our confusion perfectly mirrors Lena's and when the end sequence ramps up to a point where absolutely nothing makes sense, we not only lose our last semblance of understanding, but we lose our protagonist too.
She has become a cog in the machine that is the "shimmer" and we are left with nothing, not even an understanding of the movie itself.