Annihilation Review: 8 Ups & 2 Downs

7. The Smart, Thought-Provoking Script

As you'd expect and hope for from Alex Garland, Annihilation is an intelligent and provocative film which asks fascinating questions about the nature of existence and the future of humanity.

It is, in many ways, what Ridley Scott's Prometheus and Alien: Covenant really should've been: a tense, character-driven sci-fi thriller that prods and pokes at the nature of creation in a wildly unexpected way.

Through and through, the film eagerly subverts sci-fi tropes, from the typical gender dynamics being inverted - here the woman quests to save the man, and the mission's crew are all women - to the nature of the Shimmer itself (but the less said about that, the better).

It is a film that wants to challenge audiences by eschewing genre convention, and for those up to the task, it's an incredibly rewarding sit.