Annihilation Review: 8 Ups & 2 Downs

5. It's An Atmospheric, Suspenseful Slow Burn

Even with the fates of the central characters being revealed at the very beginning of the movie, there's still a lot here to get your pulse and mind racing.

Garland expertly doles out the slow-burn mystery at the film's core, progressively ramping up the weirdness ahead of a gonzo third act that's quite like nothing else out there (but more on that in a moment).

The action sequences are also well-wrought enough that it's easy to forget about the business of who lives and who dies, and just get wrapped up in the sheer horror of what's happening to these people.

Though the pace is deliberate, it's certainly not too slow for its own good, and at just 115 minutes in length, the film carries itself along with a healthy dose of intrigue in practically every single scene.