Annihilation staring Natalie Portman. The wife and I went and saw it in theaters. A few people straight up walked out after a while and I heard an audible “what the fuck?” After the movie was over from someone in the theater.
On a rewatch after reading that the movie was about cancer I appreciated it a lot more, but it’s a weird one for sure.
It’s probably my favorite scifi movie that made me really feel something. I think you can find a lot to relate to, grief, depression, loss. I really think the main theme is self destruction, specifically resulting from some kind of trauma. Everyone had their own issues and they were all basically destroying themselves and finding solace in the shimmer.
Quite literally self ‘Annihilation’, I think the shimmer itself is more analogous to cancer (continuously expanding, with random distorted outcomes, most of which are agressive towards anything untainted by the shimmer), but fundamentally each of the characters are there for their own different reasons for self-destruction with the hopes that it benefits others, as they effectively know it’s a suicide mission).
The bit that I cannot recall if it was explained is why did the special ops guy go if he had a loving wife at home; what was his reason for self destruction?
The bit that I cannot recall if it was explained is why did the special ops guy go if he had a loving wife at home; what was his reason for self destruction?
I don’t remember an explanation for it aside from it was just his mission as part of being in the military. But he didn’t really have a “loving” wife at home. She cheated on him. Maybe he knew and volunteered for the mission because his marriage was over.
The book is better IMO (other than no Portman :-) and one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever read. Highly recommended.
Did you read all three books? Got real WTF in book 2 and 3.
Yes, I read them all the same week (bad weather kept me inside). Yesterday I read the Silo Stories (3?) in his Machine Learning anthology. I liked the first book and the short stories the best.
The movie was about cancer? Where did you read that?! The movie is the closest movie approximation of the book Alex Garland could make, considering how dense and intertwined the whole Southern Reach Trilogy is.
I found the article I read back when I saw it in theaters. It’s only one dude’s opinion, though. Now that I see the rest of the comments here that makes sense. I suppose back then i just took his word for it.
Sorry if my question sounded like an attack 😬 Vandermeer’s writing style deliberately opens his work to different interpretations and it’s rather interesting to see the same happening with this movie adaptation. Another interesting angle I’ve read is environmental: either in a way that Area X is return to nature (purification) or it’s the opposite (our own destruction of the planet) Getting ready to re-read the whole trilogy, will definitely include this guy’s cancer perspective as I am going through to see how it fits.
My favourite film analysis of this is by Dan Olson of Folding Ideas: https://youtu.be/URo66iLNEZw
It’s a great breakdown and also criticises those “ending explained” videos as well.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/URo66iLNEZw
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Good bot, thank you.
Didn’t understand the hype for that movie at all.
Requiem for a dream
Enter the void
Also “The Void” is another good one.
And Touching the Void for completeness?
The credits just soften you up for the mindfuck.
I just watched Neon Genesis Evangellion. WTF at the end of the series. Then saw there was a later movie with the “real” end. Which was also WTF.
Literally the first thing on my mind when I saw this thread! I needed some time to process what happened after seeing End of Evangelion.
I was looking for this reply. Seconded lmao
Black mirror.
Seriously. That’s a show where I could only do one or two at a time.
I dropped it after 3rd Episode.
Third episode of which season?
Season 1
You missed out on some good episodes. They don’t all relate to each other either, it’s like the Twilight zone you can pick up and just watch one.
The Lobster was pretty out there.
I absolutely love Yorgos Lanthimos’ movies. Killing of a Sacred Deer is probably my favorite. His movies just have this uneasyness that really makes you feel…off watching them.
I tried explaining this movie to someone recently, and it didn’t go well…such a great, weird, movie though.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion. It was a one weird rollercoaster ride. I still can’t understand the movie too.
All I know about EoE:
Top tier soundtrack
“Disgusting”
“We’ll do the rest later”
“I’m so fucked up”
Birds are metal
Giant eyepussy
Tang
Your mom protected you by hanging a doll she thought was you.
Domestic violence
Delete world to hit one last time
Did I miss anything?
“Get in the fucking robot Shinji” is yet again a major plot point.
The Lighthouse. I still don’t know what the hell happened.
The Boys. That show is a wild ride.
Especially, “the one scene”…
You’re going to have to be a lot more specific lol
Sorry! After that one guy, shrunk down and did that thing to the other guy, sneezed, and…
All I saw online were people speaking of that one scene. And to me, that trumped a lot of the others. 😂
Ah, yeah I definitely wasn’t expecting live action cock vore and inflation in the same scene.
I was trying to avoid spoilers but… Yeah, me neither. Cannot unsee!
Yet I’m so excited for the next season. What’s wrong with me?
You need to be way more specific. Nearly every episode has “that one scene”
Primer. I needed to re-watch it at least 3 times to even begin understanding WTF was happening. Even the wiki sites that try to explain it are incomprehensible at first.
Sorry To Bother You was a wild fucking ride. Definitely watch it high for maximum wtf
I still have no fucking clue what that movie was supposed to be about
Selling out to capitalism was my takeaway
I was looking for this one. I went into it completely blind one night and that was a ride.
Eraserhead
Really anything by David Lynch including the old PlayStation commercials
Zardoz. The gaint floating head with the crazy man inside shouting “the gun is good, the penis is bad,” Sean Connery in a WAY too revealing outfit, the bizarre, apathetic, immortal poeple, and wierd pyramid magic.
It was hands down the most strange, unfathomable film I’ve ever seen, and I’ve watched The Dancing Outlaw.
Every time I hear or think about Zardoz, I think “this will probably be the last time I think about Zardoz.” It’s been almost a decade since I first had that thought.
You know, Sean Connery took that role and produced that movie (yeah, he fully embraced it) because he wanted to do something original. But I mean, as weird as it is, and as original it is as that, it is some serious Sci-Fi movie full of social commentary.
Donnie Darko leaves more questions than answers
That’s one that really only makes sense after watching it multiple times. The excerpts from the book(?) tell you the “what” and “why” of the events of the movie. Okay, they tell you enough that it makes some sense…
I’m pretty sure only the director’s cut has the excerpts from the book. It still takes at least two watches and some pausing.
I remember once when I was a teenager turning on the TV at like 2 in the morning on a Saturday and being treated to Adult Swim’s Sealab 2021 for the first time. Along with the rest of their line up around 1999-2003. It was fucking weird as shit. But hilarious.
Adult Swims programming from the exact same time you mentioned helped shape me into who I am now, lmao. What an awesome time for TV. I can remember sneaking downstairs to the TV to put on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I didn’t “get it” but I was very aware that I liked that type of dry humor.
Space Ghost is also how I discovered Triumph the Wonder Dog.
“If by ‘worked with’ you mean ‘banged up the ass’ then, yes, I worked with Lassie.”
“You can say that? Huh. Well, I too, once banged a dog up the a-”
“How was I supposed to know we’d be taken off the air?!”
Didn’t Space Ghost Coast to Coast predate Adult Swim?
I can still hear the theme song…
