Alex Garland – Tripping Through Gateways

Lena is a professor who has been trying to come to terms with her husband Kane’s disappearance a year back. He went on a mission for the Army and seemed to disappear completely. As she tries to move on, one evening he just walks into the room. Kane is tight lipped, even absent minded. Suddenly, he starts to vomit blood. On the way to the hospital, the ambulance is accosted by government agents.

Lena learns where her husband has been, a strange part of an American swamp that is encircled by a strange barrier. To try and get answers as to what is wrong with Kane, Lena volunteers to join four other scientists into what they call “The Shimmer”. They realize it may be one way, as other than Kane, no other group has returned.

What they find within the shimmer is evolution on overdrive. Biological life is being melded into new lifeforms. The four scientists begin to question their sanity and even their physical forms.

Annihilation is a patient and quiet film. It plays out and reveals itself in a deliberately calm fashion. This is not a sci-fi spectacle. Instead it is a world of frightening beauty. The film is full of haunted, eerie visuals. At one point, they discover shrubbery that has grown to look like people. It is both creep and remarkably beautiful.

Much of the film rests on Natalie Portman’s shoulders, and luckily, she is in sync with the film’s tone. She has a quiet intensity throughout the film. Jennifer Jason Leigh offers us an uncertain leader. Dr. Ventriss appears to have ulterior motives, but the audience gets no more real access than Lena.

Tessa Thompson plays scientist Josie in a role so uncommon for Thompson so far, that it took me awhile to realize it was Tessa Thompson. Josie is quiet and mousey, but has a tremendous intellect. This allows her to start to understand the Shimmer in a way the other women cannot. Gina Rodriguez is the well meaning conflict for the women within the film. Oscar Isaac’s role is small, but his performance as Kane is unnerving.

The film is visually stunning, every frame of the Shimmer full of horrific beauty. Alex Garland (director of Ex Machina) is proving himself a force to be reckoned with in thoughtful science fiction film.

When a new Judge Dredd film was announced, there was no real fanfare. What people did not realize is that the film was being written outside of the Hollywood scene. Alex Garland (writer of 28 Days Later and writer/director of Ex Machina)…Garland is a fan of 2000AD and Judge Dredd.

Keeping the story very simple, Judge Dredd is taking a trainee with him, a hopeful Judge named Anderson. She has some limited psychic ability. Dredd is tasked with evaluating her. When three skinned bodies fall from the sky, Judges Dredd and Anderson arrive at a 200 story building that is pretty much a city unto itself. Dredd and Anderson capture a drug dealer who works for notorious gangster Ma-Ma. To prevent him from being taken out, Ma-Ma has the building in lockdown and then announces to the entire complex that she wants the two judges killed.

This simple setup makes for a very effective story of survival. Our leads must work their way to Ma-Ma to bring an end to their situation. They are cut off from the outside world and must rely on their skills and wit.

The look of the city is grimy and lived in. Full of pollution and decay, the sets of the film are effective. The effects, specifically the sequences depicting the effects of the drug Slo-Mo (it makes the user feel that time has slowed down) are very well thought out. The viewer sees everything in slow motion, with a shimmering effect.

Garland understands what makes Dredd work. Keeping the story simple is such a benefit here. There are no over the top conspiracies. Karl Urban never shows his face without the helmet in this film. And he wears a permanent scowl. Never does Dredd break down. Even when he seems to be relenting on his firm stances, it is in a fashion that he is in line with his attitude throughout the film. Urban really embraced the character and does Judge Dredd real justice here. Anderson is very sympathetic as a rookie and owns up to her mistakes. At one point, she knows she has failed the evaluation but refuses to back down from the challenge of Ma-Ma and her gang. And Ma-Ma? This is no glamor role for Lena Headey (Game of Thrones). She is a drug addict and psychopath…cruel and vicious with scars to show for it.

Dredd has gained a cult following over the past five years, with people hoping for a sequel. A few years ago an April fools announcement declared Netflix was doing a Dredd series with Karl Urban and Thirlby returning. Fans were bitterly disappointed it was untrue. But every so often, we get word of the filmmakers trying to press ahead. And Urban has welcomed the possibility of returning to the role. Most recently, there is the word that a series may be on the way after all, possibly with Urban back as Dredd.

Dredd is a very effective cop survival story, gritty and violent with strong performances. The creators get the characters and manage to remain true to what made the character work in comics, without being alienating to those unfamiliar with the source material.

Alex Garland’s Ex Machina is is a dark tale of amoral scientists and their creation. Nathan (Oscar Isaac, playing a very different role than Poe Dameron) is a brilliant scientist who has created a mechanical person he has named Ava (Alicia Vikander). He has brought Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) in to test the quality and authenticity of Ava’s A.I.

Through a series of interviews, Caleb starts to become confused about his feelings. Is he falling in love with Ava? Is This the real intention of Nathan? Or does he have another goal for Ava?

The film is very dialog heavy, mostly we sit through conversations between Caleb and Ava or Caleb and Nathan. As the film unfolds and more is revealed, thing become darker and darker. Intended or not, there is something being said about scientific culture and it’s view of women, but I cannot speak more on any theory without revealing some big twists in the plot.

The art direction and design in the film is beautiful. Ava is clearly mechanical, and yet looks lovely, making her ability to draw a person in believable, even though only portions of her are covered with a synthetic skin.

The three primary actors give solid performances. Isaac’s egotistical Nathan moves from merely appearing to full of himself to darkly detached from humanity. Vikander has a cold humanity. You know what emotions she is expressing, but they seem slightly off. Domnhall gives a strong performance as a bright guy who finds himself feeling more and more like a devastated pawn.

This is a good film that builds very quietly to a dark and tragic finale.

Tag: Alex Garland

Loveless Fascination (Annihilation, 2018)

I Am the Law (Dredd, 2012)

Love and Deception (Ex Machina, 2015)