The film "annihilation" is based on the first book in the series "The Lost South" by American author Jeff VanderMeer. The novel beat "Three-Body Problem" to win the Nebula Award that year, which attracted a lot of attention in China. Liu Cixin commented on the novel as "an adventure in a mysterious and unpredictable world, the artistic conception is strange and distant...". With the release of "annihilation" in China, the author, as a die-hard sci-fi fan, watched this film for the first time.
Since it is a movie review, it is inevitable that there will be spoilers. Those who have not seen the movie can close this page.
Not all novels are suitable for adaptation into films. Halfway through the movie, this idea kept popping into my mind. Perhaps because of having seen the original, the atmosphere that the movie is trying to create is hard to immerse in. Generally speaking, the visualization of text will inevitably weaken the content it wants to express to a certain extent. However, as a re-creation of art, visual literary works can often bring new surprises to the audience.
Unfortunately, "annihilation" (hereinafter referred to as the movie "annihilation") could not bring such a surprise to the author.
Rather than expecting surprises, it is better to say that I am expecting shocks. Jeff VanderMeer used delicate brushstrokes to paint a terrifying Southland in the original book. The so-called fear of thinking, it is better to say that the inexplicable sense of fear that pervades. Therefore, many people praised the original novel for winning the essence of "Cthulhu", making people doubt whether they are sane.
The problem with the movie is that everything is too explicit. Straightforward performance, inappropriate adaptation, make it a mediocre "weird" movie.
The first is the illogical behavior of the characters, which is also what many people criticize. The "Southbound Administration" in the novel has successively sent eleven expeditions to go deep into the "X area", and most of the members were able to come back alive. However, in the movie, perhaps to create a sense of mystery, the "X area" has become a black hole with no return. The "Southern Frontier Administration" has become a mindless agency. As for the composition of the heroine team, there is a very reasonable explanation in the novel, and each member has its corresponding role. And the movie ignores that. Therefore, the overall effect is that the brainless organization selects the weak chicken team to send the head. A novel with an adventurous nature has thus become a movie in which the protagonist keeps dying.
Without a reasonable logic of action, it is difficult for the audience to bring it into it.
The second is the disappearance of mystery. Whether it's the eerie and charming sparkle in Annihilation, or the mutated creatures that combine plants and animals. These visual presentations can indeed bring strong sensory stimulation. However, just like the jungle under the sun, the mystery and fear that lurked in the dark disappeared. In "Alien", the appearance time of the aliens adds up to only a few minutes, and the design of Shenlong seeing the beginning but not the end brings people a double sense of fear. The fear of the unknown is the one that hits the hearts of the people, and the designs of monsters are just scratching the surface. The movie directly gives a simple answer to the mystery of the novel, and it is the expected one.
The display of visual spectacle dissolves the mystery in the fog of words.
Then there are several inappropriate adaptations. The novel shows a strong sense of mystery from the very beginning. For example, when the members of the investigation pass through the "flash", they must be hypnotized by a psychologist. When readers see this, they will definitely have question marks in their minds. Why hypnotize? What if you don't hypnotize? What exactly is flash? In the movie, seeing the heroine and her party go through the "Flash" without any resistance, the author can only secretly complain "WTF?". The mysterious "flash" loses its mystique in an instant and becomes an eerie and beautiful backdrop. Just background. Of course, this adaptation must be a sacrifice for the film's narrative pacing.
Also reduced to the background are all kinds of creatures in the X area. In order to create a feeling of tension and excitement, the appearance of mutant crocodiles and zombie bears constantly pulls the movie to the routine of "killing monsters". These are of course very exciting, and they can only be called exciting.
The biggest flaw in the movie is the cancellation of the "underground tower" setting. The bottomless "underground tower", the mysterious "crawler", which writes endless "fluorescent characters" on the wall, one by one mysterious and weird elements are simplified into the one under the lighthouse that will become human alien creatures. Of course, if filmed strictly according to the original work, "annihilation" may also become a very boring literary film. Now the movie is more of a monstrous amalgamation of the non-existent literary film and the Hollywood blockbuster. become a bit nondescript.
Therefore, those novels that focus more on spiritual performance are difficult to adapt into movies.
Of course, Annihilation isn't without merit. We should be grateful to the development of modern CG technology, and the cooperation of countless artists, so that we can see on the big screen those creations that only exist in dreams.
The combination of animals and plants in "annihilation" gives people a beautiful and weird feeling. The strains grown from the soldiers' bodies are like a postmodern work of art, which is very shocking. A lot of bright colors are used in the film, and multiple scenes constitute a painting, showing an alternative beauty.
In addition, "annihilation" also has remarkable points for the performance of the horror atmosphere. For example, the zombie bear that made a sound first, and then appeared later, would learn how to call it. It really terrified the audience. I have to say that a good thriller is inseparable from a good sound mix. And these are things that words cannot show.
The climax of the whole film takes place under the lighthouse. Whether it is the changing fractal that makes people feel nauseated, or the extremely bizarre "pas de deux", they strongly stimulate the audience's senses. It seems to project a nightmare in front of people's eyes, destroying the audience's nerves with impunity.
When all this dissipates in the wind with those beautiful crystal trees, you slump on your seat like you've just finished visiting a modern art exhibition. The difference is that there is someone accompanying to explain, "the mutation is because of the flash refraction gene", "the one in the hole is an alien". You suddenly realize, have an illusion. "It turns out that this is what happened," "Then I can also create similar works of art." This illusion is like a magic spell that is constantly attached to every film adaptation of the novel, causing the text to annihilate in the changing light and shadow. Writing here, the author can't help but think of the movie "Three-Body Problem" that is far away. At that time, what kind of face will it appear in front of our eyes? The answer is not known, and all we need to do is sit back and enjoy.
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