Annihilation

On my own last night while Laura was out of town, I thought I'd give the movie version of Annihilation a try. I loved the book, but the movie was unloved by critics. Perhaps the perceived flaws with the movie reflected the inability of critics to deal with the fundamental vagueness at the narrative core of the novel? Alas, no. The movie took a strange, impressionistic novel and (surprise) rendered it Hollywood. Natalie Portman was a great choice for our protagonist– "the biologist"– but she was wasted, toting a machine gun and oo-ing unconvincingly at weird exo-biologies that resembled nothing as much as plastic flowers and deer lichen purchased at a Michael's craft store. Perhaps they were. I turned it off after 30 minutes and decided to re-read the book. Just as good the second time around. Note to Guillermo del Toro: I bet the rights to the excellent sequel are available for cheap. You'd have fun.