Annihilation

Spoiler

I'm not sure that the life form had an "intent" to conquor. It just grew and morphed. The Kane clone was like a fresh soul, an almost blank tape with a slight memory of his partner. It was drawn to her without understanding exactly why. The purpose of the human clones was perhaps to simply go out into the world and continue to propagate for the survival of the species - like a spore or a virus of course.
One thing bizarre and unexplained was the skeleton parts in neat rows outside the lighthouse. Did previous clones arrange the bodies of their sources in this way before they ventured out into the world?

 

Spoiler: spoiler

True. It may not have any intent or intelligence the way we understand such things, as a being that could be communicated or reasoned with. We don't really know what purpose the entity that caused the shimmer has, if any. A spore may be a good way to look at it, just a dumb propagation. But once the clone is out there, it could have some reasoning and it could be that whatever survival instinct it has manifests through deception. Lena could be a clone. Or she just could be infected, and whatever with, causes her to be deceptive about what really occurred as she would know that if she were suspected of being a clone and not actually being herself, she'd never get out of there. Maybe the Kane clone was a way to lure more people in until it found a different kind of vessel/host in Lena.

I'm about ready to drop spoiler tags, by the way. The movie is out there for people who want to see it, and if one hasn't, they shouldn't be doing detailed reading.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, that makes sense! [/quote]

 

or home video...

 

Looks like a DVD job to me ie not a theatrical ticket.

 

No, I think if it's a movie that interests you, it's better on a big screen.

I wasn't wild about it but it still is enough of a visual treat that it works better on a large screen...

 

She wasn't a clone. We plainly saw that she put the grenade into the hands of the naive alien and ran away. No mystery there.
Also, she wasn't being deceptive, she was perplexed, dizzy from it all - but still infected and then compliant with the Lane clone. She didn't sound the alarm that it wasn't her husband who had recovered at the end. So part of her was happy to see the remnants of her husband return and the other, alien part of her followed its instincts.

 

That's what she says happened. We see the story as told by her, but that doesn't mean she or whatever actually came back is being 100% truthful.

 

Then what we saw happen in the lighthouse and throughout the film was a lie? Nah.

 

Maybe? I don't know. While I was watching it, I took everything I was seeing at face value. But towards the end of that sequence at the lighthouse, it just didn't sit quite right with me how she managed to wipe out this entity and destroy the shimmer. All that was missing was an action heroine one liner. I admit its a problem that if you can't trust anything you see, what is the point of watching. That's a problem with using an unreliable narrator, if you don't want to then have some exposition or reveal on what REALLY happened. But I do think the way the story is structured suggests the makers wanted that to be a possibility for the viewer to consider.

 

I watched it on Netflix when it became available and liked it a lot. I don't mind movies where not everything gets explained in the end.

Spoiler: Anyone notice this?

I noticed something and after some googling I found out I wasn't the only one. So what's your take on the tattoo issue? It seems to come and go. Here's a short bit on it: What Does The Tattoo In 'Annihilation' Mean?

 

Thanks for posting the link to that article. The characters that don’t have the

Spoiler

tattoo are the ones that ended up submitting

 

No, Lena used the only defence she had - the grenade. The creature was a blank that mimicked, mirrored everything that Lena did. It was curious and it studied her actions.
When Lena "gave" her the fire (through the grenade), the creature didn't know what was going on, didn't even know that it was a threat, an attack. It simply copied her actions and "gave" the fire to another person (Kane's corpse). It then passed it on to the wall fungus, then perhaps sensing some sort of problem, took refuge in the "womb" of creation. This in effect destroyed the nucleus of the cancerous cell that was the shimmer. Everything desintegrated. Game over.
The infection remained inside Lena (though, we presume, undetected by the scientists - not made clear) and apparently it disappeared from the Kane clone. No master plan on his part: he was (like the lighthouse creature) a blank tape, thrown unknowingly out into the world, completely mystified and disorientated, like child with everything to learn. He came to Lena because the memory of her was still in his genes (his mate for the new species - which is perhaps why he was drawn to Lena in the first place?) . Lena was obviously dazed and confused after her journey to the heart of darkness and perhaps like Raddek she just succombed to the fate of her infection, embracing the clone.

 

Yes, that's the whole point. Like in the Usual Suspects. She is an alien and just creating a story to disguise who she is and provide an explanation they will buy. The glint in her eye at the end is the giveaway.

 

Earlier in the film, we see Lena and Kane hold hands through a glass of water. I thought that was an odd shot but, IIRC, Lena later picks up a glass of water during her interrogation and the water reverses the image of her hand. So I'm inclined to believe that Lena is a Shimmer clone.

 

I don't agree. That was just to show that the inection was still within her. No malicious intent or deception whatsoever.

 

I was going to give my thoughts but this captured all. One more flashback and I was ready to throw myself into an alien hole. I did like the ending which was ambitious and far reaching. But much of it seemed plucked from all over the place visually and thematically. I kept thinking Tarkovsky meets John Carpenter. But just too many excuse the pun had “shimmers” of Stranger Things, Under the skin, Stalker, Solaris, the Thing, and the dreaded borefest “Arrival.” But i did like the ending!

 

I didn’t like the treatment of the material. Way too Bluebeard’s boudoir for me.

 

Hubby is definitely ripped off from Solaris.

 

Spoiler: Spoiler

In the original script we don't even see her leave the lighthouse, it just cuts back to the interview. Then at the very end more meteors fall to earth. The studio made him change it to have more mainstream appeal, a silly decision since it wasn't going to have any anyway. But... more fun stuff to ponder

 

Yes, this is how I see it. And this ending is poignant -- we've followed our hero's through her ordeal. A surprise ending where's she's really an alien, is just cheap, dime-novel twist. And about a cliche as they come. A better writer would surely avoid it. Booga, booga! There's an alien inside her. I don't think so. Not for this movie.

 

Or maybe the director was meaning to simply say that she was still infected? However, the sublte effect in the pair's eyes gave them an evil, scheming appearance.

 

The biggest clunker in the movie for me was the line “So it was alien!” I mean, come on.

 

The other "coincidence" that leads me to believe the final Lena is a shimmer clone is that her disorientation at the beginning of her interrogation is the same as Kane's when he returns to Lena.