‘Something here is making giant waves in the gene pool,” says Natalie Portman’s Lena, a cell biologist and ex-soldier investigating weird events in “Annihilation.” To say the least. He has science in his genes, thanks to his maternal grandfather, Peter Medawar, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1960. His previous film, the 2015 “Ex Machina,” explored artificial intelligence and genuine sexuality through the presence of Ava, a beautiful robot played by Alicia Vikander. But “Ex Machina” was tightly constructed and elegantly wrought, while his new film is, literally and figuratively, all over the place. We see what the women see when they come upon revealing pieces of evidence, but the meaning remains ambiguous—and scary.

Source: Wall Street Journal February 22, 2018 21:18 UTC