Let me start out by saying I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and if you're a SciFi buff like myself; go see it. Well written and directed, it craftily avoids most SciFi cliches, uses the special effects sparingly and with excellent results, and gets great acting out of its cast. Natalie Porter nails it as a soldier scientist and demonstrates why she is becoming one of the best actresses in the industry.
Disclaimer: if you haven't seen the film, I will try to avoid specific spoilers, but I will be revealing things that you may not want to read about till after the movie. If that is the case, bookmark this and return after the film.
A meteor-like an object strikes a lighthouse in Southern Florida, creating what they call a 'shimmer.' People go in to investigate, and nobody comes back out. Until Natalie Porter's husband unexpectedly shows up at their house after having disappeared for a year. The Government snatches her and her now sick husband to a top secret site just outside the growing 'shimmer.' Natalie Porter's character (Lena) and five other women go into the shimmer to see if they can stop the alien expanse.
The characters of the film do not espouse any religion and are modern in all aspects. Children are not heard and not even seen. Lena jokes with her husband about God in a brief scene and the head of the group, Dr. Ventress, portrayed by Jennifer Jason Leigh (man, when did she get older?) verbalizes the humanistic viewpoint that our destructive impulses are biologically wired in our DNA. This point is driven home by revealing a failing of Lena and that all of the women chosen for the expedition have serious flaws.
I give the film kudos for acknowledging the fallen state of humans. Christians call it sin, and while agreeing we are born with it, we identify it's source as our rebellion from God, not from an unknown hereditary evolutionary trait.
As the women encounter genetically altered monsters inside the shimmer, they begin to realize what the shimmer is actually doing. This revelation is pivotal to the film, and it reveals an alien that is true to the evolutionary theory of what humans should have been; mindless, no conscious beings who merely exist to live with no definable purpose. This is the film's message; life just is.
The problem with this Worldview is that it is nonsense. As C.S. Lewis wrote, "If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and the therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."
Nobody really believes this because very few people actually live this way. If they do, they are called sociopaths and are usually locked up for long periods of their life. Humans look for, no crave, for purpose in their lives, even humanist and materialist.
It's solution to the dilemma of the fallen state of humans is telling. Mankind must be transformed to a new creation; this time from a mindless, purposeless (as far is revealed) alien. You know, this sounds vaguely familiar.
It's called the Gospel. Humans rebelled against God, fall into sin. God sends his Son, Jesus, to transform those who believe by Love into, eventually, eternal beings with incorruptible bodies. But God is no purposeless, unfathomable alien. He is our creator, is in love with us and made way for us to be reborn into eternity.
I enjoyed Annihilation and its story of fallen characters looking for truth and transformation. I just like the Gospel version better.
Disclaimer: if you haven't seen the film, I will try to avoid specific spoilers, but I will be revealing things that you may not want to read about till after the movie. If that is the case, bookmark this and return after the film.
A meteor-like an object strikes a lighthouse in Southern Florida, creating what they call a 'shimmer.' People go in to investigate, and nobody comes back out. Until Natalie Porter's husband unexpectedly shows up at their house after having disappeared for a year. The Government snatches her and her now sick husband to a top secret site just outside the growing 'shimmer.' Natalie Porter's character (Lena) and five other women go into the shimmer to see if they can stop the alien expanse.
The characters of the film do not espouse any religion and are modern in all aspects. Children are not heard and not even seen. Lena jokes with her husband about God in a brief scene and the head of the group, Dr. Ventress, portrayed by Jennifer Jason Leigh (man, when did she get older?) verbalizes the humanistic viewpoint that our destructive impulses are biologically wired in our DNA. This point is driven home by revealing a failing of Lena and that all of the women chosen for the expedition have serious flaws.
I give the film kudos for acknowledging the fallen state of humans. Christians call it sin, and while agreeing we are born with it, we identify it's source as our rebellion from God, not from an unknown hereditary evolutionary trait.
As the women encounter genetically altered monsters inside the shimmer, they begin to realize what the shimmer is actually doing. This revelation is pivotal to the film, and it reveals an alien that is true to the evolutionary theory of what humans should have been; mindless, no conscious beings who merely exist to live with no definable purpose. This is the film's message; life just is.
The problem with this Worldview is that it is nonsense. As C.S. Lewis wrote, "If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and the therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."
Nobody really believes this because very few people actually live this way. If they do, they are called sociopaths and are usually locked up for long periods of their life. Humans look for, no crave, for purpose in their lives, even humanist and materialist.
It's solution to the dilemma of the fallen state of humans is telling. Mankind must be transformed to a new creation; this time from a mindless, purposeless (as far is revealed) alien. You know, this sounds vaguely familiar.
It's called the Gospel. Humans rebelled against God, fall into sin. God sends his Son, Jesus, to transform those who believe by Love into, eventually, eternal beings with incorruptible bodies. But God is no purposeless, unfathomable alien. He is our creator, is in love with us and made way for us to be reborn into eternity.
I enjoyed Annihilation and its story of fallen characters looking for truth and transformation. I just like the Gospel version better.
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