Annihilation: Get Out or Kong: Skull Island?
2017 gave us some great horror films. I go on about them a lot on the pod, but Get Out and It are my highlights. Get Out, with all its Oscar nominations seems destined to be a horror classic (especially if Jordan Peele or Daniel Kaluuya get the wins they deserve- I can’t see anyone other than Gary Oldman or Daniel Day Lewis winning in their category, although I really hope I’m proven wrong and Daniel Kaluuya becomes this year’s Marisa Tomei*). So what’s 2018 going to bring us? I’m going to have a little look at some of the films coming our way this year, starting with…
I can’t decide if I think Annihilation will be brilliant or awful
What worries me a little is last year’s Kong: Skull Island. This was a film I was excited about- great artwork, good trailer, impressive line-up…
Generally speaking the film was liked if not loved, but it isn’t one of the films being talked about (despite a worthy nomination for Visual Effects) and I think it’s a film that will largely be forgotten.
Why bring up Kong: Skull Island? I think there are similarities…good source material? Check. Good artwork? Check. Good trailer? Ditto. Impressive line-up? Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh- yep, yep and yep (also features Benedict Wong who I first saw in the IT Crowd).
The Southern Reach trilogy are such bizarre and wonderful books I think it would be a real shame if the film adaptation of the first (and my favourite of the three) was just alright.
In the Reasons to be Excited list is: Alex Garland, Annihilation will be his second directorial outing after Ex Machina, and as a writer he’s got a great reputation (28 Days Later, The Beach (he wrote the novel), Sunshine). Hopefully his work with Danny Boyle has rubbed off on him and Ex Machina would suggest it has. Another Reason to be Excited is that the cast is really good, really good.
Could Annihilation end up being a film we’re talking about this time next year like Get Out or will it be a bit of a Kong: Skull Island?
*My Cousin Vinnie is a brilliant film and it’s Marisa Tomei’s film.
