Annihilation

Annihilation follows Lena, a biologist and former soldier, who joins a government expedition into a quarantined coastal region known as Area X, where the usual rules of nature appear to break down. Her husband returned from an earlier mission gravely changed, and the team of women scientists she accompanies hopes to understand what happened to him and to the previous expeditions, most of which ended in death or disappearance. Inside the zone, they find landscapes and living things that have been altered in unsettling ways, and the beauty of the place turns out to be as dangerous as its mutations.

Alex Garland wrote and directed the film, his third feature after Dredd and Ex Machina, working from Jeff VanderMeer's novel. Natalie Portman leads a cast that includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny and Oscar Isaac in a supporting role.

Made for about 40 million dollars, the film took in roughly 43 million worldwide, a modest return against its budget. Audiences are more divided than critics: on IMDb it holds 6.8 from some 392,000 votes and on TMDB 6.5 from about 9,600, while the critics' rating stands at 7.8 from 332 reviews. Garland went on to direct Men and Civil War.