Annihilation [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray]

Annihilation

Overview

After her husband (Oscar Isaac) barely returns alive from a secret expedition, biologist Lena (Natalie Portman) leads an anthropologist (Gina Rodriguez), a surveyor (Tessa Thompson), a linguist (Tuva Novotny), and a psychologist (Jennifer Jason Leigh) into a mysterious, expanding region called the Shimmer where evolution has taken a twisted turn. The all-female team must uncover the area's monstrous secrets to save Lena's husband and the world. Written and directed by Alex Garland. Based on the Nebula Award-winning novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, which is the first in a trilogy.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/29/2018
UPC:	0032429309112
Original Release:	2018
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Format:	Blu-ray
Sales rank:	8,706

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Natalie Portman	Lena
Benedict Wong	Scientist
Sonoya Mizuno	Katie/Humanoid
David Gyasi	Daniel
Oscar Isaac	Lena's husband
John Schwab	Paramedic
Jennifer Jason Leigh	Dr. Ventress
Gina Rodriguez	Anya Thorensen
Tuva Novotny	Cass Sheppard
Tessa Thompson	Josie Radek
Sammy Hayman	Mayer
Josh Danford	Shelley
Crystal Clarke	Actor
Kumud Pant	Actor
Angela Holmes	Scientist
Geoff Barrow	Composer
Ben Salisbury	Composer

Technical Credits

Alex Garland

Alex Garland	Director,Screenwriter
Eli Bush	Producer
Jo Burn	Executive Producer,Producer
Andrew Macdonald	Producer
Dana Goldberg	Executive Producer
Don Granger	Executive Producer
Francine Maisler	Casting
Scott Rudin	Producer
Nina Gold	Casting
Glenn Freemantle	Sound/Sound Designer
Allon Reich	Producer
David Ellison	Executive Producer
Mitchell Low	Sound Mixer

Scene Index

Introduction ix

My Half: Kind Candor xvi

Part I The Emotional Ingredients 1

Gratitude 3

Self-Awareness 11

Accountability 17

Optimism 23

Empathy 27

Kindness 33

Tenacity 39

Curiosity 45

Patience 51

Conviction 55

Humility 59

Ambition 65

Part II Real-Life Scenarios 69

Part III Exercises 175

Conclusion 191

The inspiration Behind This Book 195

Acknowledgments 197

Notes 199

Editorial Reviews

Annihilation, inspired by author Jeff VanderMeer's award-winning novel of the same name, is an ambitious, provocative, and visually sumptuous sci-fi thriller. It boasts a rock-solid cast, an inspired soundscape, and wonderful world-building, though it falls a bit flat in the home stretch. Perhaps most important to Annihilation's success was creating the Shimmer, the threatening area that a team of scientists led by Lena (Natalie Portman) cautiously explore. Mother Nature is running amok in the Shimmer, and the results are both monstrous and breathtaking. The surface of the Shimmer looks like a soap bubble: Rainbows are reflected on surfaces and refracted through all the light coming in. Pastel mold and fungi playfully dot trees and eerily explode out of corpses. The candy-colored tones of this world communicate a Wonka-like whimsy, but an undertone of menace is always present thanks to the constant hum of unsettling noises created by the movie's sound team. The Shimmer is always buzzing, creaking, moaning, or reverberating with thunder-like rumbles, signaling its constant state of creation. The soundtrack transitions between the twangs of the Crosby, Stills & Nash song "Helplessly Hoping" and orchestral arrangements layered with synth patches and otherworldly manipulated vocal effects. This creates a sonic separation between humanity and nature as we know it, and the gorgeously grotesque Shimmer that intensifies the further the team journeys into it. Ignoring director Alex Garland's boneheaded mistake to not bother reading book two in VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy -- in which it's revealed that Portman's character is of Asian descent and Jennifer Jason Leigh's aloof psychologist is half Native American -- the five women who form the core of the cast give excellent performances. Much of the film's conflict stems from paranoia, waning sanity, and perceiving the inconceivable, so the actresses' ability to convey internal struggles, revelations, and terror through their eyes and facial expression is crucial. The team is different from the one in the book, and Gina Rodriguez's paramedic Anya is a welcome addition to the mix. Rodriguez brings physicality and swagger to her role that helps balance the coolheaded academics on the team -- until her emotions overwhelm her in an arresting mental-breakdown scene. All five women succeed at giving the audience glimpses of human self-destruction in distinct ways. As far as plot goes, Garland took the DNA of VanderMeer's book and then evolved and mutated many aspects of it. The movie's major themes are communicated in subtle ways, as well as through awkward direct statements that are somewhat insulting to the audience's intelligence. Annihilation does encourage a second viewing to spot symbols and clues that provide additional layers of meaning to the movie, such as an arm-hopping tattoo of a snake eating its own tail. Unfortunately, the film's climactic confrontation scene is a bit of a record scratch, breaking the Shimmer's spell on the viewer. This partly stems from the presence of a humanoid being that is supposed to be creepy and captivating, but looks more like a person in a lycra bodysuit. Besides this misstep and a few weak points in the character development, Annihilation conveys a mesmerizing concept by building a haunting world that forces its characters to confront abstract ideas about identity, human nature, and creation, but doesn't guarantee them answers. For fans of the book series, the standalone film's convenient ending seemingly closes the door to any potential sequels.

07/29/2019

Arnold’s debut is a lyrical but long-winded portrayal of a woman reckoning with the disappointments of her life. Ash passes her days swimming at a deserted lake with her seven-year-old daughter, Charlie. When she senses Charlie grow distant as she gets older, Ash commits an unforgivable act while trying to reconnect. This sets in motion the crumbling of Ash’s emotional world, revealing memories of an affair with her yoga instructor, a capricious bisexual woman, and a complicated relationship with her father. Ash slips into a depression that confines her to bed, forcing her husband into the arms of a family friend who comes by to care for Charlie. The narrator’s idiosyncratic, troubled personality is expressed through her obsessive interest in sounds and words. During her first date with her husband, she tells him that she collects words, stating that “finding the right word is like finding a pebble on a whole beach of pebbles.” Arnold uses language like a set of dominoes, connecting endings of sentences to beginnings with sounds and phrases to create an artful tumble of prose. However, the novel’s high style comes at the price of momentum, and it becomes opaque to the point of being inaccessible. With very little plot, Arnold’s novel asks questions of profound moral consequence that get lost in the fogginess of its narrator. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Any serious student of Reformed theology needs to sit at the feet of Petrus van Mastricht. The challenge has been that to do so you needed to know Latin or Dutch. Thanks to the herculean efforts of the folks at the Dutch Reformed Translation Society and Reformation Heritage Books, English readers can now learn the art of ‘living for God through Christ.’” —Stephen J. Nichols, president of Reformation Bible College and chief academic officer of Ligonier Ministries


“With each translation of the formative Reformed theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries comes the possibility of our churches being renewed by forgotten treasures. This is one of those gold mines. So important is van Mastricht that even Descartes felt obliged to respond to his critiques and Jonathan Edwards drew deeply from the well of his Theoretical-Practical Theology. It is a distinct pleasure to recommend this remarkable gem.” —Michael Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California


“The very title of this work, Theoretical-Practical Theology, indicates why, three centuries ago, Petrus van Mastricht’s work appealed to Scottish ministers who studied under him or read his theology. Not least of these was his student James Hog, who would later famously republish The Marrow of Modern Divinity. In making van Mastricht’s classic available in English for a new generation of students, pastors, and scholars, the Dutch Reformed Translation Society and Reformation Heritage Books are giving a great gift to the Christian church as a whole, and to students, pastors, and scholars in particular.” —Sinclair B. Ferguson, Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary; and teaching fellow, Ligonier Ministries

From the Publisher