Annihilation

Not a good implementation of the book. First of all the acting isn't spectacular or anything; Fairly basic. Natalie Portman does an OK job, but Jennifer Jason Leigh is so so.

What you need to know is that besides the narrative is that it's one of those modern male-unfriendly movies. It's about an alien crash site. Male soldiers were sent first, but they failed their mission. So now they send scientists. All of them women. But what happens next is that they wear militarized outfits and brought military combat rifles with them...

The movie refuses to be smart enough so they could send both scientists and soldiers. No sir, these days men, especially white men are too much for Hollywood. Needless to say the added value of a female-only "science" team with M16's was never shown, but that's how it works these days. In fact, at one point they were surprised one of them could actually wield a rifle (100 pound Portman was a former Marine in the movie).

So the bad is the feminized picture, the often stupid dialogue and the overall bland acting. The good contains some action and a good (but Hollywood style superficial) story with a few nifty interesting details.

It's nothing like the books.