Oscar Isaac Joins Alex Garland's Annihilation, Not Even Most Exciting Part

One would be forgiven for thinking a movie called Annihilation sounds a little too close for comfort to a cataclysmic retread in the vein of Batman v. Superman. And if someone told you that all signs currently point to Oscar Isaac joining the cast, you’d politely let them know that they must be thinking of the also very loud sounding X-Men: Apocalypse, where he’ll join fellow motion captors and prosthetic prisoners Lupita Nyong’o, Josh Brolin, and Idris Elba in what sounds like the cell to be! in franchise jail. But no earplugs necessary, just your rapt attention, because Annihilation is writer/director Alex Garland’s follow-up feature to Ex Machina and a rousing science fiction thriller by the sound of it. Per Variety - not only is Isaac set to partner up for another dance with the director but join what is already shaping up to be the most promising and diverse fist pump of an ensemble for a 2017 release.

On second thought: maybe hold onto those earplugs. While no one can hear you scream in space, here on Earth the names “Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Gina Rodriguez” are enough to break the sound barrier. Annihilation, based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name, tracks the expedition of a four-woman team charting a mysterious territory chocked full with deadly unknowns of both chemical and zoological varieties. Portman is set to play the biologist – whose husband (Isaac) may or may not be dead – while the other three top-tier actresses will gear up as an anthropologist, surveyor, and psychologist. Point me to the nearest fainting couch!

Where to begin. How about the mere fact that Black Swan, Amy Archer, Sam White, and Jane the Virgin are about to do a Mission Movie together that promises a journey into the unknown packed with scares and science? This could be the Ghostbusters of paranoid, alliance shifting, contamination adventure movies. Television’s brightest shining star, and reliably sharp eye of the storm, Gina Rodriguez is one big screen smash away from the boundless stardom she’s projected since before her Golden Globes speech. Tessa Thompson perfected the art of cool and detached authority in Creed and Dear White People, so she’s a no-brainer for this crew. And Isaac? He’s just the cherry on top of the sundae.

Which of this beloved quintet would you most want watching your back while on expedition?

Review: Ex Machina

Michael C.   returning for review duties. 

Science fiction stories have wondered for ages if people will accept technology that simulates human behavior, but honestly, it probably won’t be much of a struggle. The robots will win in a walk. The urge to empathize is hard wired into the human psyche. I can remember when I was young, watching other kids develop deep emotional bonds to plastic eggs with crude blinking pixel displays just because they were called digital pets. What chance does the species have when a robot arrives with supermodel looks and a subtle range of emotion, one that can take you by the hand, gazes deeply into your eyes and say, “I love you” like it means it? Game over, man...

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Posterized: Alex Garland of "Ex Machina" Fame

My schedule has been in complete disarray so I haven't yet seen Ex-Machina, opening today in limited release, but I've heard many thumbs up from the critical community. 

 As an early adopter of this year's "it" girl, Alicia Vikander, I'm excited to see her as a cyborg or whatever she plays in the movie. But we'll get around to Alicia and her men (Domnhall Gleeson & Oscar Isaac) after we see the picture.

Ex Machina (2015) marks Alex Garland's directorial debut but his name is already a familiar one at the movies from adaptations of two of his novels, and as a screenwriter himself. He has also served as an executive producer on a few movies, not pictured here like 28 Weeks Later (2007) which of course spun off from the film he wrote, and this summer's Big Game (2015) an action film starring Samuel L Jackson as the President of the USA. 

HOW MANY GARLAND-RELATED FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN?

THE BEACH (2000) based on his novel
28 DAYS LATER (2002) original screenplay
THE TESSERACT (2003) based on his novel
SUNSHINE (2007) original screenplay
NEVER LET ME GO (2009) his screenplay adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel
DREDD  (2012) his screenplay adaptation based of the comic strip character Judge Dredd

If you've read any of his novels -- the only one that hasn't been adapted for the screen is "The Coma" -- you win bonus points, and must share your feelings. It's the law.