Agree with most here that the visuals and the atmosphere were just amazing. They definitely nailed the "we're not in Kansas anymore" vibe, and half the movie could have been an art installation.

My only big issue was the lazy writing. It seemed to me that jumped around and kept everything cryptic to keep things "mind-bending". "Stuff just happened and we don't remember, how mysterious!" or "this alien is going to kind mimic/kinda feel me up with no explanation, mind blown". Arrival, Primer, and Moon among many others prove you can create a real mind-bending movie without having to resort to the absurdly vague or eye-rolling amnesia.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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Agree with most here that the visuals and the atmosphere were just amazing. They definitely nailed the "we're not in Kansas anymore" vibe, and half the movie could have been an art installation.

My only big issue was the lazy writing. It seemed to me that jumped around and kept everything cryptic to keep things "mind-bending". "Stuff just happened and we don't remember, how mysterious!" or "this alien is going to kind mimic/kinda feel me up with no explanation, mind blown". Arrival, Primer, and Moon among many others prove you can create a real mind-bending movie without having to resort to the absurdly vague or eye-rolling amnesia.

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I didn't mind the amnesia but it was weird that they really only showed them experiencing it once on that "first" morning. I could buy into them having the passage of time distorted no problem, but the filmmaker didn't really ever show its effects again.

The bear was creepy af. The whole movie was indeed trippy, not sure if I actually liked it, which is weird, the visuals and music were solid.

iceman08 said:

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The bear was creepy af. The whole movie was indeed trippy, not sure if I actually liked it, which is weird, the visuals and music were solid.

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Pretty much my exact thoughts. Almost a day later I'm still unsure how I feel about the movie. It's certainly worth seeing as many have said.

Late to the party but really enjoyed this movie. Great to have an original sci-fi without any of the typical cliches.

This was also a film where a primarily female cast worked seemlessly unliked Ghostbusters and Oceans Eight which were clearly forced. Usually if you have some strange phenomenon in a movie you send a team of special forces bros and/or some dislikeable beta male scientists. Portman, Oscar Isaac and Tessa Thompson were perfect castings

Finally got to watch this last night. I felt like it wasn't as good as the sum of it's parts. I liked it enough but just feel like it could have been better. The psychological aspects were not as trippy to me but definitely enjoyed all the weird mutations and the setting was great.

Rented this last night and was really surprised how much I liked it. Read mixed reviews but this was an incredible movie.

agree, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Very intriguing, but definitely not for everyone. Music and visuals were incredible.

When is this supposed to get added to Netflix?

Just watched this yesterday. Portman looked ill and a little too gaunt.

the visuals were stunning and the movie was easier to follow than the book but I like the book's ending better. It seemed dumb that she was the first to try to kill it with fire and then brought down the entire Southern Reach with the fire. Or was that a ploy by the not-Lena to lull humans into thinking they were safe?

Wow. That was weird. Not bad, but very, very weird.

Watched it last weekend on Amazon, didn't care for it. I loved Ex Machina so I went it with high hopes, was a letdown to me.

Finally watched this on Prime and it is not good. So many biological and technical leaps made it implausible and boring for me.
Bummer as Ex Machina was great

This flick is currently free on Prime.

Meh.

tehmackdaddy said:

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This flick is currently free on Prime.

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Which is the only reason I watched it. Meh.

Took me a second watch, but I got a Sci-Fi Alien mental trip. And it was really damn cool.

The shimmer begins as that comet into the lighthouse. And all we knows it grows. Tessa Thompson's character first mentions their inside a "prism". But it's reflecting the DNA of everything. So instead of disintegrating into a floating prism that was seducing Natalie Portman to consume her, she body just replicated yeah? Like the cellular microscopes she was looking at throughout the mission.

Natalie inadvertently managed to 'destroy' the shimmer by introducing fire and that DNA thing wandered into the alien nest alter trip and burn down everything. What I didn't understand: I felt like she (Natalie) was being interrogated by a very Asian group of scientists. I didn't get that impression before she entered the shimmer. So I'm not entirely sure where she was physically when she was discovered. I might have to do some reading there.

So this alien form/shimmer spread through a comet - and now it's seemed to spread through Lena and Kane. They didn't destroy the spread, just slow it down. Loved the visuals and the music. If you're digging Alex Garland - he's got a newest show out on FX called Devs.

Watched it early into the quarantine. Made me feel icky.