Double Review!: Annihilation and Death Wish

Today I saw Annihilation and Death Wish and I am not sure if either of them were good. They were both entertaining in their own right, but I can't decide if I liked them.

Annihilation (2018)

Annihilation was gorgeous and I loved everything except the end. The buildup was tense and intriguing, just 5 women alone in a mysterious and very expensive looking forest. Their dynamic as they got further into the shimmer and discovered more was great character work and made for some truly thrilling, twisted, and beautiful moments. But the last 10 or 15 minutes took a strange turn that had little to do with the previous hour and a half. It was like the sci-fi version of the shaggy dog joke (if you don't know that joke, I'll gladly tell it to you next time I see you). I would have given the movie 8 divided cells out of 10 until the end, which drops it down to 5 divided cells out of 10. That ending took me completely out of the experience. Personally, I would recommend seeing this in theaters, because it will lose so much on a small screen and might not be worth the time at home.

Death Wish (2018)

Death Wish was confusing as all hell. It was pretty similar to the original, but a lot more cheeky. It updated all of the technology and media scrutiny and tied into modern politics in the sense that nobody knows how to fix gun violence. It felt like Eli Roth just used the movie to confirm everyone's existing opinions about guns. There were elements about guns being too easy to get and elements about how they are essential for protection. Death Wish seems to exist only to give some good action scenes and stir the pot a little. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It was a middle of the road homage to the action movies of old with the one protagonist out of his element, fighting organized criminals to protect his family, like almost every 80s and 90s Arnold, Stallone, or Willis movie. I give it 8 out of 15 bullets in a Glock 27. (Side note - I wonder what gun Trump is going to give me for my classroom?)