Annihilation is a 2018 adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's novel of the same name, Alex Garland wrote the script and directed. A meteor hits a lighthouse and creates a zone that's bordered by a soap bubble like shimmer.
Over time the shimmer has gotten larger. Natalie Portman's husband is a military man who went into the shimmer and didn't come out. A year has passed and he shows up in the hallway of their house. He can't communicate well and a short time later some men come and drug the couple and spirit them away to a secret military base near the shimmer.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is a scientist who's going into the shimmer with some other women. The meteor has released something that's changing things around it, mixing DNA and such stuff, it infects the women. Why anyone would go in there, I can't imagine. Things don't go well for any of them really.
It's all slow paced and meandering. My mind wandered while I was watching it. Some of the effects are fairly good, especially the physical set dressings, the CGI critters weren't very good at all. I wouldn't need to watch it again.
Invader is a 1992 low budget SF film written and directed by Philip J Cook. He mostly makes commercials, this was his second movie, he directed one more film and then made a series of web TV shows. The military takes a crashed UFO and puts the computer in a newfangled fighter plane. Of course it takes over the plane and then the local soldiers. A reporter for a sleazy tabloid and a DOD Captain fight back.
The script is weak and filled with all the cliches you'd expect. There's a fair sense of humor but the jokes are weak. The actors are not great but adequate. Same for the sets, props and CGI. Pretty much below average, I wouldn't want to see it again. That sure seems to be a common comment on the SF films that are available for free on Amazon Prime. Admittedly they are the ones that I haven't seen already. There are plenty of good SF films out there, I should watch some of those sometime.
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