this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025

23 points (92.6% liked)

[Dormant, please move to !television@lemm.ee] Movies and TV Shows

2698 readers

1 users here now

Please move to !television@lemm.ee

This is a community for entertainment industry news and general discussion about movies and TV shows.

Rules:

Keep discussion civil and on topic.
Please do not link to pirated content.
No spoilers in the title of submissions. And please use spoiler MarkDown in the body of discussions. This is a courtesy to other users.
Comments solely criticizing headlines and/or journalism will be removed for being off-topic.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

BoozeOrWater@lemm.ee

If you liked Annihilation (2018) you might want to check out The Gorge (2025) (leminal.space)

submitted 3 months ago by CorrodedCranium@leminal.space to c/moviesandtv@lemm.ee

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm going to start off by saying I would recommend watching The Gorge as blind as you can. The trailer doesn't spoil much but it does reveal the framework and direction of the story. If you like the 'vibe' or setting of Annihilation though you may like it.

If you don't mind a bit of a reveal this is what I mean by the last part:

spoiler

Both movies are about a quarantined area where mysteries lurk.

It's near-future sc-fi but leans a bit more into horror and action than Annihilation.

Here's what I liked and disliked about the movie (real spoilers):

spoiler

I went into The Gorge after only seeing the movie poster so I thought it was going to be some kind of Cold War-style forbidden love movie. I was glad to see it evolve into something else.

What I liked the most was the setting and premise. A heavily defended remote and isolated area full of mutated mysterious creatures and plants where attacks are infrequent but when they happen they're in World War Z style is something I find neat. I feel like I see elements of this regularly in video games but less so in movies.

Once they were inside the gorge I would have liked to have seen the mutations as a bit more grand or awe inspiring like they appeared in Annihilation. Maybe a bit less humanoid. That might be a bit hard though considering how dark and foggy it was and how they immediately were trying to get out rather than explore.

all 12 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] itsAsin@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

goddammit. i feel so betrayed by this movie and by the seductive trailers for this movie and by any and all positive reviews of this movie (including yours).

it was such a shitty movie. booooooOOO

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 3 points 3 months ago

What didn't you like about it?

It's not a movie I'll likely watch several times like I have with Annihilation but I thought it was good and had memorable moments. That's a lot more than I can say about other movies I've watched recently.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Gorge tried to emulate some of the visual aspects of Annihilation in terms of the colour pallette, but

spoiler

unlike the latter The Gorge completely neutralised the cosmic dread by trying to explain the horrors with pseudoscience. And it was baaad pseudoscience. Like the mutagen being "in the fog", which is gas coming from missiles (predating the V2 rockets??) that have been... belching it since the mid 40s?? Bullets and knives/sabres being alternatively ineffective and 100% deadly to the horrors, gas and affected creatures being magically contained to the gorge, him not being able to bring personal effects yes her having a record player and loudspeaker with her preferred music present, those "satellite cloaking signals"...

Plus, I dislike horror films where the protagonists survive in the end. It completely nullifies the dread.

[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 months ago

I felt the same way where nothing that made Annihilation great was present in the Gorge. The gorge was incredebly generic action film with some art direction by some people who just discovered beksinsky. Unlike Anihillation, the ecology didn't feel like it made any sense. It rather felt like bunch of loose parts thrown into a box pretending to be a system. Alongside of myriad of other lazily done details that showed they really didn't care about this movie.

[–] BreadOven@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Once I got to the blind statement in your post, I stopped reading. I love annihilation, and have had the gorge on my radar.

Will hopefully be watching it tonight. Looks like you can do a free trial or apple + via prime. I thought it was on Tubi, sadly not. Also looks like it may be on some streaming sites

Thanks for the recommendation.

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 1 points 3 months ago

I'd be interested to hear what you think and if you felt it was a fair comparison.

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I liked the book Annihilation more than the movie.

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 1 points 3 months ago

I think they are separate and different enough to be enjoyed individually

[–] Ankkuli 2 points 3 months ago

I liked The Gorge because Anya was great in it.

[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

After watching it i find it very contemporary since the entire story is about usa and russia discovering they both love genocide.

[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I'll give it a watch. I Annihilation was such a wonderful mix of music and visuals

EDIT: it was the annihilation we have at home: the blum house version. Except blum house nowadays manages to have clever plots. Not too terrible but definelty one of those "oh shit theres another hour to go" movies.