Starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Oscar Isaac

Directed by Alex Garland

Netflix, available 12 March

A biologist signs up for a dangerous mission in Area X, a quarantined environmental zone where the normal laws of nature don’t apply.

Alex Garland’s follow-up to his acclaimed Ex Machina (he performs the same writing and directing duties here) has arrived with as much noise around its unceremonious dropping straight onto Netflix than the content itself, and it’s easy to see why. Paramount have given Netflix the streaming rights to all territories outside of US and China, possibly because they saw little commercial opportunity in releasing it in cinemas. As with The Cloverfield Paradox, it’s a sci-fi tale that doesn’t meet the standard genre conventions, and ultimately is just a little too cerebral.

Alex Garland has based his screenplay on the first of the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer – the others in the series are Authority and Acceptance – and one assumes that Paramount were looking at the potential of creating a complete series. The cast is top rate, headlined by Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, with an important performance by Oscar Isaac.

The idea of an all-female team embarking on a mission that previous all-male teams have failed is an intriguing one. In a story that is all about genetics and biology, can the make-up of a female team survive in the hostile environment where the men have failed? But as this is potentially a suicide mission, those embarking on it are already carrying significant emotional baggage and a ‘nothing to lose’ outlook.

Unfolding as a series of flashbacks, Garland bravely reveals right from the outset what happens in the mission, meaning that our focus is less on the ‘what’ than the ‘why’. Some found footage on a video camera and multiple mutated creature attacks are not unexpected plot developments, but the path it eventually takes will probably prove too unconventional for an audience looking for a slam bang ending.

The title alone suggests something very different, and I feel that this well-considered and technically accomplished will get bad press for not being the film it suggests it is. Saying that, it’s a tough movie to sell – Heart of Darkness meets Island of Dr Moreau.

Verdict: intelligent sci-fi that sits in the sub-genre shared with 2001, Arrival and Solaris, maybe it’s found it’s home on Netflix rather than in the multiplex auditorium. 7/10

Nick Joy