Let me start off by saying that I’m am going to have a lot of criticism of this film in my review, so i want to start off on a high note. ‘Oblivion’ is a respectable and possibly impressive piece of science fiction. It doesn’t rely on special effects or action sequences to propel the story, even though it has both in spades. It is an intelligent story line with just the right amount of paradigm shifting twists and turns to make a satisfying science fiction story. That being said, after all the spectacle of this big budget star driven film, I walked away saying ‘meh’.
The film is beautifully made and slick, but it lacks a certain x-factor that would make this a film to remember. In fact, most of the film felt borrowed from other films. There were traces from classic films like 2001:A Space Odyssey and the Matrix. In fact, I had some fun identifying themes borrowed from other films throughout the movie. Despite the film’s intelligence, it felt cookie cutter and almost plastic in the skill it took to put it together.
It’s hard to give a synopsis of ‘Oblivion’ as most of the film involves challenging our understanding of the plot. The premise as the movie opens involves life on Earth after a major war with an alien race. Earth eventually won, but the planet was so damaged that the rest of the population was forced to migrate to Titan, a moon near Saturn. Several clean up crews, consisting of a male-female couple, remain behind on Earth in a sky habitat to help with clean up and to kill stray ‘Scavs’ that still roam the earth. Jack and his partner Victoria are one of those crews and they spend most of their days monitoring and maintaining power plants and the drones that guard them.
Despite the war scavenged world around them, Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) live an almost idyllic life in the clouds. Their relationship is functional and even intimate, but one senses that something is slightly off, especially when Jack’s dreams are haunted by life before the war and people he can’t remember. Their world is turned upside down when a capsule containing humans crash lands in the wastelands. Jack is only able to save one of them, but that person is the woman who has been haunting Jack’s dreams. When the woman, who has supposedly been in suspended animation for almost 70 years, recognizes Jack, Victoria and Jack begin to question their understanding of what they understood to be their existence.
Like I said, I can’t really elaborate or comment on the storyline beyond that. I don’t dislike this film, but it reminds me of a highly detailed paint-by-numbers painting. It’s impressive to look at, but will not leave a lasting impression, nor be considered a classic. Good Saturday afternoon matinee for Sci-Fi fans. It is nice to see an intelligent action film, but Tom Cruise has been losing his star power mojo over his last several films. Hopefully he will regain it, but I think he is losing the ability to credibly lead action films. He might need to start looking for different types of films to showcase his talents.
I give this film **stars
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