Oblivion (2013)

Movie Info

Another day in paradise

It is 2077, and the Earth has fallen to a race called the Scavengers or “Scavs”.  Now after sixty years, humanity must reestablish itself on Saturn’s moon Titan, but first it needs to get as much of the water supply it can.  Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and Victoria Olsen (Andrea Riseborough) are tasked with monitoring the equipment on the dangerous planet while fending off attacks from the remaining Scavs.  Jack finds himself haunted by visions of a woman (Olga Kurylenko) and memories of a world he cannot possibly know.  When the Scavs bring down a shuttle, Jack discovers the world he has been living in upended and the lone survivor of the wreck is the woman of his dreams.

Written and directed by Joseph Kosinski, Oblivion is a science-fiction action film.  The movie was released to mixed to positive reviews but was a strong box office contender.

Wait…neither of us have a quarter…crap

I saw Oblivion in the theater.  I thought it was great looking, but the movie tried too hard in many aspects.  Rewatching the film years later, I still think the film has problems, but the visuals established by the film feels as fresh as when it was released.  Due to the plot of the film, a ******spoiler alert****** is in effect for the rest of the review.

The story is largely built upon a twist.  The movie has these seemingly two isolated people who arbitrarily have their minds wiped on occasion working on Earth by themselves and monitoring equipment while a voice from above gives them orders and tech support.  It honestly doesn’t make much sense in the workflow and already has you questioning everything so the “twist” isn’t that shocking.

It’s Cruise vs. Cruise

It turns out they are working for the aliens, the scavengers are humans, and they are clones of the people first encountered by the aliens.  They are also distributed all over the planet in different sectors.  Ignore that the only thing really keeping the people out of sectors is the potential of radiation and that Cruise’s character can seemingly go where they want (leading to the possibility of encounter another clone of himself)…in addition, Cruise and Riseborough don’t really seem to discuss their situation despite being the only two people on the planet.  It also doesn’t seem to behoove the Scavengers (who are actually human) to disguise themselves…showing they are human seems like a better offense.

Cruise is good in the film, and it is very typical Tom Cruise.  He is likable and charismatic especially when compared to his intentionally monotone coworker played by Riseborough.  Olga Kurylenko is a nice change as a leading woman, and Morgan Freeman is pretty much just the typical Morgan Freeman type character.  Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays one of the Scavengers along with Zoë Bell, and Melissa Leo is the face and the voice of the commanding force Tet.

Let’s blow this sucker!

The visuals for the movie are impressive along with the cinematography.  The film went for a realism in the visuals by placing high tech in a very natural and human world.  The style of the effects allow them to blend easily and hold up longer than a lot of other visual effects.  It also feels evident that movies like this had later effects on films like Arrival which used a similar technique.

Oblivion has a rather forgettable plot but visuals that stick with you.  The cool and stylistic nature of the movie is what science fiction films hope for when they are made and in that Oblivion succeeds.  The movie was also a classic case of the film giving too much away in the trailer which showed the identity of the Scavs and other plot aspects which risked the already rickety “twist” in the movie.  Oblivion had immense potential, but it believed in itself too much…and that was its biggest fault.