Film review: Oblivion

Newsroom 07/05/2013 | 09:15

Some 60 years hence, aliens have waged war with us and destroyed the moon, messing up life on Earth. Boo! Fortunately, Tom Cruise has survived! Yay! Stationed on a swanky base high above the planet, he pays daily visits to Earth to maintain the equipment extracting the last vital resources, before all remaining humans move to Titan. (That’s the Saturn moon, not the Bucharest neighborhood).

Tom, or former marine commander Jack Harper, is provided with intel from their futuristic tower-top show home by Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), with whom he is also involved in a slightly stilted romance. However, he has been having troubling flashbacks involving another woman, and when he encounters members of the underground resistance movement Harper starts to question his mission.

Director Joseph Kosinski, on whose graphic novel the movie is based, nicely – if rather too leisurely – builds the story’s universe, juxtaposing the ravaged earth and its ragtag denizens with the swish modernity and “have-a-great-day” all-American fakery of the new regime. It’s all very Matrix – grubby resistance fighters doing battle with smartly attired clones recalls Keanu and co taking on Smith – while 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris are other reference points.

The robot wars can get a bit samey, but once the plot proper kicks in some enjoyable twists pepper the ultimately conventional science-fiction narrative, some of which are genuinely surprising, others you can see coming a mile off. Always a safe pair of hands (and pecs) for a blockbuster sci-fi, Cruise carries the whole thing well, drawing on his “regular guy” appeal to humanize what could have been a boring character.

Now in his sixth decade, Cruise the action hero has still got it in his locker – some of the flight sequences are vintage Maverick from Top Gun – and the filmmakers play on his extraordinary Peter Pan-esque youthfulness in flashbacks. While Oblivion is not his best sci-fi outing – which remains the superb Minority Report of 2002 – it is more satisfying than his last venture into the genre, 2005’s War of the Worlds.

Cruise enjoys some decent support, notably Morgan Freeman playing a wise  resistance leader. The women get less to get their teeth into: Melissa Leo is in turn saccharine and sinister as the Hal-type computerized talking head. Former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko is the love interest; the male eye candy takes the form of Dane Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Freeman’s top flunkey.

The slow pacing, especially in the first third of the film, and predictability are offset by Tom, twists and the impressive visuals. Director Kosinski’s last film was Tron: Legacy, where cool design was similarly central to the enterprise. Excluding Jack Harper, there’s little in the way of characterization, but this is often the way with science fiction. The movie avoids being pompous and preachy with a big environmental message. It’s not on the level of the superior sci-fi flicks from which it borrows, but Oblivion seems to have done enough to avoid its titular fate.

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

On at: Grand Cinema Digiplex, Hollywood Multiplex, Movieplex Cinema Plaza, The Light Cinema, Cinema City Cotroceni, Cinema City Sun Plaza, Corso Glendale Studio, Romtelecom IMAX®

debbie.stowe@business-review.ro

BR Magazine | Latest Issue

Download PDF: Business Review Magazine March (II) 2024 Issue

The March (II) 2024 issue of Business Review Magazine is now available in digital format, featuring the main cover story titled “BAT DBS Romania Hub: A Vibrant New Office For An Employee-Centric
Newsroom | 27/03/2024 | 17:32
Advertisement Advertisement
Close ×

We use cookies for keeping our website reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our website is used.

Accept & continue