Oblivion | Review
I didn’t see ‘Oblivion’ for plot, I saw it for its beauty. But I still expected there to be somewhat of a decent story to go along with the visuals. Nope. Director Joseph Kosinski, who made his feature-film debut with ‘Tron: Legacy’ – another “pretty” film, has a knack for sleek and cool visuals, but his weakness in screenwriting is apparent. It’s set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where the planet’s been destroyed during a battle with invading aliens, and where Earth’s population has completely evacuated. Tom Cruise is Jack Harper, a maintenance crew member stationed on Earth, whose job is to maintain these huge machines that absorb Earth’s resources and convert them into energy for the human population living on a space station. His partner and lover is Victoria (Andrew Risenborough). The film’s “mystery” kicks into gear when a pod crashes on Earth. The pod contains a female (Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko) whose been haunting Jack’s dreams lately. Dun dun dun.
The first problem with Oblivion is that it starts with a five-minute exposition-filled narration from Jack about what happened to Earth with the war and whatnot. That’s not a good way to start a film, especially when Jack says the same exact narration to another character later on in the film. So we have to hear it twice? I think the audience would’ve been smart enough to connect the dots.
Cruise and Risenborough have some nice chemistry, but Cruise and Kurylenko do not. Kurylenko’s acting also weighs down the film and it seems like the only thing she knows how to do is look confused.
The plot feels very familiar, even though it’s supposed to be an “original” film. It suspiciously borrows ideas from other sci-fi classics like The Matrix, Total Recall, and even Wall-E. It’s a film that has big ideas but lacking in execution. Yeah, it’s pretty looking, but that’s it.
