Oblivion (2013)
Tom Cruise stars in one of the earliest blockbusters of the year, will it soar or simply fade into oblivion?
Tom Cruise plays Jack, not Reacher but Harper, who is a technician on what remains of Earth, after an inter-planetary war destroyed the planet. He lives with Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), happily living in their own bubble before they get to join the rest of population up on Saturn’s moon, Titan. The discovery of Julia (Olga Kurylenko), who Jack sees often in his dreams, leads Jack to question who is he really is and the truths behind his mission on Earth.
Firstly, the film is visually stunning and incredible to simply look at during the two hours runtime. With a lot of it filmed not on green-screen, much of the wasted Earth looks authentic and worryingly real. As this is a sci-fi flick; the gadgets, vehicles, weapons and other miscellaneous items need to look good and they certainly do. From the house above the clouds to the sinister drones, the strong colours and brilliant special-effects create a real spectacle to behold.
The other aspects of the film are not so great however. The plot is good enough but takes a lot from other, and better, sci-fi films and the characters are hopelessly under-developed and basic. Tom Cruise pretty much plays a futuristic version of himself, baseball cap and all.
Director Joseph Kosinski creates a beautiful world but forgets that, though Earth is destroyed, there are still people who live there. If some of the effort was diverted from landscaping to character development, Cruise and co. wouldn’t just be cruising through this interesting yet flawed sci-fi.
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