Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: Oblivion

Monday, April 22, 2013

Oblivion - Review

Oblivion
(2013 - April 19)
Action | Adventure | Mystery
2 hr. 6 min.

Rated: PG-13 Sci-fi action violence, brief strong language, and some sensuality/nudity Read more
Grade: A-

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Writers: Joseph Kosinski (screenplay), Karl Gajdusek (screenplay), Michael Arndt (screenplay), Joseph Kosinski (comic book), Arvid Nelson (comic book)
Stars: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko | See full cast and crew

Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack's mission is nearly complete. Living in and patrolling the skies from thousands of feet above, his existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands. -- Universal Pictures

Production Budget: $120 million
Domestic Total: $38,152,000 (Estimate as of Apr. 21, 0213)
Worldwide: $150,152,000

I had said earlier that when I saw the trailers for Jack the Giant Slayer and Oz, The Great and Powerful that they looked good and would appear to be potentially really good films, but that both would probably be disapointments...and I was right. I thought the same thing about Oblivion...and I was wrong. This one actually was better than I expected. That being said, I went into it with low expectaions and ended up pleasantly surprised.

I saw the regular version but I am tempted to go back and see it again in IMAX. One of the greatest strengths of Oblivion is it's eye candy. It benefits greatly from its strong production values, visually it is very striking, very impressive. It could be said that it is thinly scripted but I enjoyed the story, In contrast to last years highly anticipated but very disappointing Prometheus, where even when you did get all the pieces of the story it still didn't make much sense, Oblivion's story does. The other great strength of Oblivion (something else that Prometheus didn't have) is an excellent performance from Tom Cruise. It is definitely his show and he is most certainly up to the task. This is the type of role that he shines in.

Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones, Mama (2013), Kingdom of Heaven) and Morgan Freeman co-star.

In the year 2077, Earth has been decimated by an intergalactic battle against an alien race known as the Scavs. The majority of mankind's survivors have migrated to a massive tetrahedral space station called the Tet and have established a colony on the moon Titan. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is Technician #49, a security repairmen, he and and his team partner, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), are "a very effective team" and have developed an intimate relationship. Jack and Victoria underwent a "security wipe" five years prior, which erased their memories and prevents them from giving up information under interrogation, they live together on an outpost high in the sky where they maintain contact with civilization via a video link with their commander at Mission Control on the Tet, Sally(Melissa Leo).

Jack's primary job is the maintenance and support of 'drones', autonomous airborne machines that patrol the landscape to hunt the remaining alien resistance and protect numerous huge resource extraction machines.

Their job is simple -- stand guard over the ruins of a once-great empire by patrolling the skies, and ensuring the drones continue to function. However, Jack suffers from recurring dreams and flashbacks of being with an unknown woman on the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building prior to the invasion, but that was 60 years ago and Jack appears to be a man in his late 40s. Jack also maintains a secluded wooded area featuring a lake and a small cabin, something Victoria knows nothing about, which he has stocked with relics of human civilization salvaged during the course of his duties, things like records, books, and other souvenirs.

Jack and Victoria have two weeks left before his mission ends and they rejoin their fellow survivors on Titan. Toward the end of a patrol Jack sees a spaceship crashing to the surface, brought down by a Scav homing beacon mounted on the top of the Empire State Building. The ship, the Odyssey, is carrying a number of sleeping pods containing human beings in hibernation.

Jack is able ot rescues only one, a woman, Julia (Olga Kurylenko), from the wreckage a drone that arrives and destroys the other survivors. He immediately recognizes Julia as the woman in his flashbacks.

The woman's arrival triggers a chain of events that culminates in Jack's nearly single-handed battle to save mankind...With mission control watching his every move from high up above the clouds, Jack embarks on a spectacular adventure that will not only challenge everything he's been taught about mankind's most defining battle, but will perhaps alter the course of human history.