The Case for Obliviati

I am a sucker for a film that has a science fiction bent and looks like it has pretty decent special effects.  Why else go to something like John Carter?

Oblivion, the latest Tom Cruise flick, is a film that looks good and throws quite a few twists and turns as the story progresses.  The moon has been devastated and the Earth pulverised, and Jack (Cruise) and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are guardians left behind to ensure that the resources of Earth are shipped to humanity’s new home on Titan.  Their main concerns are malfunctioning sentinel robots and remnants of the enemy alien army, continually trying to stop them from achieving their goal.

And… that’s about all I can say, really!  From that interesting if bleak beginning, things go awry, then wrong, then right, then hopeless, then back to hopeful and right again (though I may have missed a few of the twists and turns in my summation).  Along the way, Jack encounters Sally (Melissa Leo), Julia (Olga Kurylenko), Morgan Freeman (Morgan Freeman) and Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and a whole heap of loud, heavily armed metal spheres.

It’s actually a really small cast for the film, and there aren’t many lines given to people other than Jack.  Jack is very American pie, with his love for things from the Earth of old, and Cruise plays up that schmaltz to an almost irritating degree.  It’s somewhat of a relief when the bullets start flying and things go crazy, though there is still a lot of sentimentality that rears its unwelcome head along the way, bogging the film down until the action comes along to cleanse it away.  

Yes, the film is a bit on the slow side.  I imagine the drawn out moments are designed to add to the atmosphere and the pathos of the moment, but they seemed unnecessary to me, extending what should have been a brisk 90 minute film into something nearer two hours for very little reason.  

Some of the twists can be seen a mile away (well, not to everyone in the audience, as some overloud gasps indicated), though there are plenty of others that keep things interesting.  Besides the fact I ended up rooting for the aliens at one point (humans can be so DUMB sometimes, and rightfully deserve a bit of extermination!), and the unhurried pace of things, Oblivion is quite enjoyable.  Perhaps not quite up to Minority Report levels on the Cruise-o-meter, but not too far off it either.

Verdict:  Oblivion doesn’t hurry to tell its tale, but it tells it well, with some beautiful cinematography and an incredible performance from Andrea Riseborough.  While not an incredible film, Oblivion is definitely better than some.  2 out of 3 Tetrahedrons.