The first question that arises
after watching Oblivion is simply:
who was this movie made for? It isn’t for science fiction buffs, because it is
way too clichéd for them, and it isn’t for those looking for an action
entertainer because it is neither action packed nor entertaining. The big
budget Tom Cruise tent pole pic tries to be an epic, but ends up becoming an
epic failure.
Oblivion is directed by Joseph Kosinski and is based on his own
graphic novel. And just like his previous film Tron Legacy it exudes incredible, sweeping visuals with absolutely
atrocious plotting and characters. Kosinski has made a number of great
commercials, like the Gears of War ad, and it is a mystery how a filmmaker with
such a stellar background could continually churn out good looking bad films. The
writing here is just terrible, and shockingly the writing credits include
William Monahan (The Departed) and
Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy
Story 3). The Earth has been shredded due to a war between humans and
aliens. Tom Cruise and Andrea Risenborough are a pseudo husband-wife team whose previous memories have been wiped out by a mysterious corporation. They're employed as scavengers to monitor and bring back resources from the
post-apocalyptic wasteland before joining the rest of the human race. Things
take a turn when Cruise finds the woman from his dreams crash landing in an
escape shuttle, and discovers that the world he lives in may not be the way it seems.
The plot might work as a harmless
graphic novel but certainly not as a film. There is literally nothing in Oblivion that hasn’t been done and
re-done before in other, better movies. Kosinski bores us by repackaging tropes
from The Matrix, Planet of the Apes,
Total Recall, I am Legend, Artificial Intelligence and Cruise even throws
in a bit of Top Gun in there. Even
those with significant patience levels will be left annoyed because the
hour-long buildup only leads to a frustrating, lumbering love triangle
melodrama instead of decent escapist action entertainment. By the third act Kosinski
is completely clueless about what the movie is supposed to be, one moment he’s
busy making a sci fi summer actioner (and failing) and the next he’s indulging
in indulgent, somber Solaris and To the Wonder cocktail drama (and failing). Even Morgan Freeman, who
makes an entry as an older version of Morpheus is wasted in an unintentionally
funny role. The clean white and blue visuals, though derived from various video
games are really pleasing to the eye, but the only real draw of Oblivion is that it puts the incredibly
talented Shadow Dancer star Andrea
Risenborough in the spotlight, giving us hope that she finds better films in
the future.
(First published in MiD Day)
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