Oblivion - Movie Review
0"Oblivion" (2013) directed by Joseph Kosinski is an epic sci-fi mystery film. The movie has aged so well that it pretty much looks like it came out yesterday.
Earth has been ravaged by war from invading scavengers from a dying planet. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is a drone technician assigned to oversee a section of the Earth's surface and repair any malfunctioning drones. Jack works closely with his assigned partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) and the two are promised safe passage to humanity's new home called Titan if they do their duties effectively. Jack had his memory wiped in case he is captured by the enemy, and he unknowingly meets his past wife Julia (Olga Kurylenko) after he saves her from a rogue hostile drone.
Oblivion is a cinematic epic which holds up today. Visually, it looks absolutely gorgeous and I was fully immersed in this sci-fi world and experience start to finish. The film is paced extremely well and there is never a dull moment; it's filled with intrigue and mystery. Morgan Freeman upstages Tom Cruise in performance and was a very memorable part of the film.
Where Oblivion falls a little short is first and foremost the fact it's stuck in expositional hell. What I mean by this is the universe and it's major events are rapidly glossed through like a slideshow, except even worse since instead of seeing an actual slideshow we have to make do with some hasty narration. I constantly felt like I was missing out on the full story and while there probably is perfectly reasonable explanations for some of the illogical / confusing story elements present here, we simply don't get to see them first hand or fully receive the big picture of what's going on in this futuristic barren world. I also felt there were a few stupid moments here and there like when Beech (Morgan Freeman) suddenly switches from threatening to execute his wife to letting him go free seconds later, and I also found the Jack doppelganger fight scene to be a little silly in the way it's executed; since if there's anyone you can trust and or receive answers from, it's certainly yourself.
Oblivion is a great sci-fi mystery and drama film; with a touch of action too. It's world and universe is glossed over though so it's unlikely you will be fully satisfied with it.
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