Joseph Kosinski showed us that he can handle sci-fi visuals
with the shiny neon aesthetics of Tron:
Legacy, and Oblivion is no
different. However, on the downside,
Kosinkski has also shown us on both features that he can’t handle depth when it
comes to the genre, and it’s a crying shame, as Oblivion could well have delivered something quite special. The
premise could well have been stolen from a number of previous films – Earth has
become an empty landscape following some kind of apocalyptic takeover by an
alien race. In order to remain, the survivors inhabit an orbiting space
station, leaving only a couple of survivors (Tom Cruise and Andrea Riseborough
as Jack and Victoria) to repair and maintain the androids and machines on Earth
carrying out specific tasks - harvesting fresh water, killing off aliens etc. Their
existence is lonely and bleak as they reside in a neo-modern abode in the
clouds, their actions digitally guided and overseen by their controller and
boss, Sally. Their existence as they know it is shattered when the woman from
Jack’s dreams (literally! *Ahem*…Total
Recall) crash lands to Earth with some rather extraordinary revelations.
Cue rather immense stupidity and heavy plagiarism.
The setup was very specific during a somewhat tenuous opening
five minutes, and after introducing us to the people, world and some extremely
cool gadgets – the focal spacecraft is quite something – the possibilities of
where this could all go were endless. It is a shame therefore that rather than
carving a new path in the scrub, it took the past most-travelled, and shamefully
riffed on too many other great sci-fi films/stories – Moon,
Star Wars, I Am Legend (book!), 2001 and
Total Recall. Even though “original” work, it screams of familiarity which
is largely down to the lazy screenplay and extremely floppy ending. All in all,
an enjoyable watch on the big screen, if only for the middle half hour of
seeing the Cruister blazing around IMAX landscapes of Earth in a spacecraft so
cool it awakes the inner twelve year old inside. 3/5
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