Oblivion
(2013)
Wow, Ive seen two movies in the theaters this year and its not even May. I may break double-digits on theater attendance this year for the first time in half a decade. Then again, judging from the seventeen trailers I had to sit through before this film, maybe not. One of the many curses of growing older is that you have the unfortunate capacity to recall where youve seen things before, which is a skill youll have exercised for you while watching Oblivion, as it borrows from so many places its hard to pinpoint any single overwhelming inspiration. Tom Cruise is Jack, a field tech assigned to repair the drones that safeguard the giant towers that suck the water out of the ocean for some sort of hydroelectric energy generation, were not really given the details. His partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) monitors his activities from their penthouse in the sky (literally), where she keeps in contact with her superior Sally (Melissa Leo). Apparently all the humans have left earth and have moved to Titan. Except Jack keeps having these dreams, mostly about some chick (Olga Kurylenko) on top of the Empire State Building, before it was destroyed in a war with the aliens whom we beat, but who destroyed the moon (and thus the earth). In the first clich in the movie, Jack and Victoria are only two weeks away from retirement, when they will join the others on Titan. After an encounter with some surviving Scavs, as the aliens are called, Jack witnesses a spaceship go down; following the trail, he comes upon the survivors just as one of the drones arrive to kill them all. He manages to save one, and gasp!its the girl hes been dreaming about. Theres an awful lot of eye candy here, from Jacks wicked cool airplane to his retro-futuristic flat in the sky, to the 2001-inspired drones, to Jacks Final Fantasy: Spirits Within inspired outfit, to the earth so conveniently destroyed that we are left landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, the top of the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Libertys Torch (Jack apparently only does repairs in America). The production design borrows heavily from 2001 and Moon (both safe bets as the target audience has likely seen neither), but its an abundantly pretty movie with some really cool effects, which is why I went. And, luckily, theres a lot to look at to distract you, because the plot, despite several attempts at twists, is really thin. From the its all destroyed Wall-E set up to the constant visual references to 2001 to the Final Fantasy gear (and even a flower! And a fight in devastated old New York!), to the plotline completely, wholly, baldly swiped from Moon (really, if youve seen that, youve seen this, with better script and acting), I had the mental version of tennis neck trying to keep up with all the references. This film steals from so many places its almost its own mash-up. Cruise isnt bad, but this role is hardly a stretch for him. Riseborough seems oddly out of place here; whenever she was on I kept wondering why, in a film with Cruise,
Morgan Freeman, and Kurylenko, they had chosen someone a few tiers down on the Hollywood pecking order. Was Jessica Chastain busy? Were the filmmakers signaling her character was less important? Did Cruise not want your attention wandering from him? And why does she wear heels and a skirt in a world where no one will see her? Why doesnt she lounge around in sweatpants and a t-shirt? Kurlyenko, whom I normally dont like, is fine here, present mostly to add some romantic depth to Cruises character. Freeman seems cast primarily because hes older. Despite all my carping, however, I believe Oblivion succeeds in its primary aim, namely, to be a 1970s post-apocalyptic flick. The ones we make nowadays are gritty and grimy, like The Road or Book of Eli; this film hearkens back to films like Planet of the Apes or Omega Man or even Soylent Green where they wanted you to gasp at reveals like Its Earth! or Its Cannibalism!; weirdly enough when the big twist happens, I kept thinking I wonder how Chuck Heston would have played this scene (probably with a gun in his hand in both, actually). In essence what you have here is the biggest-budget, coolest-looking Seventies apoca-flick ever which, again, I believe was entirely the intent. If thats what youre looking for, youll be greatly pleased by this movie (and a part of me was). If youre looking for more than the greatest film of a 40-year-old genre, then you might be disappointed (and a bigger part of me was). Given the involvement of this much money and one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, I expect the sights to be set a little higher. April 20, 2013 P.S. Even the soundtrack was a mix of Tron: Legacy and Inception, although given how great Inceptions soundtrack is, one can hardly fault that theft.
