Cruise is back doing what comes naturally. No, not impossible missions, this time round Cruise is back on Sci-fi but instead of running from crimes he already commit in the future(How long has it been now since minority report?) he finds himself the maintenance man of a post-apocalyptic earth in 2077. Jack Harper is technician #49 of a group specifically tasked with keeping Earth's remaining defences up and running, alongside partner Victoria he awaits the coming full transportation to the new human colony on Titan. Being one of the last to leave Earth, both are anxious about the final few days of maintenance before they can finally leave the blue planet behind them, though for different reasons. While Victoria is increasingly eager to start a new life, something digs at Jack who still relates some connection to the planet no matter how void of life. It's only after a crashed pod brings an echo of human life back to earth that Jack and Victoria are torn in their views, as Jack tries to ascertain who this mysterious woman is and why the defences tried to kill a human questions begin to grow out of control and Jack realises there is more left to Earth and their mission than he was ever aware of.
While Tom Cruise is no Daniel-Day Lewis, you can't argue that from Top Gun to Jack Reacher he always puts his up most into the role to deliver that down to earth cool action hero kinda guy. It's undeniable to say that Cruise still brings the same charisma and force he did with Ethan Hunt to his more modern films, and despite some flaws amongst the film's plot (Or borrowed plot devices) Cruise is still showing he has what it takes to be the hero, although it does cut fairly close to the knuckle of a stereotypical role, so while charismatic you do still wish he'd aimed a bit higher at changing his character. The roles of the ladies of the future go to Andrea Riseborough as the tight and Titan-centric Victoria who's eager to keep Jack under wraps and perform as a team. Though she switches to out of control when Jack goes out of his way to push against orders when finding a survivor. Playing up tight and slightly unhinged Riseborough really brings what she can to her role, though she feels slightly pushed over by the story as events unfold. Jack's survivor Julia is played by Olga Kurylenko and gives Jack the choice between doing what he believes is right or following orders and an easy and straight forward life with Victoria. Kurylenko's character offers the films first enigma into which Jack investigates and through her he finds himself digging up even more dark truths, yet Kurylenko herslef feels shunned and only really gets chances to show off a confused expression and wordless pity, which in no way reflects what she really has to offer. While the trio makes up the majority of the films cast screen time wise, elsewhere somehow surviving Jack comes across Beech a leader of what appears to be a human resistance against an unknown enemy, played by Morgan Freeman. Alongside him is secondary leader Sykes played by Nikolaj Coster-Walda, both play the role of the resistance nicely though again they suffer greatly from a lack of screen-time.
Oblivion truly highlights a great problem with Hollywood now and in its defence it's not the first film to have this problem but the lack of original ideas begins to set in around the halfway mark. While the premise isn't mind blowing at first, it does feel somewhat engaging and as it delves deeper you become more interested with what exactly is going on with Jack, the Earth and the events occurring in the orbit unbeknownst to Jack and fellow Earthbound members of the cast. However soon you start to pick out certain ideas which seem torn from some of the more original and strand out sci-fi films of the past few years and when they start to appear, you realize just how many ideas are thrown together. From the bare bones of Moon to the ferociousness gleaming red light of 2001 Space Odyssey's Hal which by themselves fit nicely, Oblivion throws them into a mix of Matrix, Independence Day and I Am Legend action to create the ultimate Sci-fi adventure. It falls far shot, by a considerable distance and by trying to be something it isn't, everything that it could have been and actually did well feels sullen. That said when it does have those odd moments of entertainment, Oblivion offers up a dose of Tom Cruise Sci-fi laser gunning to an admirable effect as long as you can bypass the fragile and unoriginal plot it has something not unique or brilliant but certainly trying and fairly engaging to offer. It's not the Oblivion of the film universe but neither is it the One, Oblivion simply is.
5 / 10
FIN.
While Tom Cruise is no Daniel-Day Lewis, you can't argue that from Top Gun to Jack Reacher he always puts his up most into the role to deliver that down to earth cool action hero kinda guy. It's undeniable to say that Cruise still brings the same charisma and force he did with Ethan Hunt to his more modern films, and despite some flaws amongst the film's plot (Or borrowed plot devices) Cruise is still showing he has what it takes to be the hero, although it does cut fairly close to the knuckle of a stereotypical role, so while charismatic you do still wish he'd aimed a bit higher at changing his character. The roles of the ladies of the future go to Andrea Riseborough as the tight and Titan-centric Victoria who's eager to keep Jack under wraps and perform as a team. Though she switches to out of control when Jack goes out of his way to push against orders when finding a survivor. Playing up tight and slightly unhinged Riseborough really brings what she can to her role, though she feels slightly pushed over by the story as events unfold. Jack's survivor Julia is played by Olga Kurylenko and gives Jack the choice between doing what he believes is right or following orders and an easy and straight forward life with Victoria. Kurylenko's character offers the films first enigma into which Jack investigates and through her he finds himself digging up even more dark truths, yet Kurylenko herslef feels shunned and only really gets chances to show off a confused expression and wordless pity, which in no way reflects what she really has to offer. While the trio makes up the majority of the films cast screen time wise, elsewhere somehow surviving Jack comes across Beech a leader of what appears to be a human resistance against an unknown enemy, played by Morgan Freeman. Alongside him is secondary leader Sykes played by Nikolaj Coster-Walda, both play the role of the resistance nicely though again they suffer greatly from a lack of screen-time.
Oblivion truly highlights a great problem with Hollywood now and in its defence it's not the first film to have this problem but the lack of original ideas begins to set in around the halfway mark. While the premise isn't mind blowing at first, it does feel somewhat engaging and as it delves deeper you become more interested with what exactly is going on with Jack, the Earth and the events occurring in the orbit unbeknownst to Jack and fellow Earthbound members of the cast. However soon you start to pick out certain ideas which seem torn from some of the more original and strand out sci-fi films of the past few years and when they start to appear, you realize just how many ideas are thrown together. From the bare bones of Moon to the ferociousness gleaming red light of 2001 Space Odyssey's Hal which by themselves fit nicely, Oblivion throws them into a mix of Matrix, Independence Day and I Am Legend action to create the ultimate Sci-fi adventure. It falls far shot, by a considerable distance and by trying to be something it isn't, everything that it could have been and actually did well feels sullen. That said when it does have those odd moments of entertainment, Oblivion offers up a dose of Tom Cruise Sci-fi laser gunning to an admirable effect as long as you can bypass the fragile and unoriginal plot it has something not unique or brilliant but certainly trying and fairly engaging to offer. It's not the Oblivion of the film universe but neither is it the One, Oblivion simply is.
5 / 10
FIN.
Great review. Not many surprises, unless you haven’t seen a single sci-fi flick in your entire life.
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