Oblivion
thinks it is much smarter than it really is. But the more you think about it
after the credits start rolling, the stupider it gets. But I can compliment the
film on two things: making an effort to channel Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and being just another dumb Tom Cruise
thriller at the same time. That is not an easy feat to pull off. Oblivion’s strengths and weakness lie in
the fact that it attempted do so.
The movie begins with an unnecessary narration
by Jack (Tom Cruise), one of the few people left on Earth after an alien
invasion destroyed most of the planet. In the narration we are informed that
most humans have left for Titan, Saturn’s moon.
Jack and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are there to give
maintenance to drones in charge of cleaning up the Earth and killing off any
remaining aliens. When they don’t fix drones they spend the time by enjoying
candlelit dinners and skinny-dipping in a glass-bottomed pool that hangs 1,000
feet in the air. They live a pretty nifty life, while their boss, Sally
(Melissa Leo) supervises them from a pyramid-shaped control center orbiting the
Earth; she is awfully cheerful. And you know that, in a movie, when the boss
can’t help but smile 24/7 something has to be off.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that
Jack and Victoria had a routine memory wipe five years prior. The only think
Jack can remember is a cheesy backlit dream of a beautiful woman when met in
pre-invasion New York. One otherwise average day, a pre-war shuttle crash-lands
on Earth. The only survivor is Julia (Olga Kurylenko), a Russian astronaut that
looks exactly like the girl in Jack’s dream. And then we are off into a
space-chase adventure; to figure out whom is this girl, and what does Morgan
Freeman’s character know that nobody else does.
There are a lot of question, and
not all of them are answered. But for the most part the ride is beautiful to
look at. The opening is immersive, gradual, and even slow. But it is perfect to
introduce us to the world of the film. We see stunning digital landscapes of
buried cities, dried up rivers, and ocean-sized desserts. The film’s biggest
problem is that this world is much more interesting than any of its characters,
which are all – for the most part – flat cardboard cut outs.
Take for example the cheesy love
story in Jack’s dream. Julia is an idealized woman that he can’t remember, but
she claims to be his wife. Victoria is the sexy redhead he goes skinny-dipping
in the sky with. Guess which one is the evil one. Meanwhile, down below on Earth’s
broken surface, everybody but the audience has to learn that Morgan Freeman is
always right.
Director Joseph Kosinski’s previous
movie, TRON: Legacy, was also a
visual smorgasm with very one-dimensional protagonists. But it didn’t lie to
itself about that; TRON: Legacy’s
target audience was much younger than Oblivion’s
and they ended up with what they paid for going in. In Oblivion, those who paid
for a brainy Sci Fi that could work as some political allegory will get Tom
Cruise, while those who paid for Tom Cruise will get a slow brainy world
building Sci Fi that still doesn’t work as a political allegory.
The best way to enjoy this film is
to relax and not think about it too much, yet at the same time not to expect Mission Impossible, or any other noisy
movie of the kind. If you do, like I did, this can be a very enjoyable film. At
the very least it is a very beautiful film.
Having said all this, I do have two
random musings:
1)
This is not the first movie where an unexplained
affection for Olga Kurylenko drives the main character. This doesn’t work for
me. Not because Kurylenko is a bad actress, but because the protagonist should
have a reason to fall for her, other than “just
‘cause she is the love interest”.
2)
The film could have used some more female ass
kicking. Tom Cruise’s character is all man; he’s a sharpshooter, a mechanic, a
sports fan, and gets to drive a cool bike. Meanwhile the women just run and
follow instructions. When Kurylenko finally picks up a gun, the Kingslayer from
Game of Thrones kills off the badie that was threatening her, so she doesn’t
get to use it.
3)
Had the movie ended 30 seconds before it did, it
would have been wonderful. The extra 30 seconds and an unnecessary level of cheesiness
and just ruin the whole thing for everybody.
