Alright! Today I'm reviewing a long-forgotten and not too beloved dystopian sci-fi flick, the 2013, Tom Cruise led, Joseph Kosinski directed Oblivion, which takes place in the year 2077 and follows a drone repairman as he makes his way through what remains of Earth and discovers reality is not quite what it seems.
Now, the movie starts off big with some very cool narration, visuals, and an incredible soundtrack from M83. The movie feels like it's going places, it immediately has you hooked. It's impressive. It's the type of opening that leaves you thinking, "Man, even if the rest of the movie sucks, this was a very cool way to start things off."
And does the rest of the movie suck? I'm having a hard time with that. I've seen it twice via HBOMax. Understanding the plot the first time was a big struggle for me. The second viewing was a bit more tolerable, but it definitely allowed the holes of the movie to shine.
Now, the biggest problem with this movie is that it is slow. It moves like a steady river - maybe a few rapids here and there, but for the most part it's a lazy Sunday pace. But sci-fi dystopias shouldn't be lazy Sunday movies. They should be an edge-of-your-seat adventure, but Oblivion fails in that regard because it's more interesting to see the day-to-day minutiae of drone repair than it is to see a rebellion against aliens from Saturn.
When the movie is setting the stage and just kind of being its own gloomy sci-fi, it does it spectacularly. For all the dystopian movies I've seen, this easily feels the most desolate. The clean costumes and shiny surface of everything just make the absence of life on Earth all the more present. I applaud it for that, this movie actually makes you feel lonely, a hard trick to pull off.
It's also a very romantic movie. I wasn't expecting such a route for it, but this movie is actually really sweet. It's all about love. And maybe that's why it feels even more so lonely - us loveless cinephiles are left to watch a ridiculously handsome Tom Cruise continually fall in love.
There's, like, this one scene in here that just hit me in the feels. The soundtrack is god-tier and the romantic tones and desolate visuals just combine in perfect harmony. And all the scene is is Tom Cruise flopping around in a pool? Curse the hopeless romantic inside me, that scene was beautiful.
Oblivion would have been a pretty good time if it just focused on the soundtrack with cool visuals. But along the way, it tries to tell a plot and get you involved in the story, and it's just not happening. No characters really stand out aside from Tom Cruise, which is unfortunate when the supporting characters drive most of his actions.
Somehow the movie is even more boring when Morgan Freeman shows up. I saw a review that said if the humans were cut out entirely and Tom Cruise found out exposition on his own it would have been infinitely more interesting. I agree wholeheartedly. The resistance Scav group mostly bogs down the plot, and the exposition gets tiring after listening to so much of it.
The film constantly shifts between epic dystopian imagery, earnest romance, a post-apocalyptic revolution, and a tale of survival. It does these things well to varying degrees, but never really do I get the feeling that it gave its all on anything except the imagery. And sometimes that's enough to save an otherwise thin plot (Like Tron Legacy), but it doesn't work as well for a movie that actively longs and revolves around a message of love.
Oblivion could have been one of the all-time greats - instead, it settles for "I guess that was neat."
Overall, I give Oblivion a 7/10. "Undeniably cool with gorgeous visuals but lacking on plot, Oblivion is yet another heavily flawed but oddly compelling movie from Joseph Kosinski."
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| Next I shall find Edge of Tomorrow and compare the two. |
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