Oblivion Review
Tom Cruise returns to science fiction in this visually stunning action adventure.
The year is 2077 and Earth is a near abandoned wasteland, an alien invasion 60 years ago saw the last of mankind flee and colonize a distant Moon to start again. Tom Cruise stars as Jack Harper, one of the last remaining humans still stationed on Earth, continuing his mission to gather the last essential resources. Accompanied by co-worker and lover Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) they carry out their jobs and everyday wait to be rejoined with the rest of the survivors.
Vivid dreams of a life in New York pre invasion depict happier times with a beautiful woman named Julia (Olga Kurylenko), unknown to Victoria the events take an unexpected turn when a ship crash lands and a woman identical to Julia is saved from the wreckage. Her arrival leads them to the discovery of a terrible truth about what happened on Earth 60 years ago and their lives will never be the same again.
Partly adapting his own unpublished graphic novel, Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski presents audiences with another feast for the eyes but he appears to have learned from his mistakes on Tron and hasnt forgotten to include some humanity. The trouble is hes made the love story a linchpin and large parts of the film are devoted to a slow moving narrative that doesnt quite pay off. The break neck pace of the exposition heavy opening few minutes almost grinds to a halt but this gives the film some room to breath and explore the scenery, its just thats all it seems to do for about half and hour.
Morgan Freeman makes a welcome (if brief) appearance as the leader of the human resistance Malcolm Beech and Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is his second in command. For all the supporting cast treats this is very much a Tom Cruise movie and he dominates the two hour running time, to his credit Cruise is on top form and gives his first proper performance since 2007s Lions on Lambs. The recent Mission Impossible entry and Jac! k Reacher were both very good but he was essentially playing the standard Tom Cruise role in the standard Tom Cruise way, for want of a better phrase he was on Cruise control. So its good to see him challenge himself as he enters his fifth decade.
Some critics have already made comparisons with Disneys Wall-E and theyre not wrong, in many ways Oblivion plays out like a live action version only with strong language, epic action sequences and lots of Tom Cruise instead of a cute robot. Cruise knows his way around a big action movie, hes less proven in science fiction genre as Oblivion marks Cruises third foray into science fiction movies following two collaborations with Steven Spielberg that produced Minority Report and War of The Worlds. Visually Oblivion surpasses both his previous efforts but theres a lack of emotional punch to make this a bonafide classic. Despite the plot which plays out like a sci-fi greatest hits album, these minor flaws dont prevent Oblivion from being an enjoyable pre summer blockbuster.
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