Review of 'Oblivion'

oblivion.jpg Jack (Tom Cruise) is “Tech 49” a drone repairman in a not-so-distant future earth where humans have won a battle against the mysterious “Scavs” but, in the process, the earth has been devastated. Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) is his companion who also serves as his controller including relaying of messages to the “Tet” spaceship orbiting the earth. They are two weeks away from their end of duty after which they will be sent to where the rest of humanity has settled down - Titan, a moon in orbit around Saturn. When an ancient NASA capsule crashes the reality that Jack has known is called into question…

I was wondering what this movie would be like. I was pleasantly surprised as this quite rich Science Fiction story with lots of eye candy (including several rather tame nudity scenes of the two attractive woman leads - nice glass swimming pool…) but not a small bit of mind candy as well. It could have been a fairly boring movie with lots of pictures of the destroyed earth but it comes up with surprises quite a few times so much so that my synopsis above only covers the first half hour of this two hour show. Tom Cruise is as wooden as ever but this is actually quite appropriate for the role. Morgan Freeman as the elder also plays a decidedly low-key role here but adds a bit of gravitas to the proceedings.

A bit more than typical Hollywood fare and a definite suggestion for any fan of SF movies.

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2013-04-28


Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Studio: Universal

Year: 2013

Length: 124 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1483013/


Other reviewed films by Joseph Kosinski: