Oblivion.

There was an advanced screening of this in my local cinema, me and my friend wanted to go see something together and this was about the only thing we were interested in. This was one of the first times in recent memory that I went into a film completely blind and well...


Directed, produced, co-written and based on a comic by the man behind Tron: Legacy, this film has gone through many rewrites and a few owners before arriving at the PG-13, Universal owned film we see before us. Universal honestly seemed pretty excited about it as well, however the fact they felt they needed to release this much earlier than planned perhaps suggests otherwise.

Oblivion is Jack Harper's tale, a drone repairmen on an Earth ravaged by a war with an alien threat. The moon was destroyed, the nukes were dropped, the usual. Titan is all set up ready for the remaining humans but right now they are waiting on the Tet floating in Earth's orbit while the Earth's water is converted into energy. The drones protect these converters from the alien threat, however at night the drones are vulnerable and it is then up to Jack to get them battle ready again through the day. However after Jack stumbles across a bunch of survivors from a ship crash, the whole thing begins to unravel...

Long story short Oblivion is a film to be seen in the cinema. This isn't so much a film, as it is an experience and that is really the only good thing I have to say. For all its themes of humanity and identity, ultimately Jack is an empty vessel for us to wear as Oblivion takes us on a tour through a beautiful and fully realised post-apocalyptic Earth. Even with a projector taking up your entire wall and enough speakers to host a DJ set in your house, this is a cinema film, although all films are made for the cinema, films like this are completed by it.

We're in a time of our history where special effects seem to be reaching their peak. Although computer generated sequences still don't have a completely convincing reality to them, overall the special effects held up well enough for the seams to at least be blurred a little between what was real and what wasn't. There was never a moment where an effect completely stuck out as noticeably poorer quality than what was around it. The film has such a strong art direction and such incredible special effects to hold it up, it allows you to ignore the films more glaring flaws, at least to a point.

The strong visuals are held up by in many ways even better sound effects. It's incredible that just a few boops and bleeps can set so much atmosphere and fill you with so much dread. Reminiscent of the Tom Cruise led War of the Worlds, all the Tripod's had to do was make a sound and you'd crap your pants. This is used for great effect here, seeing the drones in action is incredible but there is always the moment, the few boops and bleeps before that that ultimately leave you with the strongest reaction. Boop, bleep and you know shit is going down.

Narrativewise however, is really where the film falls down. Visually the world feels fully realised, in writing however, not so much. Most of the film at least holds together by ripping off pretty much every iconic sci-fi film of the last forty or so years but there is never an attempt to weave all these concepts into anything cohesive. In many ways the film plays out more in the fashion of the kind of story a child would think up while playing with their toys, big ideas but each one is made up as they go along. Honestly there is nothing wrong with that in itself but Oblivion is so very pretentious and so very bleak, you can't really just enjoy it as a mindless sci-fi romp. It also doesn't help that what little new it brings to the table is so inconsistent, downright stupid in places and ultimately undermines plotpoint's that worked just fine in the films they were stolen from.

The weak narrative becomes a bigger problem because it's demanded to be studied. It's full of clues as to what is truly going on and the film picks itself apart to deliver twists it hopes to surprise us with. However I'm pretty sure there will be no surprised gasps in your audience. The world, its rules and how it is all meant to work and make sense is so poorly established from the start that it has you asking many questions long before you're actually supposed to start questioning anything.

It also doesn't help that the film feeds is information in bursts, not in a steady flow. In the moment we barely have any time to process the information as it's being blasted at us with a similar ferocity as the drones shooting at the Scav's. However once the information onslaught stops the film bumbles around for a while before blasting, whiplash inducing full throttle, into the next info dump without warning.

What is likely to also put people off is Oblivion is not a "nice" film. There is no epic and complete victory for Jack, really very few things go to plan or even succeed. Although there is a happy ending of sorts by the end, there is a lot of misery, bleakness, failure and death to come first.

What Oblivion certainly functions as is a test for its cast. Pretty much every character is underwritten and poorly formed here, largely leaving the actors to use their own talent to hold up the characters and give them life. And when held up only by their acting talent Cruise largely vanishes when he shares the screen with a cast of much better actors. Don't get me wrong he looks as fantastic as ever in action sequences and steals the show with some stunning stunts during them but there is almost as much character interaction as there is action in this long film and as soon as Cruise stops running, he becomes a chore to follow around.

So do I recommend it? Genre fans will probably get a lot out of the films stunning visuals and epic action sequences and those who treat the cinema as an experience rather than a way to waste time, will also get a lot out of it as well. Sadly though, to film fans at large, Oblivion really doesn't have a lot to offer. Unless of course Tom Cruise is your thing.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Oblivion'?