“Is it possible to miss a place you’ve never been? To mourn a time you’ve never known?”
Click the pic for tons more sexy images from the film!
Swift shot: Heavy on Sci-Fi with a script that makes you care about the characters, Oblivion is my Sci-Fi sleeper pick of 2013 . . . so far. In a future world, Earth is mining her last natural resources for a trip off world due to an alien invasion. “We won the war, but we still have to leave the planet,” is how it is summed up by Tom Cruise’s character, Jack. He is part of a two person team whose job it is to repair drones. These drones would give Rand Paul fucking nightmares! They monitor all the remaining “Scav” activity on the surface and terminate any invaders foolish enough to crawl around in plain sight.
‘Scavs’ are the remnants from the invasion that the drones take care of on a nightly basis.
Jack is living on a Skytower with his “effective” partner, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), whom he lovingly calls Vika. They check in with Sally (Melissa Leo) who is on the Tet, a giant pyramid shaped ship which is collecting all the water from Earth in preparation to find another planet, because the Scav invaders literally blew the Earth’s moon in two! The devastating effects from that blow created massive earthquakes and tsunamis – leaving the Earth an uninhabitable war-ravaged nuclear wasteland.
But, there is something that keeps haunting Jack, he keeps dreaming about a strange woman that he has never met, Julia (Olga Kurylenko). He knows that his memory was wiped for security reasons, and he is pretty sure Vika doesn’t suffer from similar nightmares about the mysterious Julia.
On a routine mission to repair Drone 166, which will make several appearances throughout the film and becomes every bit as alive as Wilson from Cast Away, he happens to be where the last Super Bowl was played in 2017. Oh, I forgot to mention, this day is March 14, 2077. [The next day would be . . . The Ides of March] He gives us a brief run through of the game . . . never mentioning the teams, of course. It is clearly a New York stadium, as there are buried reminders of the once big apple . . . now a rotten core of a proud nation. A symbol of what was once a beautiful planet, ruined. Credit to Director Joseph Kosinski for showing us images of the “Freedom Tower” in Jack’s dream sequences. It was a nice touch, and he uses not so subtle nods to Classic films that really makes a good movie . . . great!
You will recognize the music as Kosinski worked with co-composer Joseph Trapanese when he directed Tron: Legacy. And the art design is very similar in style, with the Bubbleship and drones having a familiar feel to Legacy fans.
All that aside, what makes this movie incredible is the authentic feel to the characters in an otherwise fantasy world. There are more twists in this film than the Bubbleship makes in the Statue of Liberty chase sequence. That scene drew a relieved “whew” once it was concluded by someone sitting to my left in the theater.
I won’t spoil the film, but I will tell you I predicted a few of the twists . . . but not all of them! This is one of those fun movies that you can watch once, then get some friends who haven’t seen it yet and watch it with them, as you will want to see their reactions.
Morgan Freeman and Olga Kurylenko both turn in great performances as pivotal characters that help Jack wake up from his nightmares. Each one of them offers something special for Jack, but you won’t know what they are until you see the film.
The director wrote this as a short 12 page graphic novel in 2005, well before Tron and Disney came calling. What he learned in making Tron: Legacy, he obviously applied with a genius stroke of artistic sexuality that is visually incredible. And, like I said, the story will keep you thinking and feeling for these characters. Also there is a love scene in the pool on the Skytower that is sexy as hell, yet serene and tasteful.
If I haven’t made the case for you yet – yes, this is a great film! It’s one of those films that Sci-Fi nerds and romance nerds can both gel over. See it in IMAX, like I did, and prepare to be moved and impressed. I was. And while there are a few similarities, this is not Wall-E despite what others are saying.
