Cast: Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo Director: Joseph Kosinski Screenplay: Joseph Kosinski and Karl Gajdusek and Michael Arndt Cinematography: Claudio Miranda Music: Anthony Gonzalez, M.8.3 U. S. Distributor: Universal Pictures Genre: Science fiction/action Running Length: 126 minutes
Technical
assessment: 3.5
Moral
assessment: 2.5
CINEMA
rating: V 18
MTRCB rating: PG 13
It is Year 2077. Sixty years ago, evil invaders called
“Scavengers” destroyed the moon and attempted to capture Earth. Mankind fought off the aggressors but Earth was left uninhabitable
due to the moon’s fragmentation and worldwide combat. Now humans are still being evacuated to Titan, one of
Saturn’s moons, and they await their turn to depart while on board a spacecraft
that hovers just above Earth’s atmosphere. Trained technician Jack (Tom Cruise) and a navigator, Victoria
(Andrea Riseborough) have been dispatched to supervise the operations of the
machines that continue to harvest what is left of Earth’s natural resources,
particularly the water from its oceans, for use of the people living on
Titan. Jack and Victoria are
professionally and romantically linked, but Jack is disturbed by the image of a
beautiful woman recurring in his dreams.
The couple’s idyllic partnership is given an unexpected twist when the
beautiful woman in Jack’s dreams turns up to be a real person, Julia (Olga
Kurylenko), whom Jack finds in a hypersleep chamber crash-landing from an
unknown spaceship.
Sweeping vistas of outer space,
fabulous machines and dwellings that could only exist in one’s fantasies seem
to be the strongest attractions of Oblivion. Through this impeccably created eye
candy the viewer’s mind is teased into suspending disbelief to get carried away
by the plot. But, alas, the plot
lacks the viscosity to sustain the viewer’s interest, much less to mesmerize
him into embracing Oblivion as a probability
in the not-so-distant future. Oblivion’s
ambitious story telling, evocative of Cloud
Atlas though not as grand, is supported by the strong presence of Morgan
Freeman as Beech, the chief of the guerilla freedom fighters. Freeman, as usual, delivers, and Cruise
seems to sincerely believe in his character; that’s just about the nicest thing
to be said about the acting. Other
technical aspects are as “okay” as “okay” goes.
Oblivion attempts to delve into the question of identity (the
relationship between physical and spiritual identities in particular) but
abandons the question to pose some more—much like a toddler who, growing
impatient with a toy, distracts himself with other toys. Pursuing this analogy, Oblivion strikes the viewer as something
like building a spaceship with Lego blocks. Good sci-fi is coherent and logical despite a bold
hypothesis; it connects its elements until they all click into place, revealing
the creation, albeit a Lego spaceship, as a masterpiece. Oblivion
does not “click.”
The film offers enough to appeal
to teenagers but because CINEMA believes movies are not just supposed to be eye
candy or dubious entertainment, Oblivion
is given a V 18 rating. Due to the
nature of the movie’s theme, mature viewers may still winnow something worth a
thought from the loosely glued elements.
