Oblivion with Tom Cruise was a crazy fun movie. Filled with action, suspense, mystery, wonderful sci-fi ambiance, and real three dimensional characters, this movie is worth forking over the bucks to watch in the theater.
The ambiance pulls in the viewer immediately. The sets, the music, the clothing, and the cinematography all work together to create a believable world with a futuristic feel.
Tom Cruise plays Jack, a technician assigned to repair drones on Earth. In a war against an extraterrestrial invader, Earth is pretty much laid to waste. The drones help to fight remnant scavengers. In another two weeks the mission will be done, but yet, Jack has these strange memories and comes to learn that things aren't what they seem.
At the very beginning of the movie, Jack, in a voice-over, explains how he and his teammate have had their memories wiped clean for their own protection. Right away, this tells the viewer that something's not right. For at least the first half of the movie, I kept trying to guess what the catch was. I had no idea what was coming, and it was pretty cool.
The drones, themselves, are almost their own character in the story. You get to learn a lot about how they work, and my verdict ... very well designed. The drones are programmed to destroy scavengers, and they are very efficient at what they do. The night I watched this movie, I had nightmares of trying to escape and fight one of these drones.
The plot is both simple and complex at the same time. That is, it's very easy to follow, but be prepared to spend time after the movie trying to put all the pieces together. At first I thought the plot relied too much on coincidences, but when you think about it, there are certain events and planning that occur "off stage" and are left for the viewer to discover on their own. After reanalyzing, only a couple of coincidences remain.
There are however, a couple of plot holes. The biggest one involving a certain artifact. When you think about it, you'll realize, "Wait a minute. How exactly did that artifact get to Point B?" No biggie, but worth mentioning.
There are also a couple of "bad science" instances. For one, I'm not sure how torn up the Earth would get if our moon was blown into pieces. Though, I love how they showed the moon, with pieces of it already forming a ring around the planet. Another thing is the idea of sucking up water for energy when there is much more water available in the solar system that's easier to get to. Think about how heavy water is and how much energy would be required just to push that water up the gravity well.
But bad science and a couple of plot holes aside, I recommend this movie for ages 14 and higher. Catch this one in the theater.
1 comment:
Solid review Mel. There's a lot of CGI, there's no denying that. However, the CGI in the movie is really good and I can't diss something about a movie when it adds to making the movie entertaining.
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