Film: Oblivion

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Genre: Sci Fi
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: PG 13
Location/Format: AMC Orange Park IMAX
Grade: A-

A friend of mine suggested that Oblivion is a mash-up of sci-fi's greatest hits, and he's not wrong. Within the opening shots of the film, the tone and set-up immediately brought to mind Duncan Jones' Moon. Elsewhere in the film, scenes reminiscent of 2001 (the grand daddy of modern sci-fi films), Solaris, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Wall-E (or Portal, depending on how you first see those drones), Mad Max (or any number of other post-apocalyptic future worlds), District 9, and even Independence Day caught my eye. I'm sure there were more than that--it's been a while since we saw it. But even as I saw and acknowledged all of that, I have to admit that I really enjoyed myself. Did I see plot twists coming a mile a way? Yes. Did I enjoy it anyway? Absolutely.

Some of that is due to the pleasure Joseph Kosinski takes in carefully designing his worlds. The director of Tron: Legacy (another critical flop that I really enjoyed), Kosinski presents an Apple-aesthetic future in which everything is white, glossy, and sterile--while still being really sexy also. The plane/jet/helicopter thing that Tom Cruise flies around this post-apocalyptic world looks like so much fun that I can suspend my disbelief regarding how it actually works. Much like I will accept the idyllic paradise Cruise finds seemingly minutes away from the ruined east coast--a true hidden valley that is both inexplicable and an all-too-obvious contrast to the sterile future Cruise's character Jack normally lives in. The nature versus technology thread is painfully clunky, but it worked well enough. As with Tron: Legacy, I liked exploring this world--both for its visuals as well as for the story behind it--that I was willing to forgive a little obvious metaphor. I particularly enjoyed seeing the film in IMAX, as the scale and clarity of the picture made Kosinski's world even more engrossing.

Here's my question, however (and it may include some spoilers): When the first third of your film hinges on a lone survivor battling a creepy band of aliens, why oh why would your previews include shots of that character getting captured and questioned by Morgan Freeman? Freeman's inclusion in the marketing campaign for this film makes several of the twists the film promises even more predictable and obvious, since we know before sitting down in the theater that the "figures out in the dark" are not alien but human, which should make us question the reliability of the narrator's understanding of the world, which should lead us quickly to where the film ultimately takes us. It's another case of marketing diluting the possible power of the film, and it's disappointing.

Still, I have no problem admitting how much I enjoyed this movie, and while I don't know if I liked it enough to buy it when it comes out, I do know that the visuals of the world are compelling enough to make me interested in a second viewing. For me, it wasn't a bad early kick-off to the summer movie season

Alternate Film Title: "Every So Often You'll Remember How Tiny Tom Cruise Really Is"