Movie Reviews
Tron : Legacy may not have been the movie everyone was hoping it would be, but there’s no denying that first-time director Joseph Kosinski made it look good. So could he make a better movie when working with an original story? His own story actually, because Oblivion is based on the man’s very own graphic novel.As it turns out… not really.
We quickly learn from the voice-over at the beginning of the movie that we fucked up. Big time! When aliens invaded our planet, we fought back and won thanks to a nuclear strike. The cost however was a completely destroyed planet. Glorified janitor Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his communications officer Victoria have stayed behind while the rest of the population has been moved to some colony in a galaxy far, far away… oh wait, shit… wrong movie!
Anyway, Jack’s duties consist of flying around the place repairing the drones left to protect a couple of big machines that are harvesting the last of earth’s natural resources, from the alien threat that still scavenges what's left of our planet. In a couple of weeks, Jack’s mission will finally be over in two weeks and he will finally be able to join the remaining survivors. He keeps having these flashbacks though of what seem to be fragments of his previous life. Then one day he rescues a beautiful stranger from a crashed spaceship and that’s when the shit hits the fan. His past life catches up to him and his relatively calm life comes to an end.
Oblivion suffers from the same things that plagued Tron : Legacy. And Prometheus for that matter. It all looks amazing but there’s simply not a whole lot going on. The story is pretty basic and whatever twists are offered, you can spot from a mile away. We get to see Tom Cruise flying around a lot looking for answers with the occasional action sequence thrown in that does little to spice things up. Kosinski did put the budget to good use and offers some of the most beautiful CGI you’ll see this year. The soundtrack (courtesy of M83) accompanying the gorgeous views is equally good. But that’s pretty much it. It’s all packaging and no content. Not once do you care about what happens to any of the characters which pretty much makes this a pretty but empty shell.
