Fresh-off his role as “Jack Reacher”, Tom Cruise plays another Jack – astronaut Jack Harper – in the sci-fi adventure “Oblivion”, – which part post-apocalyptic action film and part futuristic soap opera.
The year is 2077. 60 years earlier our Moon was destroyed by enemy aliens, intent on taking-over Earth. Without the Moon our planet was thrown into chaos: with earthquakes, tsunamies and other natural disasters wiping-out much of the population. The aliens then attacked in hopes of finishing us off, but the humans fought back and defeated the invaders, but had to use nuclear weapons to do so, making the planet uninhabitable. So even though we won the war the humans who survived had to leave Earth and go to live on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
Jack and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are part of Tech 49. Their job is to protect what’s left of the Earth’s resources, mostly water, which is being sent to Titan. Jack repairs the security drones that are programmed to kill the scavenger aliens who are still around. In two weeks their mission will be over and they’ll be able to join the others who survived, including Sally – the head of Mission Control (played by Melissa Leo) on Titan.
But things don’t go as planned. There’s a mysterious crash-landing that brings a third astronaut into the picture. Then Jack meets-up with Morgan Freeman’s character. He may be human, alien, friend or enemy. And, trust me, it gets even crazier later on.
Visually “Oblivion” is quite impressive, but what really makes it work – at least for the first 90-minutes or so – is the style of storytelling , which is rather unconventional. Director Joseph Kosinski (“TRON: Legacy”) takes his time setting things up. We get to know Jack and Victoria separately and their relationship together. Sure, Cruise’s opening narrative explains way too much, and Leo’s southern accent is very annoying – but there’s much to like here, including a tricky love triangle, some effective plot twists and the stylized look.
But then there comes a point in “Oblivion” when I could no longer continue on this ride. The story gets way-out sci-fi wacky, so much so that the characters spend much of the final act trying to explain what’s actually going on. Moon-sized craters start appearing in the plot so it’s impossible not to lose focus while trying to make sense of it all. And the ending is very unsatisfying.
And why does every science fiction movie in which the Earth is destroyed have to be set in New York City? We get scene after scene of the Empire State Building and even a crumbled Statue of Liberty makes an appearance. That’s lazy writing.
Cruise gives a solid performance in a role in which he does many of his scenes alone. Freeman doesn’t show-up until midway through and he’s only in three or four scenes. He squeezed this performance into his busy shooting schedule, alongside roles in 2013 hits “Olympus Has Fallen”, “Now You See Me”, and the upcoming comedy “Last Vegas”. And yet he gets second billing in “Oblivion”. This is why we love Morgan Freeman.
“Oblivion” is rated PG-13 for the sci-fi action/violence, language, and brief nudity. It’s appropriate for teens and up. The movie is based on Kosinski’s own unpublished graphic novel and I give him credit for trying to make a different type of science fiction film. But, in the end, this journey is unsatisfying.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Oblivion” gets a C.