Oblivion

The 2013 action-adventure film Oblivion was stated by its director to be a throwback to classic 1970s sci-fi films, a trait that is very clear while watching the picture, but not in an entirely positive way. When the initial trailers were released, the reactions weren’t fantastic (especially considering a movie starring Matt Damon named Elysium was released around the same time which looked and felt strikingly similar from an outsiders perspective) but with stars like Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman attached and a visual style that looked clean and flashy enough to provide some mindless fun action, it had potential if it knew how to work with the cards it was dealt. Sad to say that the film failed to do so, receiving a mixed reception and only did moderately at the box office, not being anything more than just another underwhelming sci-fi experiment.

Set in 2077, Earth has become uninhabitable after an alien invasion terrorized the planet (as well as blew up the moon), which forced humanity to use their nuclear weapons to defeat the threat but in doing so, ruined a good chunk of their home. With most of humanity now living on Saturn’s moon, Titan, the only people left on Earth are repair technician Jack (played by Tom Cruise) and communications officer, Victoria (played by Andrea Riseborough), who are fighting off any remaining scavengers left on the planet while looking over hydrothermal platforms which are siphoning water from Earth to use for fusion energy. Literally a few days before leaving, Jack is confronted by a woman named Julia (played by Olga Kurylenko) whom he saves from being executed by the combat drones he uses, and she starts to unlock pieces of his memory before the Earth was destroyed, informing him of the life he once led and that they were previously married. Now going rogue from Victoria and their mission director Sally (played by Melissa Leo) due to learning some dark truths about their plans, Jack meets up with the scavengers, who turn out to be humans trying to take down the alien threat known as the Tet (which Jack was working for). Now with a new purpose, Jack tries to work together with this human rebellion to finally free their planet from this intergalactic threat.

With lacklustre characters, ill-fitting directing, messy effects and a truly garbage script, Oblivion faded from the memory of most very quickly, and outside of a few choice elements that are handled nicely enough, doesn’t do enough to warrant another rewatch.

This film is seemingly a personal project for director, Joseph Kosinski, as the idea came from his unfinished graphic novel (also titled Oblivion) and it wasn’t until the rights for the film were bought by Universal that he finally brought it to fruition. Considering that he only came up with visuals and ideas rather than any specifics on the story, the characters and what made it stand apart from other sci-fi stories throughout the initial writing process, it shows where some of the problems would start to arise for this film. It is extremely bare-bones and very underwritten, resulting in an awful blend that manages to be dull and confusing at the same time (which sci-fi should always dread being). The layout of the plot feels a little complicated and although it raises a lot of complex issues like the identity of oneself, the consequences of collateral damage, the importance of memory and how it shapes who we are, and the ramifications of mindlessly following a higher power without asking questions or prodding deeper into what obviously looks wrong, none are followed up on and are shockingly ignored within a screenplay written by Karl Gajdusek and Michael Arndt (under the pseudonym of Michael deBruyn) that is nothing short of horrible. The dialogue is generic and lacks depth, the manner in which the characters are handled is pathetic, and the film is so heavy on exposition and seemingly indifferent on its connectable qualities, that the climax is nothing more than a hastily delivered monologue explaining the film’s purpose without any visual cues, dynamic shots or character reactions, it feels embarrassingly lazy.

It’s unengaging, it’s hard to follow, it doesn’t feel deep, complicated, or fresh, and because of its futuristic look and modern delivery, it can’t ride on the heels of being a classic homage because those properties had much more distinct personalities. A lot of the film’s messiness comes from the direction, with Kosinski not really feeling like the best choice to lead this idea despite being the one who conceptualized it. With this only being his second feature-length directorial job (with the previous being the similarly polarizing Tron: Legacy) his filmography overall seems pretty shaky, but his handling of Top Gun: Maverick did show that he’s capable if working with material he’s comfortable in, so despite clearly having passion, he’s just not the right fit for something that should be thoughtful, slow-moving and allows its themes to soak and marinate. This movie sadly is none of those factors and manages to be too fast and too slow at the same time, very shallow with its dialogue, characters and ideas, and has a tone that can be a little too gun-ho and wild which doesn’t mesh with the sporadic moments of introspection and deep conversation.

While the cast is pretty small and mostly features B-listers, the inclusion of people like Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman and even Melissa Leo would’ve helped in promoting the movie to make it feel like more than just a niche experimental low-budget sci-fi flick. While all the actors are trying, the direction, script, and limited amount of personality on pretty much everyone leaves most of them with little options and some aren’t strong enough to come out unscathed. Most of the supporting cast are written so poorly and are stuck with such one-note archetypes that no amount of effort can help their situation, with people like Morgan Freeman and Nikolai Coster-Waldau suffering the worst of this due to their minute screen time and the lack of investment felt in their entire subplot. The female characters are equally as underdeveloped, and their usage feels pretty insulting given that while given more screentime, their roles feel specifically regressive.

Olga Kurylenko is just the love interest and provides nothing else of value, being given no personality traits, interests, desires or even qualities that could assist with this plot, she is literally just a doll for Tom Cruise to save, worry about and make out with, it’s pretty bad. The same can also be said for Andrea Riseborough as Cruise’s communications partner, as despite having a pretty decent set-up with her working alongside Cruise before splitting from him due to one gaining attachment to the planet and seeing the truth, and the other being willing to remain blind and docile to a corrupt system in order to escape the monotonous torment of her existence, but that mental conflict doesn’t take centre focus, but instead becomes a secondary conflict to her growing bitter that Cruise found another woman. It’s shockingly insulting, her delivery can be a little flat at times and her conclusion is nothing short of ridiculous, they are both awful characters. The lead isn’t that much better, with very safe writing, a non-existent personality outside of just liking human stuff, and being trapped in a narrative that paints him as this ‘’golden savior’’ despite doing nothing of substance (the number of times this character’s name is uttered is almost funny). The only one that stands out in this is Melissa Leo as the main threat, as even through her weird heavily southern performance feels overly prominent and pointless, the twist in the middle helps make her a little more intriguing and even pretty threatening (especially near the end), so at least it has that going for it.

The film’s overall visual design is quite chromatic and tries to be realistic rather than flashy and different, which does limit the amount of pleasing imagery that can come from a futuristic environment, but that isn’t to say it’s necessarily ugly. With a budget of about $120 million, the film doesn’t always have the best-looking effects, with the ships (despite having cool designs) moving in an overly smooth manner that comes across as pretty phony, but it is home to some nice-looking shots on both the small and the large scale by cinematographer, Claudio Miranda. There are some cool sweeping shots of the landscape that do look superimposed-in next to the digitally inserted ships but still present grand-looking environments that look vast and lush despite being also pretty barren, and some of the framing in certain scenes also looks pretty cinematic and make good use of the sets. The production design by Darren Gilford can be a little basic (especially with how often the same locations are reused and returned to), but it knows when it has a cool looking location and can show if off accordingly. The main base the leads stay in has a great look to it, with the fact that it’s above cloud-cover meaning it can get some nice pleasing shots of the sunset which brings some nice coloration to an otherwise sterile environment.

The sound design is also surprisingly strong, especially whenever it’s used in conjunction with the attack drones seen throughout the movie. Everything related to these machines is honestly pretty great, from the way they sound, to how they move, to even how they’re defeated, making for some fun sequences (which is very appreciated in such a bitterly morose film). The music at first seems to have a fun sense of flavor and retro rhythm to it, which more than likely comes from French electric group, M83, providing original music, but as the film continues, this element gets thrown away and it starts to feel like any other standard composition, which probably comes from the other composers, Anthony Gonzalez and Joseph Trapanese, so it’s an overall uneven delivery that sadly weakens as the film progresses.

A callback film needs to be self-aware enough to know what to hold onto for nostalgic purposes, and what to let go of for outdated or even flat-out negative purposes, and Oblivion seems to house most of the bad without any of the good. For a sci-fi story, it should be clear on its premise, interesting with its visuals and world building, and elaborate with its cast and performances, and this only leaves a flippant and hollow rendition of several recycled ideas meshed together with a terrible script, poor direction and bad characters that never once grabs the audience’s attention. There are a few nice visuals and audio elements and even as a basic mindless action flick, it’s not painful to sit through, but it won’t provide what many other sci-fi stories (both new and old) have and will continue to provide. A film that uses the name Jack more times than Titanic, the fittingly named Oblivion is pretty easy to wipe from your memory.