In the non too distant future Earth is attacked by aliens, the resulting war leaves Earth pretty much uninhabitable. Oblivion tells the story of Jack (Tom Cruise) who, along side Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), is tasked with maintaining a number of drones that protect Earths best chance at survival. But all is not as it seems and the discovery of a crashed ship leads Jack down a path that will change his own fate and the whole of humanity.
Right off the bat the sense of scale in this film is immediate, the soundtrack soars as we learn about Jack and the world he inhabits. The plot manages to hold it's cards pretty close to its chest whilst all the time dishing out great set pieces with lush visuals and naturally brilliant handling by Tom Cruise and his costar Andrea Riseborough. The master stroke of the film is the setting and the things you take for granted visually. It is truly stunning, the world feels real, the sets, the design and the technology are so clean and pleasing to the eye that you can't help but marvel from time to time. However this was exactly how I felt towards Tron Legacy. Joe Kosinski has taken that extreme talent of creating realistic looking fantasy worlds and brought it to Oblivion. But for all it's visual trickery, Tron Legacy felt very empty and cold. Oblivion has a lot more to it in its story and you feel a greater sense of connection with the characters because it doesn't hold to any pre-conceived ideas laid down by a previous film. Cruise and Riseborough interact well together, and with their eye in the sky keeping tabs on them, the first act plays out as great isolated triangle of drama between these characters, that is affected greatly by the arrival of a fourth character in the shape of Olga Kurylenko.
There is an underlying issue with the film, and it's that we feel like in some way we've been here before, a number of familiar themes came up throughout, yet they belong to a number of sci-fi movies. The obvious ones are Moon, Wall-E, Mad Max and there are even obvious cinematic nods to Independence Day, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Prometheus. This list goes on. Given that many of these are robbing of style and of plot ideas it completely undermines the effect this film could have. Granted if you watch this film without those previous cinematic experiences you will find this wholly original and extremely effective, but that's highly unlikely. Cliché is the top word critics have been using to describe this film and every single one of them nailed it on the head. The rule book on sci-fi isn't re-written here, it's followed almost to the letter. It also feels enormously long, and with its scale reaching higher and higher, it runs away with a story line that could have been more concentrated and effective. The length in the end feels necessary in explaining the rather long winded twists and turns, but it means you don't leave the cinema with any of your own ideas.
Personally, although I found many of the ideas here old hat, the child in me got thoroughly wrapped up in this, not only was it visually stupendous, the soundtrack had me by the ears immediately. With M83 providing the soundscape for Oblivion, you could hardly call the score original, yet it provides a lot of the emotional impact in many scenes here, giving more scope and scale to these already great looking shots. In fact I have become unhealthily obsessed with the title track that adorns the credits with vocals from Susanne Sundfor, it's so epic and wonderful I actually can't stop listening to it. The choice of actors is well founded, but what has come up time and again in reviews is that it eventually feels like one big Tom Cruise machine. I really thought he was great in it, but it gives very little opportunity for any other characters to be developed fully, with Jack going through all sorts of traumas and thoughts, everyone else feels flat and opaque.
The result of all this is a film that is well crafted in it's look and sound, but although having a strong first act, falls into a hole of clichés. Oblivion rings with familiar tones, you've seen this kind of thing before, it feels like your watching a number of films at once in places. However once the dust settles on this very long affair, I couldn't help but feel I'd watched something that will stick with me, for a while at least. It's worth seeing in a cinema for the visual spectacle alone and the film as a whole is good, it's just a shame, because it could have been great.
