From the first 30 minutes of Oblivion, you’d be blameless to think you were seeing something special: a for real live Asimovian science fiction story given the big-budget treatment. Kubrickian even; the stark shots of post-alien-war Earth, the sleek-lined white architecture of the sky loft, and the spherical drones flying over the land protecting the monolithic hydro-facilities frame the simple story of Jack, a drone repairman, and his lover, Victoria, two of the last remaining humans on Earth waiting to board a ship to the moon Titan with earth’s remaining survivors.
When drone janitor Jack (Tom Cruise) rescues a woman, Julia (Olga Kurylenko), from the wreckage of a fallen shuttle, mysteries about Jack and Victoria’s (Andrea Riseborough) purpose on earth, and who they really are, begin to surface. It’s here where the beautiful sheen of Oblivion (extra Pulses were awarded solely based on how gorgeous this movie is) starts to give way to one of the more asinine, not Asimovian, plots in recent sci-fi memory. The constant misdirections and plot twists aim for Twilight Zone but land more in the realm of Shyamalan. Why were Jack and Victoria’s memories erased five years ago? What is Morgan Freeman doing down on the surface? Why are drones killing humans instead of aliens? What does Jack’s recurring dream of Julia on the Empire State Building mean? Do I even care?
This is director Joseph Kosinski’s second feature, the first being 2010’s Tron: Legacy, and I like the idea of giving him more money to keep making these big sci-fi movies. Next time, however, one would hope that he could adapt an already established and meaningful story. Oblivion is based on his own labyrinthine plot, one that makes even less sense when chronologically assembled. Maybe leave out Tom Cruise next time as well. Nobody buys him as Mr. All-American anymore. I’m not saying different casting would elevate Oblivion to greatness (there’s still the myriad script/plot issues), but giving the role of Jack to up-and-comer Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones’ Jaime Lannister), who shows up as Morgan Freeman’s right-hand man mainly to grimace and point guns at people, would’ve have been a good start in saving this film from its namesake.
