Movie Review: Oblivion

Last night I attended a pre-screening of Universal Pictures’ Oblivion starring Tom Cruise as ‘Jack Harper’, Morgan Freeman as ‘Malcolm Beech’, Olga Kurylenko as ‘Julia Rusakova’ and Andrea Riseborough as ‘Victoria Olsen’. Oblivion was directed and produced by Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy). The movie is based on Joseph’s unpublished graphic novel of the same name. The filming locations were Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana but much of the outside shots were in filmed Iceland. Filming in Iceland really did the film justice, it opened the gates for amazing outdoor footage. Being the Science-Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian film lover that I am, I was extremely excited to see the film and once the film ended, that level of excitement was multiplied. I was instantly ready to watch Oblivion again.

The film begins with Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) having a dream/vision. This is odd because he should have no memories since his memory was wiped clean before he began his mission as protocol. See, Jack is one of the last humans left on Earth after the invasion from the Alien Scavengers that took place sixty years earlier. In the invasion we suffered the loss of our Moon and them almost destroying Earth. We were able to win the battle but to do so, destroyed Earth and made it inhabitable. Nuclear bombs were discharged and very little of Earth is left undamaged. Jack (Tom Cruise) is stationed on Earth with his communication partner and love interest Victoria (Andrea Riseborough). Their operation is to extract the Earth’s remaining resources and fix the drones used to kill any Scavengers that try to attack the towers. They must keep those Scavengers away from the towers that are being used to turn Earth’s water into a resource for Titan. Jack and Victoria are counting down the days until they are set to return back to Titan. Titan is where the humans that are left live which is located on one of Saturn’s moons. Jack begins to feel as if he is abandoning Earth by leaving. The recurring flashbacks and dreams he has might be the culprit behind his doubts. Victoria will quickly diminish any talk Jack starts and changes the subject each time. Victoria just wants to be done and go home to Titan.

While on one of Jack’s patrols he is the witness to a spacecraft crash. He is informed that Sally (Melissa Leo) at Mission Control wants him to stand down and ignore the crash because the drones will handle it. Jack ignores his commands because he is already at the site of the crash and no drones are visible and sees humans inside these capsules that are in hibernation mode. He reports this to Victoria, who begins to panic and tells Jack to leave. Jack investigates the spacecraft which ends up being a NASA Shuttle. Inside, he discovers one more capsule and in it is the woman from his dreams. While inside the shuttle, the drones arrive and begin to destroy all the sleep capsules outside. When one of the drones goes to destroy the capsule with the women inside, Jack steps in front so the drone will not shoot him and in the process destroy her. Jack loads the capsule on his airplane and takes it back to the tower he lives on, several thousand feet in the sky. Jack and Victoria proceed to open the capsule to wake the women inside. When the woman finally wakes up, she states her name is Julia (Olga Kurylenko) and that she can’t disclose what her mission was on the space shuttle. Jack informs her she has been asleep for 60 years and tells her everything that happened to Earth while she was in hibernation mode.

Now that Julia has been awakened, she is set on getting the flight recorder from the space shuttle. Jack decides to take her because they want to know what happened, so they leave before Victoria is awake. This is completely against protocol. Going back to the scene of the space shuttle crash will put several unexpected events into motion and Jack’s questions and doubts will triple. Jack will be tested and questioned and he will have to make life changing decisions that will affect the outcome of everyone including what’s left of Earth. A battle between Humans and Aliens will come to its epic finale once and for all.

To think this movie and plot came from an unpublished comic book is unreal. The world-building is incredible and the delivery compliments it. Being a futuristic science-fiction movie, you expect to see things that are not believable and look very fictitious. In Oblivion you don’t find yourself questioning that future (year 2077) before your eyes, you accepted it as a real future. Oblivion had me by the seat of my pants, several times I caught myself holding my breath. It’s a gripping movie from opening credits until the end. The soundtrack is fantastic and compliments the movie. It has the right balance of action, romance and mystery that will appeal to all ages. In the theater last night everyone left satisfied with the movie. The couple next to me that was in their late 50’s were absolutely moved by the film. The teenagers in front could not stop saying words like “awesome”, “badass” and “cool”. This is a movie I STRONGLY suggest you see in theaters so you can capture all of it greatness on the big screen, and if you have an IMAX theater near you, it’s worth paying the extra money to see on the IMAX screen. Tom Cruise did a stellar job as Jack and the man looked great and in shape. Jack had this Maverick (Top Gun) feel to him, I loved it.

Final verdict: Oblivion is a MUST-SEE!