Movie Review: Oblivion is a Great Mind-Bender!

Every now and then a great film comes out in the off season (meaning Hollywood saves the "popcorn" flicks for Christmas and summer), and Oblivion snuck right in. I'm not sure why Universal didn't save this one for the popcorn fun, but it sure is a great "summer" movie anyway. It's not what you think, and the trailer doesn't give away the slightest hint. At first you think maybe it's like the other great Tom Cruise film Vanilla Sky (loved that title), but I can assure you it's not. It's more twisted and bends your mind a little more, but not quite as deep as Vanilla Sky. Let me say, I love a great mind-bender -- and Oblivion didn't fail my expectations. Right when you think it's one thing, it's another thing altogether -- and you don't connect the dots. I had no idea what was the twist, and it had several great twists.

The movie is set 60 years after an attempted alien invasion that involved the aliens destroying our moon and the need for nuclear weapons to win the war, which destroyed much of the planet. Tom Cruise's Jack Harper is the technician assigned to maintain the droids that protect these hydrogen extraction devices that are sucking our oceans dry. He is an "effective team" with his mate Victoria, who mans communications from their home base. The only uneasy snafu is Jack's haunted by the image of another woman and another time. He doesn't know if it's a dream or it's a memory. Apparently, for their jobs their memories must be "wiped" for reasons that are initially unclear. The couple is right on the verge of being returned to home base, which is a moon near Saturn that is prepared for colonization.

Cruise does his usual action-packed performance, and it's a great job. His character's intrigue keeps the audience engaged. Now I HAVE to make this comment! It's time for Cruise to quit being paired with 25-year-old actresses -- both women in the film are in their early 20's. Cruise, who is 50, needs to face his age and deal with it just like the rest of us. His love interests looked like his daughters! It's embarrassing and makes Cruise look ridiculous. I said to my fiancé he should at least try and find suitable actresses in their 30's and 40's versus these very young starlets. And the red head who played Victoria look like a Nicole Kidman want-to-be ... well, the man is consistent I'll give him that one.

Aside from personal "ew" over the love thing with young women, I give the film a four-star rating. It was long and kept taking enough twists and turns to keep you hooked until the end.

Comments

  1. Nice review. The movie does suffer from a script that doesn't clearly explain certain things and the storytelling does come off as lazy in parts. Could have been better, had it just decided to take the high road and be a bit more original with itself.

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