Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion (2013) Movie Review

Three years after he made his directorial debut, Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) followed it up with another exciting project via the sci-fi film Oblivion, which was based on his unpublished graphic novel of the same title. Oblivion is the part of a grand list of Sci-Fi big-budgeted blockbusters that are going make a splash on the big screen.

Oblivion based on Kosinski’s graphic novel, in the year 2077 Earth is uninhabitable, after the nuclear war between humans and aliens known as “Scavs”. They had destroyed the Moon, which caused natural disasters, and started invading Earth; humans eventually won the war but lost the planet. Some of those who survived are now living in the Tet, a large spaceship orbiting Earth, waiting to go to Titan, Saturn’s moon where the rest of humanity is waiting. Jack (Tom Cruise) lives with Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) in a house above the clouds and spends his day repairing drones – Scav killing machines – while she oversees him and communicates with the main commander on Tet. One day, Jack finds Julia (Olga Kurylenko) in a crashed spacecraft, who will make him question everything he thought he knew about himself and the war.

Tom Cruise is surprisingly controlled as Jack Harper and stating he has pitched in a bad performance can never be believed. He even performs his own stunts. Morgan Freeman is hardly present, but is effective nevertheless. Olga Kurylenko and Andrea Riseborough are great to look at and pitch in okay performances. The supporting cast are fine.

Kosinski is clearly a director who thinks in pictures. His previous effort, Tron Legacy, looked amazing and Oblivion is no different. There are some set pieces that are absolutely stunning and the vistas we are given of a barren and destroyed earth are magnificent. The movie amounts to two hours of sensorial assail that puts the audience to sleep despite the loud sound effects and altering chase scenes. I haven’t yawned that much in a Science Fiction Film in recent times.

Oblivion starts off with some promising visuals contains an almighty shift, and that the film stops being a mistily demoralizing and conventional chore to sit through, and quite suddenly becomes a fairly engrossing and resolutely entertaining Good Time. Oblivion is heavy on visual effects but light on emotion and substance.

On the Whole, Oblivion is a science fiction variety that borrows so much from so many films (Wall-E, The Matrix, Moon, and The Independence Day) it completely forget to create its own identity in the process. It is a plate filled with great ingredients, but it’s not a dish. Not even by a long shot. Skip in Theatres.

Survi Review: 1.5/5 (rated “1” More for Visual effects)

The Title of the movie is perfectly chosen OBLIVION (noun): the state of being forgotten, especially by the public.

Theatrical Trailer: