Review of Oblivion (2013) by Gemma K — 23 Feb 2014

Oblivion is a film that takes swings for the fences on a few fronts in the hopes of being a great sci-fi film...and while it hits on a few fronts, its the misses that really drag down this potentially great film.

On the positive side, Oblivion looks terrific....it hammers home this sense to death and destruction, while at the same time, also exuding a feeling of life and growth which is quite difficult to not watch...also, it should be noted that Cruise does give quite a good performance...its not award worth by any stretch, but you definitely empathize with his character...and to top it off, Oblivion really is just a fun film to watch....HOWEVER, the thing is that, like so many films today, the trailers spoil the parts in the film that really could make this great...without spoiling anything, you know Morgan Freeman and his people exist in this world, so when you are finally showed them and told why they are there....there really isn't much of a surprise factor...it would have tremendously more successful to either hide this character and their appearence until they are on screen....OR don't use such a high profile actor (i.e. one that you need to advertise to draw viewers in)...Oblivion should have advertised a greater sense of mystery around its central plot line, which by the way also had great potential (although it did seem to 'borrow' ideas from other sci-fi)...the main idea at the center of this film is a truly interesting one that really should be been expanded upon more than it was...instead, they decided to focus more on a pseudo-romantic component which ultimately weighed down the film....what this lead to was a very neat and tidy ending which in a round about way, defied logic (particularly that of the main 'villain').

Again, Oblivion is not a BAD film, but it is a bit frustrating because it could have been something so much better than it was....remove some of the romantic filler with more of the central plot line and fill in some of the plot holes/illogical turns and all of a sudden, you don't care about it being to revealing because you have a more thought provoking experience....example, for a fantastic sci-fi picture, that is much more thought provoking along similar lines (to the point that it could be argued that ideas were 'borrowed' from it), and that is a whole 30 minutes shorter....I would recommend Duncan Jones's "Moon" starting Sam Rockwell.