Chris Kavan's Movie Review of Oblivion

Am I Seeing Double?
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/20/13

I was hoping that Oblivion would be the first great film of 2013 - and while it has plenty going for it, I'm still waiting to be blown away. My main issue with Oblivion is that it mixes so many elements from previous sci-fi film that it never really finds its own voice. Visually, it is stunning but the plot is a bit too rehashed and the characters a bit too flat to be truly outstanding.

Let's start off with the special effects - as this is the highlight of the film. We've seen earth destroyed in plenty of films - but I have to hand it to Oblivion - they make New York look truly like hell has hit. From the Empire State Building to the Brooklyn Bridge being buried to a bombed-out Giants Stadium - a post-apocalyptic setting has rarely been captured so well. Along with the background, the vehicles are likewise well done. The drones may look like something taken from Wall-E - but, much like Terminators - machines can't be reasoned with and when they exterminate - they do so with extreme prejudice.

Once you get passed the amazing effects, however, that's when the cracks appear. The film simply takes bits and pieces from just about every good sci-fi film out there from 2001 to the aforementioned Wall-E - it's not necessarily a bad thing to take the best parts from other films, but that means it also comes across, as my review states, a copy - which is never as good as the original. There were a few nice twists along the way - but even those weren't fully unexpected. As long as you don't mind a mild feeling of deja vu, it's okay, but some may feel a bit cheated.

The other main issue I have with Oblivion is that none of the characters get enough development. For a movie with just a handful of credited actors, almost no one besides Tom Cruise and Olga Kuylenko get any kind of major backstory. Morgan Freeman is just there to be badass and poor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who will always be Jamie Lannister to me) just gets to look menacing and shoot a lot. Andrea Riseborough is on screen quite a bit - but I never got any real sense of her character, either. When the machines have more character than your actual humans, it's never a good sign. I understand this is sci-fi, but just a little more information would have been nice.

I will say, the action is nicely done and I think the movie had a nice pace (not too long - not too short - just right). I think casual audiences will be happy - the stunning visuals alone are enough for me to recommend this - but it's one of those films that you're not going to talking about a few years down the road. It's good - but I can't call it original.