Oblivion review

Oblivion

In the future, is Tom Cruise really the last man left on earth..? Christoffer Ohlson finds out.

The Low Down: In the near future, an alien invasion is fended off, but earth is destroyed and abandoned by mankind. A service technician, supervising the water extraction and fending off remaining aliens, discovers a crashed spacecraft that’s been in orbit since before the invasion. The only survivor reminds him of a woman in his dreams, and starts getting suspicious about the new world he lives in.

Review: Already when Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) starts off with describing his dreams, so realistic that they seem like real memories, we know that this isn’t just another action flick. This is a sci-fi mystery set in a future only sixty or so years ahead of us, where the “Tet”, a gigantic space colony, orbits the earth in the sky, harbouring surviving humans after the surface of the earth was destroyed. Aliens destroyed the moon, causing huge natural disasters, but they were defeated. This is the truth about what happened many years ago. At least this is the truth Jack has been lead to believe. This mystery unfolds quite beautifully during two hours of extremely apt and sparse visual effects, weaving together the xxx of the future with the remnants of the “old” world as we know it. This is sentimental sci-fi at its best. It combines a clean Huxlean future with chaotic Mad Max influences.

The Best: The simplicity and elegance of both story and cinematics. This is a new “old” Star Trek movie!

The Worst: That there is some predictability in the story because of the likeness to other classic sci-fi movies, and perhaps there is too much of Tom Cruise at times. Yeah, you heard me.

Verdict: If this is the kind of movies Tom Cruise will be doing from now on, he will indeed continue to be our hero for at least four more years. This story has a powerful post-apocalypse beginning, and an ending with a very satisfying twist. In between is a great series of supersonic and sentimental sequences, so handsomely done, you don’t even ask any questions about how it all really ties up – because you simply don’t care.

Celluloid influences: Star Trek + Mad Max = Oblivion