Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Oblivion (2013, Dir. Joseph Kosinski, USA) (Cert: 12a) ***



Starring: Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough

 

In the year 2017, aliens fleeing their dying home planet landed on the Moon and began a war between them and Earth. The destruction to the Moon caused earthquakes and floods and the resulting nuclear war finished off most of the Earth’s atmosphere. Sixty years on, Jack (Cruise) and Victoria (Riseborough) are two surviving humans living above Earth’s atmosphere, surveying the planet and ridding it of remaining aliens, known as “Scavs”. When Jack discovers and rescues a sixty-year-old escape pod containing a woman (Kurylenko) he recognises from his dreams, a whole new reality starts to dawn on Jack.

 

Directed by Joseph Kosinski (and based off of his own graphic novel), Oblivion treads a fine line between mainstream-friendly pop-science fiction and more cerebral and esoteric material, lurching further towards the latter as the film goes on. It’s a film that wears its influences on its sleeve, with a story that meshes elements from Aliens (1986) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It twists and it turns but doesn’t take a very interesting shape until the movie is well underway, just enough to stop you losing interest completely. However, the film does have a great sound and set design and the final moments of the film are a real tour-de-force.  

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