Beautiful and vastly underrated - the Tom Cruise factor?

Rating: 9/10 (26 February 2014)

I'd been wanting to see this ever since the first trailer, but ended up passing on it while it was in theaters. I'd been poisoned by many of the critical reviews and some internet commenters, who called it "slow", "confusing", "plodding", "derivative" and just another vanity project for Tom Cruise.
I was happy to discover (after finally watching the Blu-Ray release) that it is actually none of those things. What it is is a beautifully shot, thoughtful, complex sci-fi drama the likes of which we're not often treated to in this era of superhero action movies that just want to blow as much stuff up as possible on screen.
Oh, but there is action - it's just that those scenes are strangely enough the least interesting. That's probably because the movie's not really about that - in fact, it's *these* scenes that feel drawn out a bit too long. We know the heroes are going to come through, otherwise the movie would end. I just wanted them to get on with it. The main drama is filled with way more twists and turns than any of the action scenes.
It's these twists that make the plot interesting - it opens like a puzzle that doesn't quite fit together, but that's intentional. Rather than feeling like the filmmakers slapped a twist on to make for a surprise ending, "Oblivion" is built in such a way that you're actually meant to question the status quo right from the first scene. If you've got a curious mind and you're paying attention, you'll wonder about various little things.
For example, about 10 minutes in my wife asked "where did they get the money to build all this beautiful stuff?" I won't give away any spoilers because finding out the answers is one of the pleasures of this movie - but trust me when I tell you that all your questions, even seemingly insignificant ones like "how could they afford this?" *are* answered. It's pretty satisfying how everything starts to fit together as you watch.
The movie really is beautiful to look at and it's mostly well paced to allow the wide open, minimalist settings room to breathe. Joseph Kosinski seems to have a real aesthetic of his own (though one that's obviously influenced by Stanley Kubrick). Both "Tron: Legacy" and "Oblivion" share many aesthetic qualities - one is primarily "dark" and the other "light", but they're easily recognizable as having been helmed by the same person. I didn't actually know the same guy directed both while watching, but I remember saying "this feels a lot like Tron" to my wife while it was on. That's not a criticism - Kosinski's still building his catalog, but the best directors usually have a distinct style through all of their movies, regardless of genre.
I really wonder if the problem a lot of people had with this movie is that they can no longer get past Tom Cruise. I'm not a fan of him personally, but I'm able to detach my feelings about him from his characters. I actually think he usually does a good job of making me forget I'm watching Tom Cruise (in other words, I don't think he's a bad actor!) and that was true here too. The acting among the four principals was surprisingly good, and I think I even have a little crush on Olga Kurylenko.
The movie does seem to be a comment on the dangers of our increasing reliance on drones. I don't know, maybe that's a topic that's been covered in films before, but I haven't seen it - or at least not like this. I feel like some people didn't get that, or they did but had already made up their mind about the rest of the movie. Let's not forget, though, that a young Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (which itself was a comment on our coming reliance on AI) was heavily criticized on its release for many of the same reasons "Oblivion" has been. That's not to put them in the same class, but just to suggest that it's possible for films to overcome initial critic and audience biases over time. Hopefully that happens with "Oblivion."