A deceptive experience

Rating: 6/10 (5 March 2017)

The moment this movie signaled a sharp downhill turn for me was when two people were fighting over a gun and the gun accidentally went off, while another person was observing the fight from relatively far away. Instantly, this made me think of a trope that a number of action movies from the 90s and 80s used, in which a stray gunshot like this would accidentally hit someone important to the main hero, but my mind pushed that memory away, as I was sure that this smart movie would not stoop so low as to use such a cliché. Sure enough, a moment later it was revealed that the observer got shot. Even worse, this person was apparently unaware of getting shot at first, which also happens in action movies sometimes, but makes little sense in a situation like this.
The clean bright look of the machines, the architecture and characters' wardrobes, as well as a potent sci-fi soundtrack, make you feel like you are watching something original and intelligent, but as the movie progresses, you may realise that this is a Frankenstein's monster, patched together from a number of other older movies and games (Portal specifically), wrapped in a fresh package.
On top of that, as the story progresses, it raises a few important questions that never get answered, thereby creating plot holes that make the plot feel unrealistic and dumb. And while this is not a very wordy movie, much of the dialogue that's there is not great. There is a lot of exposition through talking instead of showing and there are meaningless one-liners that are only there because they sound cool.
Therefore, Oblivion goes from a seemingly interesting promise to an increasingly disappointing dumb action movie. It does look good all the way through and there are a few cool sci- fi turns, so at least there is that.