Oblivion Indeed

Rating: 3/10 (11 April 2013)

oblivion (uh-bliv-ee-uh n)
noun.
1. the condition or quality of being completely forgotten
2. the state of forgetting or of being oblivious
The only accolade that Oblivion may collect during its short tenure in the memory of cinema-going civilisation (other than a Razzie award) will be the honour for ironically living up to its title with sincere loyalty, even though I doubt that was the producers' intention. This truly is a forgettable film that is completely oblivious of where is wanted to go or what it wanted to be.
Oblivion begins with a straightforward and vaguely interesting premise that does not necessarily offer anything new to the sci-fi genre but remains aesthetically magnificent enough for your engagement to remain trustworthy and hopeful that you will be entertained for the next two hours. However, the novelty of the excellent visual effects begins to subside as you come to the realisation that you hold no investment or inkling of care for the characters or narrative. All of one's dislikes of the film suddenly overtake any adoration that you could have had. It is a race between which feature of the film is most generic and reminiscent of other films. It really is difficult to determine a winner of this contest of conventions as there are so many racers clambering over one another, leaving the disappointed spectators unimpressed with the messy display.
Oblivion manages not only to make its own theatrical experience less interesting with a weak plot, unconvincing acting and predictable twists, but it in fact reminds us of other cinematic indulgences that we have experienced in the past. Oblivion completely removes its audience from its futuristic setting and contradictorily displaces us back into 2012, 2009, 1999 and probably many other years that I am unaware of. It replicates elements of The Dark Knight Rises (through its score) as well as Total Recall, Moon and The Matrix via the plot. When you spend a large quantity of a film thinking about past films that are superior because the film you are watching tries to overtly be an amalgamated duplicate of these films, it certainly expresses the failure of that film as its presumed intentions to keep you engrossed have failed. If you thought the sentence before this one was quite a mouthful of literary mess, then just imagine that very sentence being adapted for a film and Oblivion is what you will conceive. Essentially, the objective for most feature films in my opinion will be to engage its audience to a state of complete escapism, but when watching Oblivion, one's mind manages to escape this escapism as you spend more time concerned with other films that Oblivion is trying to be, rather than Oblivion itself.
The only unpredictable aspect of Oblivion is that the film concludes without a purpose. You are anticipating a dull and conventional climax that will leave you dissatisfied, but in fact something worse lurks at the finale of this unspectacular picture. Once the credits begin to scroll in and out of our vision, the usual cinematic reflection commences and your opinion of the film as a whole begins to emerge, and the only question I have for Oblivion is: What was the point? None of the events mattered, unexplained events are left scattered, and what for the first 20 minutes appeared to be a decent film, shattered into an abyss of dreadful storytelling.
I do not wish be completely negative about Oblivion. To give the film credit, there were perhaps a few elements that made the film okay. Most notably the special effects truly are outstanding to the point that they completely convince you of their reality. The futuristic technology, while at times inconsistent, generally is the only feature that keeps you engaged, as to be fair to the film, there is not a moment of boredom to be had during Oblivion, though the levels of excitement negatively correlate with the 126 minute length of the film. Another component of the film that is good would be Tom Cruise's character Jack's attempts at preserving all that he holds dear about humanity as it once was. He desires to restore culture, customs and ideals that he knows existed before the fictional war that occurs before we enter the chronology of the film. Unfortunately though, they fail to enforce this philosophy enough for us to care about his character. Had this been made clear as the focal point in the film, our devotion and concern for the character may have been higher.
Indeed Oblivion is a watchable film, though is just not all that enjoyable and there are honestly too many things to dislike about the film that weighing your likes and dislikes of the film is identically imbalanced with a lot of the film's scenes. Some scenes that are fairly unimportant are given a higher degree of emphasis than those that are actually concerned with the narrative, and often feel rushed just so they can get to the action sequences that follow. I am sure some will enjoy Oblivion, but I do not recommend anyone to waste their time with this film as you do not gain anything from being a spectator other than gaining insight that this is how not to tell a story.