Chix Chat on Film review: Earth decimated

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2013)

Oblivion is the kind of film that once you see the trailer you have high expectations for what it will deliver. It did deliver on some spectacular images from high atop the world in Jack Harper's (Tom Cruise) sky living quarters, where he and Vicka (Andrea Riseborough) are an effective team. Visually, the look of this film was quite imaginative. This was Mr. Cruise's turn at being the 'one', that individual who is the savior of humanity. There were too many scenes that reminded me of The Matrix for me to give this film high marks in the creativity column, I seriously expected that at some point Jack would hold out his hand and fry the drones that were in pursuit. This is another film that gets segmented, but in this case it is a matter of before Julia (Olga Kurylenko) and after Julia. Before, Julia the mood of the story was a ride along with Jack as he performed his duty of drone repairs and it would be putting it mildly to say that it seemed to drone on and one, pun intended. Then after Julia the pace picks up as did my interest in what was taking place and where the plot was leading me. When Jack meets Beech (Morgan Freeman) a Morpheus-like character, again it was just so Matrix-esque he is given instruction as to how he should learn the truth about what was happening, since simply telling him would not could not possibly be accepted or comprehended. The special effects in Oblivion were more the marvel of this film than the story, which was a blending of other films of this genre that had come before it. To be able to convincingly depict a thriving metropolis as a wasteland buried under a desert was amazing, but the real star of the film was the chopper with the on board bike accessory. The maneuverability, compactness and styling of that transport is the kind of concept technology that I would love to see realized by some science geek who would. In a side note, now I understand why there was so little of Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones season two, he was off playing Sykes (Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau). Had the before Julia storyline been as engaging as the after Julia story I would have been more inclined to go green, but alas I have to give it an amber light