Excellent escapism

Rating: 7/10 (7 September 2013)

Thankfully I saw this sci fi film without knowing much about it apart from the fact that one of the BBC's critics had dismissed it when it came out, because there's some lively plot twists right to the very end you'd be best to be er oblivious about. I'm not a Tom Cruise expert but it's the best film I've seen him in, and even though it clocks in at two hours and some think it too long I wouldn't have minded another hour.
The Earth in the future is war ravaged, patrolled by robot drones and their repairmen under the control of the ultimate spy in the sky, the gargantuan spaceship Tet. Cruise plays one such repairman Jack who finds his wiped memory returning for him to question his role. And much more. The whole plot edifice is cleverly constructed and maintained, with slick and clean cgi cartoonery and graphics, supported by good performances. Although I do get fed up with pumping up the volume to compensate for pseudo-heavy guttural whisperings replacing ordinary talking - you'd think they'd all have sore throats after a days shooting. And why oh why hasn't teleportation been invented yet - it's almost as if people in the future prefer to fly enormous physical objects with innumerable moving parts, or is that just to make the game version more interesting! I see that the future still features brief(less) appearances by naked females, somethings will never change apparently. It's maybe heartwarming for oldies to surmise that the LP will survive the CD and that Led Zep will still be relevant post apocalypse but it's the plot that's more interesting after all and all I can do is recommend concentration otherwise parts of this brave new world may pass you by. I had to keep stopping and playing back to double check little things, for instance the whole section when Jack "repaired" Julia.
There's nothing completely new here at all, just the entertaining updated cinematic way it's all been brought together from Planet Of The Apes, Silent Running, Dune, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Star Wars, Star Trek, Independence Day et al. And the end credit graphics even reminded me of the episode endings to Thunderbirds, none of these are bad things. It's the best sci fi film I've seen in years, if some of the critics don't like it just ignore them and see what you think instead.