Lots of Familiar Twists

Rating: 8/10 (19 April 2013)

Where is a blue light when you need one? If you take elements of I, Robot, The Matrix, Independence Day, Total Recall and of course Top Gun and put them all in a bowl and mixed them up, you would come up with Oblivion. This film was totally crazy and literally out of this world. And to top it all off, with all the previews and the length of this film be prepared to get butt blisters for two and a half hours. I do have to say that I thought the special effects were brilliantly done, especially with the ship that Jack is flying. I also liked the fact that explanations of what was going on were trickled in throughout the film, right up to the very end. Basically the film centered on a band of rebels that are left on earth after a planetary war who are fighting against the establishment. Jack (Tom Cruise) is a drone repairman with less than two weeks to go on his so called tour of duty. Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) is his eyes in the sky and takes direction from the control center that is wedged in space. As depicted in the trailer, Jack is captured by the rebel tribe and this is where the journey of discovery begins. Beech (Morgan Freeman) is the rebel leader and is determined to get Jack to see the truth. This is also the point in the film where there starts to be a lot of twists and turns. I did hear myself saying (a couple of times), "what the heck is going on here". This is when the fun started for me, because I started thinking about all the other films that this one stole from. I think that director Joseph Kosinski did a pretty good job considering the only other film that he has produced was Tron: Legacy. He is definitely headed in the right direction if this is the genre that he wants to stick with. Although the film was a little long for my taste, it was definitely not boring. The film moved at a steady pace and the little enlightenments along the way kept my interest. I think that this film does merit the price of a ticket for the CGI and cinematography alone. Oblivion did not leave me oblivious so I am going to go ahead and give this film a green light.