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| Release: 2013, Rating: PG-13, Runtime: 124 min. |
There is a lot of great Sci-Fi out there and it turns out surprisingly, that Oblivion is a great Sci-Fi movie. The story is engaging, the visuals are breathtaking and the music is sublime. The action does take a back seat for the most part and it will run long in some areas, but Oblivion still comes out tops. Read on for the rest…
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: A veteran assigned to extract Earth’s remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.
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| Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) enjoying the view of the power stations. |
Story is where it’s at with Oblivion. It’s number one priority, is telling you a riveting tale, that is full to the brim of life and style. Tom Cruise plays Jack Harper, a drone repairman, tasked with taking care of the drones from nightly raids, by the Scavs, an alien race that came out of the blue and destroyed the moon and invaded Earth. Humans won the war, but the Earth was mostly destroyed and the remaining survivors, moved to a colony on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Jack and his partner/lover, Victoria, work together as a team to make sure that the drones and the giant power stations in the ocean, which suck up the salt water and transform it to fusion power for the colony, are fully operational. It almost seems like a never ending job, as Jack constantly has to go out. On one trip, Jack notices something that will change his outlook on what exactly is going on on Earth and he’ll start to question whether everything he was told is true.
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| Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) keeping an eye on Jack Harper. |
Oblivion is full of twists and turns and shocking moments. You’ll be on the edge of your seat pretty much the entire time. There are moments in the movie, where it felt like it dragged a little and action fans might be hurt to find out, the movie isn’t balls to wall action. Yes, there are moments where the action will happen and when it does, it’s pretty damn awesome. Still, you’ve been warned, this is mostly a story driven movie.
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| Julia (Olga Kurylenko) and Jack Harper in one of the films most exciting action scenes. |
Tom Cruise carries the movie fantastically, playing Jack Harper with some true soul. You can tell that Jack loves Earth and doesn’t want to leave it behind. Victoria, played by Andrea Riseborough, is more focused on the job and feels that Earth is wasted and should be left behind. These people may be partners/lovers, but they certainly are not on the same page. Rounding out the cast is, Olga Kurylenko, who plays Earth survivor, Julia and has a lot of secrets being kept close to her chest and finally Morgan Freeman shows up briefly, in a almost blink and you miss it role. He doesn’t do much, but boy is his voice sexy.
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| Beech (Morgan Freeman) and Sykes (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in small, but pivotal roles. |
Oblivion isn’t only full of beautiful visuals, which consist of a wasted New York City, futuristic ships/vehicles and interesting weapons, but it also treats your ears to a soundtrack that is something to be heard. It’s haunting and exciting all wrapped up in one superb package.
Oblivion will serve you up a tale that will keep your eyes glued to the screen. It falls into the class of Sci-Fi films that everyone should watch at least once.
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