What I'm Watching: Oblivion

Universal Pictures

Why I watched it: this is one that I meant to see in theaters, but just never got around to it. Reviews had the consensus of "meh," but I was still intrigued by the pretty looking clips from the trailer and a new sci-fi movie. Director Joseph Kosinski made his debut a few years back with Tron: Legacy which for all of its silliness was fairly dazzling to watch. So, I figured Oblivion would at least deliver something cool to look at if not a fairly good story. I am also a fan of Tom Cruise, I have to admit. He may play the same character in nearly every movie, but he plays that character very well in opinion (especially in Magnolia). Unlike a lot of actors who obviously phone in their performances in many movies, Cruise seems to try and actually do his best in just about anything. I am also a fan of Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) even though she's not the greatest actress around, I still find her more like-able than most.

What I thought: it is very pretty! The mixture of digital effects and real locations (like the one above) make for images that are bright and crisp. Cruise delivers everything that he possibly could with the character and script he was given, but I will have to side with critics on this one and say that the story is "meh." It holds multiple plot points and twists that are a combination of things seen in sci-fi before, and while the film itself is over 2 hours long, it still feels as if things are hurried along too much. A lot of time is spent watching Cruise fly around to different places that look cool, but when it comes to moving the plot along, things happen too fast. In this same vein of thought, there is a fairly long prologue narrated by Cruise which is just lazy writing in this case. I don't have a problem with prologues in general; sometimes they can be quite useful and done effectively, but in this case it's a way for the writers to pack all of the back-story, major plot points, and other key character motivations into a just less than 10 minute sequence. Oblivion has also received a lot of attention for its soundtrack done by the band M83, and it is a good soundtrack! But it becomes overplayed and explodes into certain sequences that just don't feel right for that kind of music. On its own, I'm sure it'd be very cool to listen to while running or something because it's fairly epic. All of the time, which is one of its problems.

Should you see it: I'd say that Oblivion is better than most of the fair you'll find at Redbox these days, and the same goes for new releases on Netflix too if you pay for mail delivery. It has enough sparkling imagery and exciting moments (especially this spaceship chase through an ice-canyon) in it to make for an enjoyable time. Still, I'm glad I didn't spend money on it in theaters, and it would be best if you tried not to do too much guessing as to what happens in the plot. Otherwise you'll probably figure everything out pretty fast just like I did. I guessed the ultimate twist from the very beginning.