My Favourite Movies: Oblivion (2013)

Late 21st Century Earth – a planet almost destroyed in a war with the alien invaders known as Scavs. Left behind as a ‘mop up crew’ are Jack (played by Tom Cruise) and his controller Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) who spend their days finding and repairing downed drones and looking forward to the day – coming soon – when they can leave Earth and join the rest of humanity orbiting Titan. But Jack is plagued by dreams of the past, a past he has no memory of, and a woman he has never met. How can this be after his memory of life before the war has been wiped as a security precaution? On a mission to the surface Jack is almost captured by the group of Scavs and only escapes with the aid of a drone sent by the observation satellite – The Tet. But it is when a signal is discovered broadcasting off planet and with the arrival of an old NASA craft that things start unravelling. On board the crashed ship is the woman in Jack’s dreams who knows him and who makes him realise that everything he believes about his mission and himself is a lie. Once he realises what is happening there is only one thing to do…..

Yes, it’s my non-favourite actor (again) Tom Cruise staring in another of my favourite films – odd that, don’t you think? Actually the whole movie is rather odd in many ways: For one thing it’s all rather bleak, as you might expect from a devastated Earth with the dominant colour being grey. The level of destruction is I admit very impressive and I particularly liked the shot of a destroyed Pentagon building. Overall the look of the movie was very impressive. Not just the dramatic panoramic scenery but the detail too, in the design of Jack’s cloths, his guns and his amazing ‘helicopter’. It looked as if everything had been designed by an engineer and would possibly work if only we had the technology to build such things. The storyline was pretty standard but had some nice twists and turns to it – even if some of them where telegraphed quite early one. Of course there where loose ends – such as what about numbers 1-48 (I’m not going to explain that as it gives a big ‘secret’ away) but they were largely forgivable. If I wanted tight, logical and reasonable plotting I’d read a quality book rather than watch a 2 hour Hollywood movie! Both love interests – Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko – where, I thought, largely disposable and very much secondary to the plot (especially Riseborough unfortunately who I thought was wasted in her role).

This was a film largely based around Jack/Cruise and he did, not unsurprisingly, carry it off rather well. I also thought that Morgan Freeman as the leader of the (inevitable) rebels was wasted too with little more to do than add gravitas with his presence and wonderful voice – something he does effortlessly. The thing I think I liked most about it, apart from the style of the whole thing and the scattering of interesting and clever (if not exactly original) ideas, was the dual ending – both of which I liked. I particularly liked the ‘Fuck you, Sally’ ending (again without explanation as it would give too much away. Overall then this was a stylish, well made, intellectually interesting and fun movie with a good (double bonus) ending(s). I’ve seen it 3-4 times now and I probably enjoy it as much as the first time. If something like that doesn’t make it into my favourites list I don’t know what would.