Emerging as one of most anticipated sci-fi movies of the year, Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion provides viewers with a prolonged, well crafted, production.
Following an alien invasion 60 years earlier, which nearly destroyed Earth, former Marine commander Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the last few drone mechanics stationed on Earth. Harper, living in an airborne tower alongside his colleague Victoria Olsen (Andrea Riseborough), is part of the operation to clean up the remaining forces of the invasion and extract the planet’s remaining resources to salvage humanities new existence on a moon of Saturn.
Nearing the end of his mission, Harper rescues a fellow marine Julia Rusakova (Olga Kurylenko), from a crashed spacecraft, whom finally awakes from a long “delta-sleep”, confused and disorientated from the news of the planet. Her arrival captures the attention of mysterious Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman), who captures the duo and forces Harper to question everything he knows about Earth, the invasion and its aftermath.
This high-budget production captures images of ruin, vast regions of a lifeless desert and the forefront of infamous buildings lost in the rubble. Cruise offers a performance that provides something slightly different to his usual roles, whilst he continues to engage in some non-humorous, clichéd, actions that you’ve grown to expect, whilst Morgan Freeman’s involvement remains unforgettable and, in fact, you are actually left a little disappointed that he doesn’t become part of a regular occurrence in this overly-recycled script.
Oblivion comes out as a more mainstream, high-budgeted, version of the 2009, cult favourite, Moon, which featured Sam Rockwell, Kaya Scodelario and Kevin Spacey. The script, general basis and mysterious characters may be a format of recycled movie scripts, included in an over-stretched running time, but Oblivion conjures something up that offers its audiences enough to be mesmerised by this modern take.
Oblivion is available to view in cinemas now.
Check out the trailer, below: