‘Oblivion’ Lacks in Story & Acting, Not Production Value

The latest Tom Cruise vehicle looks epic and worth seeing in advertisements, but it doesn’t deliver the goods even in IMAX. Directed/Produced by Joseph Kosinski (“TRON: Legacy”), the film’s technical aspects are great, but the acting is not up to par which makes the whole thing harder to buy into. Morgan Freeman isn’t in it nearly as long as expected and isn’t anything worth seeing himself. “Oblivion” shows the importance of story, because it majorly lacks one that keeps itself interesting.

With the tagline “Earth is a memory worth fighting for,” the premise is made a little more interesting and metaphoric – but it is easily forgotten like the film itself. Jack (Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough, “Disconnect”) are the “mop up crew” on a futuristic destroyed planet earth. They work together to repair robotic weapons that defend Earth’s last natural resources from the terrorist threat of “Star Wars” sand people looking creatures. What happens eventually is that Jack begins to doubt the nature of the higher up command of his missions and what is exactly going on.

The cinematography/lighting are pretty stellar, along with the special effects. The score is reminiscent of Daft Punk’s for “TRON: Legacy,” but it still lacks comparatively speaking. The screenplay is adapted from Kosinski’s own graphic novel of the same name that he wrote with Arvid Nelson, the screenplay being by Kosinski and two others. This film officially reveals his weakness in directing, needing big name actors to get audiences into seats to reimburse the estimated $120 million budget.

At 2 hours and 6 minutes, “Oblivion” overstays its welcome after the story becomes so convoluted that it collapses onto itself. The weapons shoot lasers of some sort that have sound effects like in the old “Star Wars” films, and in the end is nothing but a ridiculously high budget syfy channel movie. It also has appearances by Olga Kurylenko (“Seven Psychopaths”), Melissa Leo, and Zoe Bell (“Django Unchained”).

“Oblivion” is now playing in theaters everywhere in IMAX and regular 2D.