Oblivion

based on 2 reviews.

tl;dr: There's nothing specifically wrong here, it's just that nothing ever works and the whole concept is tremendously dull. Also, apparently, completely forgettable.

Review

Spoilers Ahead: My reviews are not spoiler-free. You have been warned.

Oblivion looked like a fan post-apocalyptic movie. It failed to live up to that expectation. It's one part Total Recall, one part Hunger Games, one part Blade Runner, one part Terminator, one part Armageddon, and one part... I dunno, Attack of the Clones? What's a good clone-replica movie? That episode of the Simpson's where Homer buys a magic hammock? Sure, let's run with that one.

The point is, the film can't decide what story it wants to tell. You've got a destroyed Earth (and moon), a rogue alien AI, cloning, memory wipes, a human resistance, nuclear bombs, lost love, and a great awakened beast that would have left everything alone if it weren't for meddling scientists. Oh, so I guess a touch of Godzilla in there as well.

That could have all worked well enough together. They certainly put together a decent enough cast to pull it off. The problem is that Morgan Freeman and the rest of the scavengers go to all this trouble to wear masks and make themselves seem alien, only to instantly trust the main version of Tom Cruise. And then, because you find out there are loads of Cruise's running around, you don't really care for this one. He's not the original Tom Cruise, he's a clone. Any one of his clones seems to be able to "remember" who they are, which gives us that ending that invalidates his entire character arc. And if they can be convinced that easily then how come the Scavengers haven't tried it before. I'm also not convinced the clones are even necessary when the machine can create killer drones so easily. Nothing ever really stands up to any scrutiny and – worst of all – the film is just boring. The perfect futuristic floatiness of the tech is kinda well designed, but it's also meaningless. Nothing has any meaning. Dull. Boring. Waste of time. Fin.

Rewatch

Oh God, I'd actually forgotten that I'd watched this. The trailer is just so memorable, but the film is oh-so-bad. It took me almost half the movie to realise anything was up and then suddenly I remembered the ending and how disappointing the whole thing was. So no, I didn't actually watch the whole thing again, but I was forced to relive the ending in my own mind. That's bad enough I feel like it counts.