Just a quick appraisal of Tom Cruise' sci-fi vehicle Oblivion from earlier this year, recently released on DVD. And it's actually not that bad. Oblivion isn't extraordinary but it remains entertaining with satisfyingly executed themes of alien deception, lost love and social pariah. Cruise plays Jack Harper, a soldier-cum-technician who keeps a watchful eye over the drones that protect vast tidal power stations, along with his 'teammate' and lover Victoria (Andrea Riseborough). They inhabit a post-apocalyptic Earth which humans are soon to depart from.
The plot presents a decent twist, the visual effects are smooth and ephemeral and there's a dream-sequence/love interest for Harper in the shape of Olga Kurylenko - all the ingredients for a good science fiction movie. When we remember how many shit films have eminated from that genre and how easy they are to mess up, this is still a fine achievement for writer/producer/director Joseph Kosinski (who also did Tron: Legacy, although that got a bad rep I don't think it was so bad - well the Daft Punk bits were good). Architectural and vehicular design is suitably futuristic (NB: not futurist) and pretty cool, all minimalist transparency and rounded clean lines; and the music, scored by Anthony Gonzalez or a.k.a.'d as M83, keeps to the tasteful side of uplifting and electronic.
Although it's a standard Earth-and-humanity-is-great and love-overcomes-all flick this is entertaining enough not to have been a complete waste of time and money. Not to mention the appearances of Jaime Lannister (for whom Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will surely be forever known as) and Morgan Freeman in Mad Max stylee apparel. And if those drones aren't a canny allusion to the illegal drone strikes carried out by the US military on Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and many others then I don't know what would be.
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