Film Review: Oblivion - Not Your Summer Sci-Fi Blockbuster, But Darn Good Too.

Oblivion is a science fiction film starring Tom Cruise as Tech 49 Jack Harper whom together with his partner and lover Victoria Olsen - played by Andrea Riseborough - are one of the last teams of drone repairmen tasked with maintaining the drones which protect the continued mining of resources from a now uninhabitable Earth to the new celestial human colony on Titan, a few years after a nuclear war with an invading alien race, called Scavs.

Oblivion directed by Joseph Kosinski and based on his unpublished graphic novel of the same name is simply put a beautiful film. Now I gather quite a few people do not care much for it and I peg this down to their disappointment with respect to what type of film they expected Oblivion to be. This I blame on the trailers/previews of the film as they erroneously led some of us to believe that an action-packed sci-fi thriller somewhere within the realm of Alien was to be seen. However, in my opinion Oblivion is a much more dramatic and sentimental film, with great acting all around. It is a love story of human sacrifice and determination against the not-so-bleak landscape of a post-apocalyptic Earth. Most of the scenes are of a lone Harper as he carries out his duties seemingly without question as he increasingly becomes curious as to his surroundings and the now desolate city of New York and its environs. Added to this is the mystery that is the woman in his dreams (Olga Kurylenko), who now appears to be real as her ship crash lands onto the Earth. Who is she? What is her mission? And who the heck is Morgan Freeman in all this? Oblivion’s brilliantly paced storytelling and visual masterpiece (reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey) settles and unsettles you as you become Harper, watching each scene unfold until its beautiful, climatic and quite dramatic denouement.

Oblivion is a good film and you will find that if you keep your expectations outside the cinema and just watch, you will find that it is a film that you would want to see again and again; well if not for any reason but for its uber brilliant soundtrack composed and performed by M83.

Oblivion released on April 10, 2012 has grossed over $260million worldwide.

Oblivion is currently showing at the Genesis Deluxe Cinemas.

PS: Director Joseph Kosinski, who also directed Tron: Legacy, made Oblivion as homage to sci-fi films of the 70s.