Oblivion FILM REVIEW

Oblivion Review

RATING

5/5 ; Great film. Takes a well known post apocalypse idea and twists it beautifully. I was lucky enough to go to Iceland back in February this year, which is where a lot of this film was shot. The sweeping landscapes are breathtaking.

INFO
Joseph Kosinski's first outing in the director's chair since the very well received Tron Legacy back in 2010, sees Tom Cruise as one of Earth's few remaining inhabitants, albeit one who lives in a sky platform.

Cruise's character is tasked in maintaining protection droids and energy harnessing equipment which is all that remains on earth's surface after a nuclear war, "which we won", decimated the planet's surface.

The war with the alien scabs has taken its toll, but it won't be long before Jack (Cruise) and Victoria (Riseborough) his partner/eye in the sky, can finish their mission and move to Saturn's moon Titan, to join what's left of the human race.


CAST & CREW
Director
Joseph Kosinski
Writers
Karl Gajdusek; Michael Arnolt; (Joseph Kosinski)
Cast
Tom Cruise; Morgan Freeman; Olga Kurylenko; Andrea Riseborough; Nikolaj Coster-Waldau; Melissa Leo

For more info go to IMDB

REVIEW
As I said at the top great film.

For me the whole, after the end of the world film idea is abit overused, and although there are some brilliant ideas and plot lines in films such as "I am Legend", "Resident Evil", "Dredd", "The Book of Eli", "Waterworld" and "The Day After Tomorrow", for every one good film, there are several which are awful. Just to clarify I'm talking about "Zombieland", "Watchmen", "The Happening", "Knowing", etc etc.
It seems to me directors/writers looked at the success films like “Armageddon”, “Deep Impact” and “Independence Day” had, and having the imagination and thirst for brilliant new film ideas they have, thought I know we’ll reinvent this. We’ll make it slightly different, put some popular actors in it and change the name and no-one will know. It’s the lazy go to idea with infinite possibilities which doesn’t even have to be done on a massive budget with cgi galore. Hey people steal and develop ideas from everything. Nod to every film review, piece of music and blog ever made.

All that being said Oblivion is pretty awesome. As I said in the intro I have been to Iceland and the scenery in this film is real and not computer generated. I meet the guys who drove film crews and equipment up the glaciers to do the shooting for the film, and was lucky enough to see the landscape first hand. It’s like another planet and I’d recommend it to anyone. Iceland is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Of course if you’re Tom Cruise hire a helicopter and fly over it all.

The storyline is a post apocalypse one, but (yes everything before the but is … well you know the saying), BUT, it is well thought out and clever. At this stage I will say no more as I don’t want to give the whole plot away and ruin it for anyone reading who hasn’t seen it.

Cruise, who I can take or leave as an actor, is very good, and is backed up by an excellent support cast, if it is fair to call them that, who embody what I imagine the survivors of a world ending disaster to be like. Freeman is brilliant as ever and Riseborough, Kurylenko and Coster-Waldau (yes Jamie Lannister from HBO’s Game of Thrones) play their respective roles very well.

There is cgi incorporated into this film but it is not overdone in anyway. The scenery is as you may imagine it, barren, charred and bleak with some almost recognizable monuments.

I gave this film a 5/5 because it is one I’d recommend you watch. It has good actors, good plot, good locations, good acting (not guaranteed from good actors) and action/suspense sequences. I don’t see a sequel either which some will also see as a plus point (don’t take that for gospel), so I really struggle to see a bad point on this one. I hope you all enjoy it and have enjoyed reading what I think about it. Look out for more Film reviews each week.