Oblivion: The Sci-Fi Drama

First things first, Oblivion is not the action movie it is portrayed as but rather a sci-fi drama instead. I know the trailer makes it look like another sci fi with the hero at war with the aliens, but it is not. It is the journey of our hero Jack Harper (played by Tom Cruise) and his questions lead him to answers he should have not found. Oblivion watches Jack travel through this beautiful fictional place a he repairs drones and explore the wastelands of Earth. Like any good post apocalypse story, there is danger on the surface and Jack must be careful of this. Nothing is as it seems through as Oblivion's story is simple, but yet works for it's subject matter and benefits from talent like Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman. Though for those of you who are not a fan of Tom Cruise, you might shy away from Oblivion.

So Oblivion starts with Tom Cruise narrating a scene on top of the empire state building meeting a woman who knows, but doesn't and only sees in a dream. So he wakes with his lover/co-worker and begins his duties of repairing the downed drones. Skipping over like 20-30 minutes of Oblivion, as Jack is relaxing in his person sanctuary he found when he sees an object crash landing in section 17. Despite being told to return, Jack checks it out and discovers the woman from his dreams is in one of the pods. So he rescues her and brings her back to his place. She refuses to tell them anything without her flight recorder, so Jack decides to take her back to the crash site on his own. There he is ambushed by Scavs and taken to their hideout. Jack soon discovers that the Scavs aren't what he was told about and that there is much more he didn't know about.

If Oblivion is anything, it is certainly pleasing to the eye as Oblivion spares no expense in visuals. It paints the destroyed status of Earth very nicely as we seen known landmarks in pieces and no longer in their glory. There is also the futuristic essence to this world with Jack's residence and the "central command". Now as for the story, I found it simple but enjoyable none the less. After watching Oblivion I now notice that through out the movie it drops little hint about some of the secrets of the universe and once revealed it made sense. Meaning, there really is no loose ends so don't start tearing Oblivion a new one before the film is over. What really helped was the performances from it's actors that really carried that plot along. I mean no one can be bad ass like Morgan Freeman. Tom Cruise is once again showing off his action hero chops as he takes the action like a pro. It was also cool how creepy the Victoria character was and how Oblivion played us into thinking that she was more than she was.

Now Oblivion was not the greatest thing ever invented and not the next Star Wars either. There are some parts of the plot that were not well thought out. For me, I felt that the resistance people were a bit useless there and the only point they served was to help Jack out on his mission. I was also very disappointed there was no big battle. The trailers had advertised that Oblivion was this action sci-fi movie when all it was is a sci-fi drama. I would like to pick on the fact that reviews seem to be following a trend of saying "Tom Cruise saved the movie" basically. Yes Tom Cruise dd a great job of portraying his character, but I think this is mostly credit to the fact that his character of Jack Harper was center of the story. So in short the movie would depend on how well Tom Cruise portrayed his character of Jack Harper. As for the story itself it is very straight forward.

I did enjoy Oblivion as it helped ease the string of bland movies in theaters right now. It was the ripest of the bunch. Even though it was not a sci-fi action movie, I did enjoy Oblivion's simple story as it didn't feel the need to bullcrap some random stories to us. In short it was a hero's journey to protect the planet and woman he loves. The choice is up to you though as Oblivion falls into the class of you love it or you hate it. Our review of it is:

I would say watch it, but I'm currently suffering from not seeing enough films this year in theaters. Trailer below for your viewing pleasure.
Do you think Oblivion is worth seeing? Did you like the story?