I just watched the movie Oblivion starring Tom Cruise and it was just plain awful. It is strange because the movie actually has a lot of elements that should have made it a very enjoyable post-apocalyptic sci-fi film but it just fell flat. I was actively rooting for the film to be over and when it indeed was over I felt a sense of relief. Not relief as in plot resolution rather relief from the fact that I no longer had to watch it.
The main problem with the film was the first hour. There was wayyyyyyyyyyy too much exposition, minimum half an hour too much of it. Also the film just didn't give us much besides Tom Cruise flying around in a really cool ship and coming home to a stepford-esque mission partner. I was bored to tears. Did it help that I was coming down from a really nice wine buzz? No. Did it create the problem? No. The director Joseph Kosinski is at fault for dragging out the film for so long that by the time the real action kicked in and the significant plot points were revealed I just simply didn't care anymore. This is no surprise as Koinski's most notable work pryor to this was Tron: Legacy which also was weak in plot and in general all sizzle and no steak.
Normally the eye candy can help in a situation like this but not even a naked Andrea Riseborough swimming in a clear pool helped all that much. I was looking forward to Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) but she added absolutely nothing to the film and didn't even come close to saving it for me. At least Andrea got naked and made some effort!
And Seriosly Kosinski, how are you going to have the King Slayer himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jamie Lannister from HBO's Game of Thrones) and have him have such an insignificant part. Use your resources man, you had Morgan Freeman for crying out loud and you turned him into a cheap Morpheus rip off. I seriously though he was going to offer Tom Cruise's character a choice between a red and blue pill at any moment.
On a scale from 1 to five with 1 being catch it on cable and 5 being full price in the theaters, I give it 1.5/5 stars and that is only on the condition that you skip the first 45 minutes and catch up from there. That's why I wish I would have been oblivious to Oblivion.
I actually liked it a lot. I gave it 4/5 stars (http://www.yesnofilms.com/2013/04/oblivion.html) but I remember I was frustrated that they make you figure out a lot of the pieces.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth,
DeleteI have 2 major problems with your review, well 3 actually. 1) You compared it to "The Matrix" and this film has nothing in common with The Matrix. The Matrix was ground-breaking and took the sci fi world to a new level. Oblivion was drek. 2) You say "If you like Sci-Fi you will like this film" and that is flat out not true. I am a Sci Fi guy and so are the friends I watched it with and discussed this movie and if anything, non sci fi fans will have a better shot at liking this film. 3) you have very little complimentary to say about the movie yet you gave it 4/5 stars. I didn't see near enough in your review to indicate that the movie was that good.
As always thanks for reading and commenting though :)