Oblivion Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After a war with aliens that left Earth uninhabitable, a security drone repairman and his partner ensure the safe keeping of resources for what's left of humanity.

Review: Say what you want about Tom Cruise being crazy in real life, but he knows how to pick his films. This is one of those movies that has a little something for everyone while still bringing something new to the sci-fi genre in both visuals and presentation. Annoyingly, this is also one of those movies where the trailer spoils the major twist, although, I think most would guess it fairly early on; thankfully there is much more to the story than relying on the twists. The plot, as the main character, Jack (Tom Cruise), believes it to be is that 60 years prior, aliens came to Earth and destroyed half the moon to create natural catastrophes on the planet. Once the planet had been devastated, they invaded but were thwarted by a nuclear war which, upon its end, left Earth uninhabitable, the aliens defeated, most humans dead, and those who survived set up a base on Saturn's moon, Titan. Now, in 2077, Jack is a repairman for the security drones that guard massive reactors converting water into energy to take back to Titan as well as other resources. Besides maintenance, there is always the threat of remaining aliens nicknamed Scavs. Jack's partner and lover is named Victoria, played quite sexily by Andrea Riseborough, who works as a communicator of sorts as the two receive orders from Sally who commands from a space station in Earth's atmosphere called the Tet. Repair teams are given limited mission time before they go back to Titan as well as their memories erased to protect the mission. However, Jack has reoccurring dreams of a woman on Earth, at the Empire State Building, before the war which would be impossible. At the same time, Jack feels a strong connection to Earth and prefers it to Titan even setting up an isolated cabin with trinkets he has found in his travels. All this talk of Mr. Cruise playing a guy named Jack is giving me flashbacks of "Legend." I should address how beautiful and impressive the backgrounds look in this movie; this is how CGI should be done unless you really do have the budget to make a character look as good as Gollum! Anyway, Jack stumbles upon a Scav signal being sent from what's left of the Empire State Building to a ship in orbit and discovers it was a human vessel. As Jack goes through the wreckage, he finds humans in cryogenic life-pods including the woman he continually dreams about. To his surprise, the security drones begin executing everyone, but Jack is able to convince them to leave the woman alone as he takes her pod back to their headquarters aloft a massive, high tech tower. Jack and Victoria revive the woman who says that her name is Julia, played by the beautifully alluring Olga Kurylenko, and she had been a crew member on a NASA ship called the Odyssey in 2017. Julia reveals she knows who Jack is but does not elaborate to which Jack decides he will figure it out through the flight recorder. Along the way Jack and Julia are captured by Scavs, which, big surprise, are humans of course because you saw the trailer with Morgan Freeman, who plays Malcolm! Malcolm wants Jack to figure things out on his own by going to areas believed to be irradiated, but he reveals their agenda is to send a drone armed with explosives to the Tet in order to destroy it but they need Jack for this. Jack and Julia go back to the Empire State Building where it is revealed Julia is Jack's wife and that he proposed to her there as Jack recalls the scattered memories. I really loved Jack and Julia's romance since it felt timeless, and I'm a sucker for lost memory plotlines. The two return to the control tower only to be confronted with a heartbroken Victoria who alerts Sally to the complications forcing a security drone to kill Victoria. Sally wants Jack to return to the Tet with Julia, but he refuses leading to more drones being sent to recover the two. Amidst the scuffle with the drones, the couple crashes in one of the radiation zones only to discover another Jack, or a clone, repairing drones (hah rhymes). Julia is shot, which leads to Jack going to the clone's tower where he discovers another version of Victoria as well. After safely recovering, Julia finds herself at the cabin Jack built in which he disclose he must also be a clone. Julia tries to console him by explaining the real Jack had promised to build her a cabin in the woods for them to grow old together in. The two eventually return to Malcolm where he explains to them that there is no colony on Titan, the Tet is what destroyed the moon, the Tet is taking Earth's resources, and an army of Jack clones acted to exterminate humanity after the moon-related cataclysms. Learning the disturbing truth, Jack agrees to send the explosive drone back to the Tet but more security drones arrive, kill many humans, and destroy the rigged drone. Jack decides that since Sally wants them to return, he and Julia will deliver the bomb personally thus returning Julia to her life-pod with the bomb. The two fly up to the Tet, which has this whole "Independence Day" vibe going on, in which Jack listens to the Odyssey's flight recorder. Jack realizes that he and Victoria were the pilots, Julia was a member of the team, Sally worked for mission control, and they launched the life-pods when they were pulled into some kind of tractor beam. Along the way through the Tet, Jack sees more clones at the ready as well as being tested by Sally to make sure his intentions are honest; he is able to trick them by playing off the charade they've established. Finally, he comes face to face with the core of the Tet which is some kind of living computer or something. But instead of Julia having the bomb, Malcolm emerges as the audience realizes Jack took her to the cabin instead. Jack and Malcolm gladly sacrifice themselves to destroy the Tet once and for all. Three years later, Julia lives at the cabin, and has a daughter from Jack, when Malcolm's crew comes across her with the clone of Jack they previously encountered. The film ends with this Jack in the same mindset of the original desiring to be with Julia. Eh, it's a happy ending, but would have been fine without the clone bit tacked on. I mean, hell, what about all the other clones?! Does Julia start her own harem? We don't get enough info on the Tet. My personal theory was that it's just some probe either doing the bidding for aliens or is still performing a mission for aliens long since dead. Perhaps it once had a crew, killed them because it's an AI and needs new genetic material, thus the clones. I guess some things either don't add up or are completely left up to interpretation or your imagination. As much as I loved the Jack and Julia romance, it is so farfetched and contrived. I mean, two married astronauts whereby one becomes a clone with lost memories and the other conveniently survives for 60 years in cryo sleep? But if you can overlook a lot of lingering questions, this is a fantastic film. The visuals are stunning, it has one of the best soundtracks, the love story is moving, the action and pacing are entertaining, the acting was believable, and the film made for a great addition to the sci-fi genre. I didn't see a 3-D version so I can't say if that's worth it, but this was a highly enjoyable film and better than I thought it would be. Definitely check this one out for all it has to offer.

Notable Moment: When Jack pulls the old switcheroo on the aliens as he and Malcolm blow them to hell and back.

Final Rating: 7.5/10

The lovely Ms. Kurylenko!