Oblivion (2013) – 5/5
Oblivion (2013) via Oblivion (2013) – IMDb
If you’re thinking about watching this movie…
Great sci-fi/action/fx – post-apocalyptic man not content to “eat his porridge and be a good boy.”
If you’re okay knowing a little more…
I don’t want to build it up too much, but I really liked this. It’s not super preachy about ‘save the planet’ or heavy handed about anything political. The sci-fi is good, the story is clear and strong and there’s the right amount of mystery, action, love, etc. to round it all out.
If you’ve seen it/spoilers…
I kept adding movies to the list that it is reminiscent of… It’s Vanilla Sky meets THX-1138 meets Minority Report meets Omega Man meets Mad Max meets Planet of the Apes and in that meeting someone mentions The Matrix.
I felt the story-telling was great – there were a few places of foreshadowing (hail mary pass) and such, but I felt that was just poetic (not harmful). The sci-fi part was awesome – no need to explain it all: drones, clones, how does delta sleep work, what kind of fuel does the bike run on, etc. The action was great: flying, fighting, gun fights.
And I’m sure some people balk at the ending – “It’s not Jack!” but to me that was awesome too! I can’t say why – it’s not him, I agree, but I guess whoever it is, has everything that was him so it’s another guy, just like him, with his memories and he loves her and wants to be loved. So in it’s imperfect way, it’s perfect. Or at least awesome.
I was hoping it was based on a book, but it’s based on a graphic novel. Oh, well. I want to read the book!
Personally, I also loved the combination of clean, sleek ‘future’ stuff with the mountains, lake, rustic stuff too. Just about anything post-apoc is up my alley these days too.
On top of it all is twists about who they really are, when it is, etc. On the recorder playback (which had the clever technique if replaying it for the audience to see), they mention 39 days – who knows how long it had really been. I guess Morgan Freeman’s character confirms it’s been several decades at the time of the story. What the Tet is, etc. – I guess we didn’t really win the war – all the stuff Jack talks about in the beginning is just what they told him.
I dug it… if you can’t tell.