OBLIVION

Stars: Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo and Zoe Bell.
Writers: Joseph Kosinski, Karl Gajdusek and Michael Arndt.
Director: Joseph Kosinski. 

Rating: 3.5/5

It is just as well director Joseph Kosinski renders his vision of a post-apocalyptic Earth with such crisp acuity, because his story plays a little fuzzy at times. Taking its early and best cues from Andrei Tarkovsky’s existential sci-fi classic Solaris and Duncan Jones’ angst-ridden Moon before settling into an Independence Day-like/A-list heroic vehicle, Tom Cruise’s latest is a beautifully produced work with a slow burn set up that may burn too slowly for some.

The lines are setting into Cruise’s face and he may not have to many more action hero roles left in him, but his slightly less youthful appearance perfectly fits our protagonist, Jack Harper. He is a man racked with unexplainable dreams and vivid memories of a woman (Olga Kurylenko) he never knew from a time in which he never lived.

He pushes them aside to do his job; he is a ‘tech’, left on Earth in the year 2077 with his co-worker and lover Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) to maintain the fleet of drones that subdue the remaining ‘scavengers’, scragglers of an alien force that sought to conquer the human race. Having destroyed the moon and sent our planet into chaos, they were ultimately defeated by nuclear means but the war left the surface of Earth largely unliveable; mankind is now situated off-planet. As Jack's assignment period nears its end, their existence is changed by a downed spacecraft of human origin, a fateful discovery that sharply focusses his visions and the emergence of a band of surviving rebel fighters (led by Morgan Freeman’s Beech).

The depth of understanding that the director has for this world, drawn upon from years of his own pre-visualization, is breathtaking at times. The Earth’s barren surface, littered with fragments of a long-gone society (and reflecting Harper’s own piecemeal mental state), is captured with extraordinary detail by Oscar-winning Life of Pi cinematographer Claudio Miranda. Tech representation (Harper and Victoria’s home base, which perhaps deliberately resembles an iPhone writ large) and effects work (the fleet of drones; the enormous water processors; Jack’s ‘dragonfly’-shaped vehicle) are spectacularly top-tier.

Kosinki’s screenplay (co-written by Karl Gajdusek and the new Star Wars scribe, Michael Arndt) is based upon the highly-touted but as-yet-unpublished graphic novel he wrote with Arvid Nelson. On screen, it feels somewhat episodic; audiences may struggle with its initial lack of a compelling rhythm. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Oblivion is a very thoughtful work, steeped in a slightly more mature thematic structure (grief and loss; betrayal; the corrosive power of the fractured mind) than might be expected from the trailer.

The narrative unfolds in small increments as a means by which to build mystery and tension, resulting in a first act that is decidedly low-key (save for some well-staged subterranean action). As was the case with his debut feature, TRON: Legacy, Kosinski proves a thrilling visual artist but struggles with second-act detail; the film looses momentum at the very point a major reveal is delivered. He finds sturdier ground within the films denouement, wrapping up the loose ends of the mystery with compelling, resonant clarity.

Supporting the state-of-the-art visuals and ultra-modern sheen given the film by the 4K resolution is the use of alterna-pop leaders M.8.3 (aka Anthony Gonzalez), providing an pulsating, ambient score (as Daft Punk did on TRON: Legacy).