Susan Granger’s review of “Oblivion” (Universal Pictures)
It takes an incredibly talented, charismatic actor like Tom Cruise to elevate this derivative, exposition-heavy sci-fi into a compelling adventure.
Cruise plays Jack Harper, a high-tech security repairman, stationed high over Earth in 2077. Unlike his prim partner/ever-efficient controller, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), Jack feels a curious affinity to the desolate, half-destroyed planet he’s never called home. And, although his memory has been ‘wiped,’ in his disturbing dreams, Jack is on Earth 60 years ago, before the devastating war, with a shadowy, dark-haired woman named Julia (Olga Kurylenko).
On a drone reconnaissance mission, only weeks before Jack and Victoria are due to leave for evacuation on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, intrepid Jack discovers that same mysterious woman, Julia, in a wrecked space-travel sleeping pod. Then he’s captured by rebellious human ‘Scavengers,’ or Scavs, led by Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and begins to realize that much of what he has been taught to believe is far from the truth.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski (“TRON: Legacy”) from his graphic novel, adapted as a script by Karl Gajusek and Michael DeBruyn, it’s chock full of familiar bits-and-pieces from other, far better, post-apocalyptic sci-fi films – like “WALL-E,” “Total Recall,” “Omega Man,” “Blade Runner,” “Star Trek” and “The Matrix” – including Sally (Melissa Leo), their computer-voiced commander, a close relative of HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Since neither waifish Olga Kurylenko nor robotic Andrea Riseborough is able to forge any emotional connection, it’s left to naturalistic Cruise to elicit audience empathy. Which – to his credit – he does. But propelling this nonsensical thriller is a somewhat thankless job, even though the Bubbleship must have been fun to play with.
If you watched “The Jetsons,” the minimalist chic production design of Jack and Victoria’s stylish loft, perched above the clouds, should trigger memories of that Hanna-Barbera cartoon. But why Victoria wears stiletto-heels remains a mystery, along with her pasted-on eyelashes.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Oblivion” is a standard, recycled 6, substituting striking, sweeping visuals for its total lack of originality.
