Movie Review: Oblivion

Overall

Trey: 2.85 out of 5

Overall low expectation turned this film from something terrible into an enjoyable time at the movies. In no way would I ever defend this movie on any category besides visual effects. I went in expecting all style and no substance, what I received was all style with too much substance. I was hoping for a film like Moon and ended up getting something like Prometheus. I can't get it to a 3 but its better than a 2 and a half.

Suzanne: 2 out of 5

Overall this movie didn't really impress me. Which is really unfortunate for our first movie review for its opening weekend.

Quick Synopsis
After a war wiped out the entire planet, all that remains is a fragment of what once covered the earth. Cities were destroyed and all life on earth has been dead for upwards to 50 years. Cue Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), a veteran droid repairman that along with his teammate Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are sent to monitor and control droid activity in a specific area. While Victoria follows protocol and keeps Jack in line, Jacks curiosity begins to slowly come to the surface. With a ravage unknown species wreaking havoc and make Jack's job seemingly more difficult than planned. Secrets begin to emerge and everything Jack thought he knew comes into question.

Visuals

Trey: The highlight of this film would be the way its presented. The visual effects are top notch and veteran cinematographer Claudio Miranda continues his string of fantastic looking films with another beautiful addition to his resume. After bringing home and Oscar last year for Life of Pi, It wouldn't shock me at all if this gets a nomination when its time to vote. The problem is I said the same about Prometheus which didn't achieve my prediction. It may not be an Oscar worthy film but the visual effects are worth acknowledgment.

Suzanne: The visuals in this movie were amazing! It is one of those movies that seems to take you straight into the heart of the movie through the scenes on the screen. The visuals of the destroyed earth and the barren wasteland of whats left really make you think about what could happen to earth one day if we all broke out in war or if aliens invaded the earth. I never want to experience the world created in this movie no matter how visually stunning it was.

Audio and Score

Trey: Nothing really stands out in this category for me, but it doesn't necessarily hurt the film. Futuristic sounds seemed pretty generic but affective. If anything the score made the feel of some intimate moments a bit to corny for my liking. It wasn't as appealing to me as the score in Tron: Legacy.

Suzanne: Like Trey said the audio in this movie along with the score didn't really stand out in my mind. A lot of the music was extremely corny and quite unnecessary. Although the sounds of the fights, the guns and shooting sounded really great the entire way through.

Acting

Trey: Tom Cruise is exactly what he has always been, an affective action star. He isn't winning any awards but he carries a film with confidence and a veteran presence. The real standout for me was Andrea Riseborough as Jack Harper's partner. I have never seen any of her performances before which made what she did far more impressive. I am sure many know who she is but for me the subtle and emotional performance given by her really kept me engaged when I grew tired of Cruise. Morgan Freeman performs as expected though he felt very underused, while the acting was solid one actress drove me insane. Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) was really bad in the role or Julie, so bad that my body got tense due to constant cringing. Her bland reactions and delivery took my mind out of the meat of the story when my attention was needed most.

Suzanne: I thought the acting in this movie was sub par to say the least. Tom Cruise was pretty good as usual. He is an action star who knows how to keep you excited for the movie he is in. I've always liked him in movies and I'm sure I always will. Moving on to Andrea Riseborough. I thought she was great in this role. She was very calm, cool and collected and she made me really feel sorry for her at times. All in all she was great in this film. One thing that really disappointed me with this movie was that Morgan Freeman was not in it enough. In the trailer they show Freeman looking bad ass and awesome and he is barely in the movie. That being said, the small amount of time that he was in the movie he was fantastic as always. And finally we come to Olga Kurylenko a somewhat newbie to the silver screen. I thought she was overacting everything. She needed to tone things down a bit to make it a bit more believable. Her reactions and emotions didn't have me feeling anything for her character.

Story

Trey: This is where Oblivion begins to crumble under the weight of its own ambitions and writing. What starts out as a creative and simple story falls into the trap of doing to much near the end. The last half hour had me second guessing my thoughts and trying to piece the puzzle together without all the necessary pieces. You know that feeling right? When you do a puzzle and you realize that some pieces are missing, this film was that kind of frustrating. It left to many unanswered questions and only tied up a few of the loose ends. This film left me the exact impression that Prometheus did last season, the writing wasn't as big as the director needed it to be. Nice try, but poor execution.

Suzanne: One word...confusing. This story did not mesh the way it should have. They jumped all over the place with flashbacks and characters and it did not work. They repeated one flash back too many times, it was unnecessary. Then there was the story itself. They didn't explain anything, they just mentioned something once and then didn't mention it again until the very end. This movie really need some rewrites in my opinion because then maybe it would have been easier to follow. Not impressed at all with the way the story was presented, although it was an interesting one. It's just too bad they didn't execute it properly.

Did you guys see Oblivion? Are you excited for Oblivion? Tell us in the comments below!