#oblivion review

Science fiction that requires no thinking.

Oblivion is a film by Joseph Kosinski, one cannot completely hate this film, for the director tries to expose elements of a true sci-fi film to the masses, of whom would otherwise never give two squirts of piss about the genre. It has all the makings of a great film; the main point being that existential philosophy is intertwined into a story about a post-apocalyptic future on Earth, in which the narration in it of itself is just an illusion.

An alien race known as “Scavs” suddenly appear in Earth’s orbit, they lay waste to our planet for theirs is ruined and they are in need of our resources. Humans are forced to use nukes to stop the Scavs but in doing so ruin Earth, leaving it uninhabitable. Humans are relocated to one of the moons of Saturn and Earth is drained of its remaining resources to help power the human’s new home. in order for this to happen a 2-man team is left on Earth to maintain the machines that carry out these tasks. One day pods crash land on Earth with human survivors and this sets off a chain of events that begin to arise questions within one of the two workers on Earth.

Kosinski does not disappoint in the visual sector as he brings to life the visual effects—effectively within the boundaries of Oblivion’s story. The design of the ships as well as the costumes and the minimal usage of colors reminds the viewer heavily of the greater films that inspired this one.

My main gripe with this film is that there isn’t much originality in it. It is an over simplified high production film that doesn’t leave much to the imagination, but to be fair I saw this film as an introductory lesson in great sci-fi, for the demographic, this film obviously tries to capture are the same people who are fans of Tron and or Tron Legacy, the latter being a film also by Kosinski.

The film tries to weigh upon our emotions as it questions the true identity and worth of the human soul as well as the value of our memories. What makes people, people? Physically we are present, but that’s something that science is proving can be artificially created, so what makes you, you? Oblivion tries to capture this existential state of being in an elementary way as it trudges along its beautiful CGI induced landscapes. It really presents a false sense of being in that it tries to be too intelligible for its own good. Oblivion even spotlights Andrew Wyeth’s renowned art piece “Christina’s World.” A painting considered to be in high regard and a prime example of existential art, for at first glance you see a girl in the prairie and depending on the person one can interpret this painting many different ways for her positioning as well as the isolation invokes many feelings in people. Oblivion tries to piggyback a lot of the film’s contents off the profound content from other people’s works as this film centers around the premise that things are just an illusion and human’s are very easy to manipulate with the right amount of fear instilled into their being.

Development is almost non-existent in this film, as it suffers quality to squeeze in quantity; while at the same time hiding its twists; I guess this is something that would have served better had they hired a better screenwriter or maybe added 15-20 more minutes to the film. It has the feeling of being profound but take away all the bells and whistles and one realizes that everything in this film that gives it any kind of merit is actually borrowed from other films, leaving behind a movie that stands alone as a barely passable action film with a sci-fi theme.

The desolation in the film was the best emotional response I got from it, as it was kept on a very tight leash. To understand that there’s so much empty space available on Earth, but to be limited to such a small sector was really invigorating in terms of the film’s mystique.

I applaud the director on being so sci-fi savvy, and admire his ambition in wanting to expose a great genre that doesn’t get the attention it deserves to a wider audience. However, he needs to work on a project in a collaborative effort, for I do not think he can do it alone. One day, I would love to see his talents develop under the tutelage of the Wachowskis, together they can make a film that would be a classic.

¾

-DK