The end of the world... as we know it

Oblivion (2013)
Certified: 12
Certified: 124 minutes
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo, Zoë Bell
KRS release

Oblivion is set in the year 2077 when earth has become a vast tract of waste, after extra terrestrials destroyed the moon and ravaged the planet.

Shot mostly in Iceland, the film is a vision of majestic beauty

The aliens, known as the Scavengers, had been defeated but the planet had suffered. The nuclear deterrent had to be placed into actual use and the world was left tattered and shred.

Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the few left. He lives high above the surface with his lover Vika (Andrea Riseborough) who also works with him. They take orders from Sally (Melissa Leo) through video conferencing.

They are overseeing the process of depleting earth of its resources while the population has gone to Saturn. Jack has two more weeks to work and then he will move to Saturn as well.

Jack is essentially a guardian and repairman who flies down to earth to keep the drone pods going and defend them from attacks by the Scavengers.

But he is troubled by dreams of a woman called Julia (Olga Kurylenko). All humans had undergone a memory erasure process years before. He dreams that he is atop the Empire State Building, a memory which does not belong to him since he had never lived in the world that was before.

In order to get an idea of life as it had happened, he starts storing items that he finds in a log cabin that had survived intact. While here, he sees a vessel crash landing and discovers several humans, including Julia.

He tries to defend and rescue them from the drones but some get captured by the Scavengers. That is when he discovers that the Scavengers are actually humans led by Malcolm Beach (Morgan Freeman) and that all is not as he had perceived the world to be.

From Top Gun to the mid-1990s, Cruise dominated the box office with a string of successful movies. He simply was the movie producer’s ideal actor, the dependable leading star. Besides, eerily enough, he did not seem to age over the years.

Recently, Cruise’s box-office takings have not been so solid and this despite the fact that his movies were still of a very good quality. It seemed that his off-screen antics, his ties with the Church of Scientology and his personal life had taken over and overshadowed his cinematic efforts.

All that changes with Oblivion. This sci-fi movie is an impressive effort that deserves to be seen on the big screen and, thankfully enough, it overshadows its star.

Shot mostly in Iceland, the film is a vision of majestic beauty. This is also backed up by the design of the film that is painstaking in its eye for detail and researched look.

The gizmos, vehicles, suits and technology that are brought to the screen are almost Kubrickian in nature.

Director Josef Kosinski, who has also directed the fabulous-looking Tron Legacy and who has a degree in architecture, has made a film that has an eye towards the future.

It is shot in a manner that also evidences Christopher Nolan’s influence, with the architecture and technology taking on a life and personality of their own. This is backed up by gripping and pumped-up action sequences that propel the movie forward and make it an even more involving venture.

While some of the plot twists will be familiar to avid science-fiction fans, Oblivion is in its turn quite visionary in the way it looks at the future while at the same time wearing its influences proudly like a badge of merit.

Cruise plays his usual self, an everyday hero who rises to the occasion. Freeman gives the film a regal presence while Kurylenko magnifies the film’s picturesque scenes.

Oblivion sets the bar high for the rest of this year’s pictures.