“Oblivion”: a new science-fiction thriller crafted by the mental state of Joseph Kosinski (“TRON: Legacy”) and a team of script doctors.
Despite an interesting premise, several accomplished actors and an impressive visual design, “Oblivion” fails on the two most important levels of science-fiction: narrative and character.
With few exceptions, the characters lack depth, the narrative lacks internal logic and the dialogue lacks wit and soul.
The movie feels as hollow as its setting: Earth in the year 2077. Aliens have invaded the earth and forced the majority of the population to migrate to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.
Jack Harper (Tom Cruise, “Jack Reacher”) and his pretty partner Vicka (Andrea Riseborough, “Welcome to the Punch”) have been assigned to stay on Earth to collect the last remaining resources and fend off remaining alien warriors.
Their memories of Earth before the devastation have been wiped. As their commander Sally reminds them once a day, Harper and Vicka are an “effective team” both professionally and personally.
But even effective teams can’t stay that way for long. One day, Harper comes across an abandoned ship and finds Julia (Olga Kurylenko, “Seven Psychopaths”), a mysterious woman who bears an eerie similarity to a character in Harper’s recurring dreams. Finding Julia leads Harper and Vicka to discover the truth about their lonely world.
“Oblivion” feels slow and shallow for its first half before the plot kicks into high gear in the second half. The problem is, once the plot kicks into high gear, logic falls away. Plot twists seem intriguing when they first pop up, but they quickly become frustrating as they pile on top of each other without any attempt to ground the absurdities in character dynamics.
The dialogue throughout is tin-eared and devoid of humanity. Cruise opens the film with a protracted, weary monologue in which he essentially reads the exposition to the audience. Later, Morgan Freeman (“Olympus Has Fallen”) actually utters the line, “That is one pissed-off machine,” a moment that simultaneously represents this movie’s highest and lowest point.
Kosinski has proven in this film and his previous, the similarly vapid “TRON: Legacy,” that his strengths lie with visual rather than verbal storytelling. But in this film, he refuses to let the visuals speak for themselves. And if a character isn’t outlining each plot development in unnecessarily verbose detail, the excessive musical score opposes any attempt at subtlety.
And the film’s cast is largely wasted. Cruise’s strengths lie in action, yes, but also in lighthearted adventure. He proves less than capable of making labored dialogue sound anything other than, well, labored.
Meanwhile, Riseborough plays Vicka differently in every scene. Her menacing and nurturing sides never mesh together.
And why cast Freeman, the most reliable working actor in the business, for a character who appears in, at most, four scenes? His entrance, characterized by an ominously lit cigar, is the best moment of the film, but the trailers have already spoiled it at length.
The one bright spot is Kurylenko, who effectively walks the line between danger and compassion in a way that Vicka never does. Harper finds Julia intriguing, and because of Kurylenko’s performance, so does the audience.
Ultimately, Kosinski does himself no favors with his second feature. To its credit, “Oblivion” represents a marked improvement over “TRON: Legacy.” But that film’s problems are still present in “Oblivion”: visuals that outclass and overwhelm the more basic story elements, weak performances and silly dialogue.
Perhaps Kosinski’s talents are better suited to the world of video games.
At any rate, audiences’ attentions are better suited to other movies.
mlieberman@theeagleonline.com
