Let\u2019s get the negatives out the way.<\/p>\n
Oblivion<\/em> has clunky, unnatural exposition flying at you from all angles. The opening monologue is dreadful and utterly needless; it would have been better slowly unravelling the mystery of what happened to Earth during the course of the film, not having a somnambulant Tom Cruise (he basically plays Wall E<\/em> in this movie) drearily tell you about everything getting trashed.<\/p>\n That\u2019s another thing: Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n Despite all his couch-bouncing and inane grinning, you can\u2019t help but question if he does, in fact, have a soul; he\u2019s so utterly blank throughout Oblivion<\/em>. The other actors fare no better, really, with not a bit of spark or chemistry between any of them, though it\u2019s hard to blame them given the fact that it\u2019s so dry.<\/p>\n HOWEVER. Oblivion<\/em> gets its four shiny stars by more than making up for its shortfalls in other areas. It looks incredible, boasting the kind of scifi aesthetic that was last seen on Seventies prog rock album covers.<\/p>\n Who cares if the sex scene in the swimming pool is somehow worse than the one in Showgirls<\/em> (Google it, actually on second thoughts don\u2019t); it looks so damn futuristic and sleek.<\/p>\n The sight of a fractured, broken moon in the sky is a definite highlight, along with Cruise swooping through the crumbled remnants of a lost age in his sleek little spaceship, almost as if he\u2019s reliving his Top Gun<\/em> days, before he gave everyone the creeps. This is bolstered by an exceptional soundtrack courtesy of M83 that glides effortlessly between melancholy minimalist tunes and synth laden sweeping epics. The music\u2019s far better at conveying the drama on screen than the actors themselves.<\/p>\n Oblivion<\/em> is very much a case of style over substance, and okay, it\u2019s incredibly derivative, but the plot eventually does get going, and you\u2019d have to be an emotionless husk to come away without feeling at least a little invested or dazzled by what you\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n Although 90 minutes of Tom Cruise playing the game Oblivion<\/em> and chucking shoes on roofs might have been better. Who knows?<\/p>\n