THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When we act different compared to others, are we doing something good or bad? Oblivion answers that question.
PLOT
The film takes place in a fictional 2077, after a fallout in which alien scavengers known as ‘Scavs’ invaded planet Earth after destroying the human race. The remaining race won the war, but it’s use of nuclear weapons made the planet inhabitable. The story follows Jack Harper and Victoria ‘Vika’ Olsen who are among the few humans left on Earth. While Vika serves as communications officer, Jack is a technician, under the alias ‘Tech 49’, who repairs combat drones that protect generators capable of turning seawater into fusion energy. They plan to go to the new home of Titan after the mission is over, as ordered by their mission director Sally. Although Jack gets his memory wiped after each mission, he does have dreams that he chooses to question unlike his co worker. When exploring the ruins of New York, he does escape a Scav ambush, only to discover their intent to transmit coordinates to outer space which destroys one hydro-rig generator. He later sees an unknown object crash at the same coordinates, which happens to be a group of humans in stasis chambers. He only saves one woman when Sally orders the drones to destroy the others. When he brings her to base, he revives her and she shares that her name is Julia, who not only has been in stasis before the war, but is ironically the same woman he’s been dreaming about. When they return to the crash site to retrieve a flight recorder, they get abducted by Scavs who are actually humans. Their leader Malcolm Beech shares that they’ve been hiding from drones and encourages him to find answers in the planet’s radiation zone. He and Julia are let go when another drone attacks but when they are alone, the latter confesses to him that she’s his wife, which reminds him of when he proposed to her in Empire State Building. When Vika sends a craft to retrieve them, she becomes heartbroken to see them together, resulting in alerting Sally that he has defected. This decision causes their Director to summon another drone which takes her life and pursues Jack & Julia. Jack is able to destroy it before fleeing with his wife, but when passing through the radiation zone, they encounter a clone of his, ‘Tech 52’. He does incapacitate him, but his wife got shot in the crossfire. This leads to him getting supplies from another clone of Vika. Once he gets what’s needed, he takes her to a private cabin for her to recover. After they re-consummate their marriage, they meet Beech again who reveals that the space station orbiting Earth named ‘Tet’ is artificial intelligence: It was originally determined to wipe out humanity which begun with destroying the moon and invading the planet with drones and an army of Jack’s clones. It has been lying to Jack about aliens, including Titan. This inspires him to reprogram an already captured drone to sabotage Tet, but but it gets severely damaged when more drones attack and injure Beech. Jack volunteers to take Julia to Tet in order to infiltrate and destroy it. In reality, he takes Beech with him while leaving her at his cabin. En route he discovers the rest of the truth through the flight recorder: He is a clone of a NASA commander and Vika was his co pilot, assigned to explore Titan. Sally was also their mission director on Earth. When the ‘Odyssey’ ship got diverted to investigate the Tet, Jack jettisoned the sleep module to allow Julia to return, which resulted in him and Vika being captured and cloned. In the present, Jack 49 sacrifices himself and Beech by destroying Tet with explosive jet cells. Three years later, Julia has given to her daughter. The films ends with them meeting the surviving Scavs and Jack 52, who’s regained his original memories.
THOUGHTS
I got the chance to see this late in the year it was first released and I gotta say, this was pretty cool. I mean the visual/practical effects are too damn gorgeous to look at thanks to Claudio Miranda's cinematography. Thanks to her, every shootout between the humans and drones were exciting to witness. Aside from that, this movie feels special because Director Joseph Kosinski was able to share such a strong lesson he originally shared from his graphic short story: No matter how much you choose to evolve, you cannot deny that life is still worth living in Planet Earth because of the beauty behind nature. This is true due to how it is more alive and reproductive than anything else a human can make. And if no one sees that, then there is no point to keep living. I think this is geniusly explored in the perspective of Tom Cruise's Jack Harper. The main character is the clone Jack 49, yet he represents the greatest thing about being human, curiosity. This trait is so special to have because it makes your mind stronger and that also makes it your greatest power. This was the case for Jack 49 since it helped him learn the truth and defeat an enemy that was thought to be impossible. The original love he has for Julia comes from how based on what is shown from their past, she always made him want to be better. This is proven so when she leaves her on Earth, knowing that she doesn't deserve to die. I don't know how Jack 52 regained all of the memories, but it is cute for him to take 49's place so that his daughter can have a father and a family that gives nothing but love to one another. Going into the rest of the cast, Olga Kurylenko was a standout for being the moral compass Jack needed to be the man he was based on, the one she remembered him for. She was still smart on her end because once she realized Vika didn't recognize her, she had to be cautious on how she reveal the truth without putting herself at risk. It obviously paid off in the long run because even she is part of the deserving happy ending. You usually can't go wrong with Morgan Freeman in any film and it's no exception here. He stood out as well because he portrayed Beech as one who is ambitious and wise to find hope in the unexpected places. This is one who waited for the right person to trust to help end the war. But he couldn't just pick any Jack clone because he had to wait for one to be different, not gamble on the loyal ones. Once he noticed the curiosity within Jack 49, he found hope again for his kind. He joined him to sacrifice himself to destroy the Tet because going out defiantly is what he wanted and it's hard to get mad about that. I also enjoyed what was given for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau because he plays Sergeant Sykes as a guy who is understandably on edge and is unsure who to trust in the apocalypse he grew up in. However, seeing the selfishness that Jack 49 displayed showed him the same hope Beech found, hence trusting him then on. In all honesty, I think every clone of Vika is tragic to see because Andrea Riseborough portrays her as one who is designed to be soulless, incapable of having a mind for herself like she thinks she does. She is Jack's total opposite for having zero curiosity and the fact Jack 49 couldn't figure out how to save her is heartbreaking. This situation is only possible due to the damage caused by the infamous Tet. Played through Melissa Leo's commanding Sally, this is an intimidating villain to take notice of for succeeding with becoming a conqueror for so long. This artificial character is a great example of how we must be cautious on what happens if we let technology conquer our lives. It may have taken a while for humanity to overcome this figure, but the fact that this obstacle was eventually defeated proves that humanity will always find a way to prevail. Even though this movie is better than it should be, it doesn't excuse the issues I noticed when re watching. First off, it is a tense shot to see the destroyed moon but if this movie takes place 60 years after already destroyed, why does it look like it just got destroyed? I’m sure that if it’s been decades since, the core wouldn’t be glowing red still. And I don’t think the landmarks of Washington DC would still be sturdy while everything else is half buried or completely gone. Jack 49 is a smart character for being able to remember his predecessor’s memories after multiple mind wipes, but how was he not even curious of his call sign being ‘Tech 49’? He may have not looked past the radiation zone, but it’s crazy how it never comes up despite being so explorative and curious on a daily basis. Having said that, his choice to travel in his advanced collapsible motorcycle was unnecessary because he could’ve covered more ground via aircraft to check out Drone 172. I also didn’t like that he calls an abandoned building a sinkhole. You can’t it a sinkhole when you see the letters engraved meaning that it’s something entirely different. And why does the other drone leave early? I’m not trying to root for the bad guys, but it missed an opportunity to explore other rooms to look for the Scavs. Also, how did Jack get to his aircraft so fast and return to base by sundown when he lost his motorcycle and was very far from the aircraft in the first place? That shit should’ve taken him until the next day to go down. I know Vika thinks differently compared to Jack, but she should be a little curious of the repetitive question of being an effective team. The Tet was smart to control almost everything at its will, but how the hell did it not control the only aircraft Jack needs to avoid her? It obviously created many clones of him to maintain authority but it’s ridiculous to control everything when already in control. Also, how was Jack 52 not curious about Jack 49’s crash? He’s supposed to pick up signs of life yet is somehow too distracted of his own aircraft and it makes no sense because it goes against the character’s personality. It is definitely surprising to know there was an army of Jack clones to attack the planet, but neither of them were tripped out of seeing duplicates of each other? If they were told what they were like the Jango clones in Star Wars, that should’ve been more clear. Other than that, you’re still in for a good time throughout. To wrap up, Oblivion is 2013’s most underrated film for being the most inventive of its time. You love sci fi? See this one when you can.
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