Film Review: Oblivion

Oblivion is set many years in the future, where the Earth was all but lost in a war that pitted Scavengers vs The Humans, in which the war was won, but left the earth and its moon literally in ruins. The Scavs own the ground, as they stake out for any suspicious activity. Jack Harper (played by Tom Cruise) is one of the few survivors left with the sole duty of tracking day-to-day operations of alien drones, ocean-borne power stations and any enemy movement. He and his partner, Victoria (Andrea Risenborough), are set on Tower 49, where they work as a team to do this on a constant basis towards being effective with one another. He handles the gruff work, while she offers assistance from that very tower. Sally (Melissa Leo) is the station commander and the head of the "Tet" a massive space station that orbits around the earth. Then, suddenly, things go awry when Harper discovers that everything isn't what it seems, even his purpose comes into question. He has these strange memories of a past before the war and memories his wife (Olga Kurylenko). And this is where the film loses it, as far as a decent story goes. The film just sits idle, failing to give the audience an idea of what is happening in its empty construct. The characters aren't any better, either; as Cruise and Risenborough have little resemblance of chemistry with one another, considering the importance of their own objectives. Morgan Freeman is seemingly out of place once we're introduced to his one-note character Malcolm Beech, who does tell Harper what exactly happened to this world but it all feels so bare, thanks to the underwhelming character development. Beech is perhaps the weakest character here because he's played straight by Freeman, which can be blamed more on the weak script rather than the execution. I say this despite the best part of the film being Kurylenko, who does enough to make the scenes her own (Yes, the bland Bond girl from Quantum of Solace was, ironically, the best character here). Yet, what gets Oblivion far is it fantastic vision set by Director Joseph Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda, who captures the war-torn Earth with shots of destroyed landmarks, like The Pentagon and the Washington Monument, for example, it's by far, the best thing about this film. Most of the filming takes place in Iceland, while the rest of it is set in parts of Louisiana and California (namely with scenes set in June Lake). But, the magnificent locales can come off as filler to compliment a movie stuck in...well, Oblivion. Pretty much, there's hardly one other thing that is redeemable of this film. It's empty, lifeless and most of all, it's underwhelming.