Watching Oblivion reminded me of the saying, “Aim for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” The meaning of the adage is clear: Strive for greatness. If you fall short, you still will have accomplished something worthwhile. Writer and director Joseph Kosinski, working from his own unpublished graphic novel, has made a visually ambitious, engagingly plotted science fiction movie that nonetheless fails to scale the heights it sets out to climb.
A big part of the reason why are the plot holes, which are big enough to swallow the movie whole. But more on those in a few paragraphs.
For now, all you need to know is what I knew after the opening voiceover, which Tom Cruise delivers with mechanical disinterest: The year is 2077. Mankind has abandoned Earth in the wake of a devastating alien attack and set up housekeeping on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. Massive machines convert sea water to energy, which is then delivered to the new colony. Cruise is Jack, part of a duo that protects the machines from Scavs, the last remnants of the alien race that invaded Earth. Each day, Jack ventures into the desert wasteland that was once New York City and repairs the drones that protect the machines from Scavs while his partner, Victoria, provides guidance from the home they share.
It’s an effective arrangement. But there’s a problem. Before taking the assignment, Jack allowed his memory to be wiped. Regardless, he’s having flashbacks of his life before the war. Specifically, he sees himself standing on the streets of New York City, looking at a beautiful woman as she smiles back at him. In another snippet, he’s standing with the same woman at the top of the Empire State Building. When Jack and Victoria’s boss, who resides in a giant V-shaped craft that orbits the Earth, cheerfully announces their assignment will end in two weeks, Jack isn’t sure he’s ready to leave Earth.
To say more would be to reveal spoilers, including a major plot twist, so I’ll stop there. Suffice to say not all is as it appears to be, and Kosinski takes great pleasure in peeling back the layers of his story to reveal a reality far different from the one he presents in the beginning.
My curiosity about where the story was headed held my attention for all of the movie’s more than two-hour running time, as did the impressive visuals. An example of the latter include the home in which Jack and Victoria live, an ultra-modern dwelling perched thousands of feet in the air. My favorite feature: the glass swimming pool in which Jack and Victoria enjoy a PG-13 “swim” (wink, wink) as stars shimmer through the water.
But as I watched, something began pecking at the inside of my skull. For all of its beauty, and for all of its attempts at exploring grand ideas, Oblivion is a frustratingly hollow experience. Even the visuals produce questions. For example, the house looks really cool, but why does it have to be suspended so high above the ground?
Then there are the plot holes. Surprisingly, very few of these occurred to me while I was watching the movie. Kosinski keeps the story moving and serves plenty of beautifully shot action, all of which conspired to keep me from asking critical questions, most of which boiled down to “Why?” I saw Oblivion on a Friday afternoon, and by that evening, I had deconstructed the plot into a meaningless pile of rubble. Little remained standing on the film’s shaky foundation.
But that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy watching it. I love science fiction, especially the kind that aims for the moon, and for a couple of hours, Oblivion held my attention with its intriguing story, bold visuals, and chaotic action. That it landed somewhere among the stars was disappointing, but the journey was fun.
Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and nudity. Two-and-a-half stars out of four.