Oblivion

Most guys will not admit, they love Top Gun. Why ? Because who would not want to be Maverick ? You get to fly F-14 A Tomcat and make out with Kelly McGillis in a dress, and have hot showers with Val Kilmer , who could say no to this ? I know, no one. Let´s face it. Tom Cruise have a hell of a lot of movie classics in his trunk, with all kinds of genre motion pictures. Even if he have failed a few times, he still comes back and deliver a solid performance. When it comes to sci fi motion pictures, he have succeeded both with Minority Report and War Of The Worlds. They were both very different types of sci fi movies, but very good in their own way. So here we get a new story, a new perspective in this genre with Oblivion. With Mr Cruise back on track, does he strike a full house, or does his name only hide the lack of quality ?

In the year 2017, Earth was attacked by aliens known as Scavengers. Most humans did not survive, only a few are left. The moon was destroyed and Earth changed after the use of nuclear weapons. 60 years later in 2077, technichian # 49 Jack Harper ( Tom Cruise ) is one of the few survivors left, who travels around to repair or support of " drones ". Jack´s communications officer and lover Victoria ( Andrea Risenborough ) makes sure he is updated with information, while he is on a mission. While another mission have succeeded, everything looks to be under control. Suddenly Jack witness the space ship the Odyssey crash down. As he searches the crash site, he finds survivors in sleeping capsules. But not for long, drones are ordered to destroy the sleeping capsules, Jack manage to rescue one of the passangers, Julia ( Olga Kurylenko ). he takes her with him to his base two feet above the Earth. Victoria is skeptical about the new guest, but try to accept the situation. Julia wakes up, and is determined to find the ships black box, to find out what really happened. Jack agrees to go with her, but does not know what is waiting for him out there.

Let´s begin with the good parts. The locations surrounding the movie looks fantastic. Director Joseph Koskinski have found a classic touch of old sci fi movies from the 70´s, though more updated with more details. Tom Cruise is doing well in his role as Jack Harper, he is good at doing different kinds of characters in different life situations.

Now for the bad part. Even if the movie is over 2 hours, it feels like 2 hours and 30 minutes. Some scenes are so long, you wonder why this could not be cut down, at least a few minutes. It certainly does not help the movie become more powerful, instead you get kind of bored.

But hang on a second. I am not saying Oblivion is a bad movie, not at all. This is a more depper story than the typical alien movie, with an intelligent plot behind the story. And this is where Oblivion works best, trying to tell a deeper story of choices we make as humans. The action scenes are cool, and most of the acting works well. Such a shame Oblivion feels so much longer than what it is, but overall a sci fi movie that should please most ages. Don´t miss the hot pool scene with actress Andrea Riseborough, now i understand why so many women become lesbians, or at least feel curious about it.

Rating: DDD