Year 2077. Earth has been destroyed by a war against a race of terrible alien invaders who shattered the Moon, causing incredible natural disasters on the planet. The war was won by humans, but now the planet is no longer habitable, so the population has moved to Saturn. On Earth, however, there are still some people, technicians like Jack Harper, who is responsible for maintaining and repairing drones that monitor the planet's surface from alien attacks, which have not, however, resigned themselves to colonizing Earth. Jack frequently dreams of a time before the alien invasion, in which a beautiful woman appears to him whom he is sure he knows, but he remembers nothing about her. One day a rescue capsule from a spaceship falls in an area monitored by Jack; he goes to the site and finds Julia as the only survivor, who has the features of the woman who populates his dreams.
For some years now, science fiction has been a genre that has come back into vogue in Hollywood, with a series of successful films (some even with low budgets, like the excellent "Moon" by Duncan Jones) that have canceled the ostracism that had been created towards this type of film at the beginning of the new millennium, when a series of resounding flops (an example is "Battle for Earth" with John Travolta) had tarnished its charm for the public. But science fiction is a genre hard to die, too linked to incredible past successes to be really set aside by the majors… it is just a matter of periods, some dark, others definitely vigorous and given the imminent "Star Trek II: Into Darkness" and the announcement of a seventh "Star Wars", this is definitely a propitious period for futuristic and space films.
Joseph Kosinski, who a couple of years ago had the task of reviving the cult "Tron" with the successful sequel "Tron: Legacy", returns to explore the genre with "Oblivion", a film that presents itself as the sum of at least 50 years of cinematic science fiction.
The fascinating premise of "Oblivion" is only a small part of what on paper presents itself as a very interesting project, also because Kosinski's film has the merit of containing a series of surprises that continually change its meaning and point of view. At least this is what resided in the intentions of the authors Karl Gajdusek and Michael deBruyn, who adapt a never-published graphic novel by Kosinski himself, going to touch all the commonplaces and most common themes of science fiction. If in the intentions "Oblivion" could have/should have been innovative, in practice it is a huge and continuous déjà-vu that ranges from situations seen in "Planet of the Apes", "Matrix", "Moon", "Independence Day" to visual and figurative choices that recall "Star Wars", "Predator", "The Time Machine", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and the same "Tron: Legacy".
As Tarantino said, if you take inspiration from only one film, it means you commit a "plagiarism", if instead you do it from a lot of films, then it is called "homage" and then it is nice to think like Tarantino and enjoy "Oblivion" for what it is, namely a big and comic book-like science fiction blockbuster that has a lot of rhythm and a praiseworthy aesthetic. However, it is also true that the title is prophetic and to really enjoy this film, including the predictable twists, one should fall into "oblivion", forget the past, as happens to the protagonist Jack Harper, so as to pretend to be surprised by the numerous plot twists that the more experienced viewer will never perceive as such.
The over two hours of viewing pass quickly without ever giving way to boredom and one even finds a certain square of the circle in the choice of the cast. Because if Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise in his heroic and daring space worker Jack Harper, resulting incredibly effective in embodying the prototype of the valiant American who protects his homeland from external invaders (and every socio-political reference perhaps is not purely coincidental) and Olga Kurylenko is a perfect "fallen angel" who awakens consciences, it is Andrea Riseborough of "Never Let Me Go" and "W.E." who convinces more than the others, with a cold and detached interpretation, but at the same time full of feeling as her character requires. Morgan Freeman, on the other hand, has the classic routine role, the famous face lent to a background character, as the good actor of "Seven" is often doing.
"Oblivion" is therefore a film that convinces halfway, because if on the one hand it is formally well done and there is a really valid aesthetic taste, with suggestive landscape views (the film was partly shot in Iceland) and architectural inventions that know how to be remembered (beautiful is Jack and Viki's home on the clouds), as well as an enviable rhythm; on the other hand it tastes too much of already seen and the continuous references to recent or less science fiction more than winking at the enthusiast, irritate.
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