"OBLIVION"
Based upon the graphic novel by Joseph Kosinski
Screenplay Written by Karl Gadjusek and William Monahan
Directed by Joseph Kosinki
* (one star)
"What is hell?...The same old situation. No imagination."
-Todd Rundgren ("Imagination")
When I openly wondered, if after viewing Director Danny Boyle's strong, propulsive, ferociously inventive art-house thriller "Trance" last week, that the movie year of 2013 would now begin to have an upswing in quality, I realize now that I spoke way too soon.
Director Joseph Kosinki's science fiction epic "Oblivion" is by far one of the worst films of 2013. Yup, it has already made that dubious list and I will do whatever I am able to do within the course of this review to stop you from wasting your hard earned time and money on this piece of massively budgeted yet shamelessly derivative material. Yes, Kosinski has made a shiny, pretty thing to look at but trust me, dear readers, there is absolutely nothing here for any of you to latch onto. Well...let me amend that statement...slightly. If any of you happens to be someone who has absolutely, positively never seen a science fiction film in your lives, then sure, "Oblivion" just might have something to offer for you. But for everyone else, especially those who have seen science fiction themed films from the last 45 years or so, do not waste your time. It's just not worth it whatsoever as Kosinki has not condescended to inject even one original thought into his own movie. "Oblivion" is so impersonal and so rehashed that it feels as if it was not even directed by a human being. This film feels like it was directed by Xerox!
As "Oblivion" opens in the year 2077, we learn that 60 years in the past, an alien race, pejoratively described as "Scavs" and whose own planet had been depleted of its resources forcing them to leave, arrived to Earth with the intent upon raiding our planet's resources for themselves. They destroyed our moon, causing an ecological apocalypse which was then followed by war and ending with nuclear holocaust. Although the human race had won the war, Earth had then become uninhabitable, forcing humans to depart Earth and take refuge upon the largest moon in Saturn's solar system.
Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the last humans stationed on Earth as he is employed as a technician to monitor and repair the myriad of drones as well as extract usable resources for the humans living outside of Saturn. He lives thousands of miles above the Earth with his Communications Officer and lover Victoria (the captivating Andrea Riseborough) and their only contact with civilization is through a video link with their supervisor Sally (Melissa Leo).
Although both Jack and Victoria had their memories erased five years earlier, Jack is haunted by dreams and flashbacks to a period in pre-apocalypse New York on the Empire State Building, a time before he was even born, when he was in love with a mysterious woman (Olga Kurylenko). He has also kept hidden from Victoria a small, secluded woodsy cabin in which he has stocked a collection of items and artifacts (books, records, artwork, etc...) found on his daily journeys to the Earth to gather resources as well as fight for his life against the remaining "Scavs."
As Jack and Victoria enter the final two weeks of their work before they are ready to re-join humanity, a spaceship, brought down by the Scavs crashes onto Earth carrying a group of passengers in hibernation, including the woman from Jack's dreams. This event begins the cycle in which everything Jack had thought to had been true begins to unravel, forcing him to accept and fight for an even greater sense of humanity.
Now, with that description, I would not be surprised if any of you out there would think that "Oblivion" is already sounding like it would be an intriguing, involving haunting and even excitingly dark science fiction ride. And to that, I would agree with you. If I had read that description, I would be first in line to see this movie. But, I must remind you of something the late, great Roger Ebert intoned over and again throughout his legendary career. That a movie is not about what it is about. But how it is about what it is about. To illustrate, please allow me to rewind the Savage Cinema clock to an earlier review...
"At this time, if I could offer Joseph Kosinski any word of advice (and knowing that he would listen to little old me), I would advise him to not let his film references overtake his own artistic vision. Yes, this is his first film and again, it is an excellent form of craftsmanship, but everything in it has been recycled from something else and without a sense of any new perspective. In comparing "Tron: Legacy" to Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” we have a film that proudly wore its influences upon its dream world sleeves but everything was filtered through Nolan’s consistent themes and concepts of duality and mind games, themes which have been a part of all of his films since “Momento” (2000). “Inception” was yet another chapter in Christopher Nolan’s ongoing oeuvre and I would love the chance to see what a filmmaker of Kosinski’s obvious talents would do with an original story."
I wrote those words in my January 2011 review of Joseph Kosinki's "Tron: Legacy" (2010) and with "Oblivion," he has taken the idea of recycling past material to new heights...or depths, as the case may be. Instead of utilizing familiar elements and filtering them through his own, unique creative vice to essentially create something new, Joseph Kosinki has essentially stolen every element from past science fiction whole cloth and then has the audacity to try and consider it as something inventive. Despite anything he may attest to in interviews and promotional material, extolling how "Oblivion" is an homage, I am here to vehemently express to you that "Oblivion" is not homage. It's cinematic plagiarism.
Within the film's first five to ten minutes, there were direct steals from "Vanilla Sky" (2001) and "I Am Legend" (2007) down to the actual camera shots and even the extreme similarity of the dialogue. As "Oblivion continued, the comparisons were glaringly obvious to an extremely detrimental and flabbergasting degree. Let's see, and without any difficulty due to the blatant nature of Kosinski's "homage," there are themes concepts, plot points, plot twists and threads "Oblivion"...ahem...shares with the following:
"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)
"Planet Of The Apes" (1968)
"The Omega Man" (1971)
"Soylent Green" (1973) and frankly, essentially every dystopian science-fiction film from the 1970s
"Star Wars" (1977)
"The Black Hole" (1979)
"Mad Max" series (1979/1982/1985)
"Total Recall" (1990)
"Twelve Monkeys" (1995)
"The Matrix" series (1999/2003)
"Solaris" (original 1972/remake 2002)
"Wall-E" (2008)
Good Lord!! And I'm not exaggerating whatsoever. I was actually stunned to not hear those five iconic musical notes from Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" (1977) but maybe that will end up as a deleted scene on the future DVD/Blu-Ray release.
COME ON!! Who did Kosinki think that he was fooling?! Is Kosinki really that unoriginal, unimaginative and flat out lazy or is he just that disingenuous enough to think that he could pull a fast one over the audience, claiming that this particular vision was completely his own? Honestly, since "Oblivion" has already collected a hefty box office take in its opening weekend, I feel that Joseph Kosinki should offer all of those directors (and/or their respective estates) of those aforementioned list of past films a portion of the proceeds!
Seriously, this specific creative quandary does really bring to mind the question of whether it is even possible to have anything that is truly original anymore or even at all. To that, I would argue that yes, originality can still exist, and strongly so, although it really does feel to be in short supply these days. There is the process of homage, of course. I understand that. What else was Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day" (1996) but a large scaled homage to science-fiction itself? Yet, that was part of the blast of that experience, the joy of finding all of the references Emmerich placed front and center as a form of recognition, celebration and stellar entertainment while also telling a rip roaring "end of the world/let's unite and retaliate" saga.
But let's go even further. Look at George Lucas and "Star Wars" itself, which, as we all know by now, is a mish-mash containing classic mythology, a dash of Tolkein, a taste of Akira Kurosawa samurai films and John Ford westerns as well as a healthy heaping dose of classic and corny Saturday afternoon "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers" serials. Yet, Lucas was able to mix them and present his story, filtered through his influences, in a way that felt to be entirely personal and on the level of something that had not been seen in quite the same way before. Or let's even look beyond science-fiction at someone like Quentin Tarantino who doesn't just wear his influences upon his sleeves but as badges of honor. Yet, the way in which he filters and utilizes his influences and inspirations is so unique that some critics have even gone as far as to describe his style as "Tarantino-ian"!
What I am trying to say is that with Lucas, Tarantino and in the previous example of Christopher Nolan, originality arrives through purity of an individual striving to find and discover their own creative voice within all of the influences that have worked to shape them. After two films now, I honestly cannot say what Joseph's Kosinski's original creative voice actually is. As "Oblivion" has no real perspective on the influences that have shaped it, the film contains absolutely no personality of its own as it has copied everything else before it. Therefore what we have ended up with is a big budget epic that is insufferably bland. And I would have been infuriated with "Oblivion" to the point of hurling objects at the screen if I hadn't spent so much of my time trying to stay awake!!
"Oblivion," unfortunately and almost unforgivably, is an interminable, turgid, slumberous experience in addition to being unimaginative. It is a film that runs a hair over two hours and it feels like five hours have elapsed. Please understand that "Oblivion" is not a film that is building with a slow burn. It's not moody. It's not atmospheric, esoteric or even European. This film is just flat-out BORING! A snail at rest is faster paced that any one moment in this film. And of course, my tedium with the film also stems back the the basic problem of its blatantly derivative nature. As "Oblivion" contains no real characters to latch onto as every one of them, plus their emotions, motivations are entirely generic. And in turn, every twist, turn and revelation in the plot is generic as well.
The supreme failure of "Oblivion" does not fall of the shoulders of Tom Cruise by any means. Besides, he didn't write or direct this mess! Cruise is as committed as he has ever been but that being said, his character feels as if it is nothing more than a clone made from the assembled parts and pieces of past Cruise characters and performances. Morgan Freeman (who looks as if he's wearing Morpheus' clothes if he were dumped into the Thunderdome) is completely under utilized making his presence a wasted effort.
But then, of course, there is the question of whether "Oblivion" is at least a good looking film with great special effects. Well...yes and no. For me, "Oblivion" suffers the same, and huge, problem that Sam Raimi's "Oz The Great And Powerful" suffered from. For all of the special effects that are being hurled our way from the opening frames to the film's final shot, nothing is ever impressive and all of it is more than a major yawn. This does bring into question another major quandary of our current big budget, special effects driven cinema. Have we become so used to special effects that they are not even special anymore?
Just think. When was the last time special effects really transported you? For every film like Edgar Wright's "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" (2010) or Ang Lee's "Life Of Pi" (2012), which made special effects feel so new and vibrantly alive again, most films are kind of like "Oblivion" these days, with visual magic all over the place but being rarely impressive, enticing or magical at all. Again, this problem all comes down to the director and as with every other element in "Oblivion," Joseph Kosinki offers no real perspective on anything he is showing us. It just hangs on the screen, looking as shiny and as expensive as a plastic call girl. It is all so meaningless and surprisingly contains no sense of awe, excitement, wonder, terror or anything resembling an emotion. I mean--in theory, and on the page, the idea of a space station that sits above the clouds, so highly that thunderstorms occur underneath you, is something that sounds like it would be an awesome sight to see and experience! And sadly, while those visuals are rendered with the top of the line special effects we have all come to expect when we see a big budget film like this one, to present them without any sense of real, inspiring imagination, the kind that looks as if the dreams from inside of our heads were somehow plucked and replaced upon celluloid is just inexcusable Having the money to buy "great" special effects are not enough. What makes them great is vision to augment the craftsmanship and artistry and Joseph Kosinki failed on all counts.
Dear readers, I obviously have nothing personal again Joseph Kosinki, especially as I do not know the man in real life at all. I wish him no ill will and I do sincerely hope that when he gets around to making his next film, that the experience will be exceedingly better. If I were able to speak to him, I would deeply urge him to really think about what the films of the past mean to him on an emotional level and for that, he has to dig deeply to gain a perspective and devise what his creative voice is actually going to be. Otherwise, his copycat movies won't be worth viewing at all as by then, most audiences would have discovered that there is just no wizard behind his directorial curtain. Just a cinematic charlatan trying to utilize big money and visual razzle dazzle to blind us from the truth.
May the complete fiasco that is "Oblivion" serve as a cautionary tale for him and other cinematic storytellers for we all deserve so much better.
SAVAGE POSTSCRIPT:
The quest for and survival of humanity in a world where it is in disastrously short supply is always a great theme to revisit within science fiction but if you would like to see a fairly recent film that handles nearly the exact same material as "Oblivion" in a demonstrably better and more intriguing, emotionally involving and entertaining fashion then please allow me to point you to Director Duncan Jones' "Moon" (2009) starring an excellent Sam Rockwell.
My original review of that film can be found within the February 2010 section of this website and I urge you to rent this film instead of plunking down even one cent for "Oblivion."
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