Oblivion

Kosinski is still a much better designer than the narrator, but I'm quite pleased that, unlike Tron, the action scenes have massive energy. What are still miserable are the dialogues, especially the key ones, cut boringly in shots / counter-shots sequences. It feels like there was a comic book first. Kosinski sculpturally frames the characters somewhere and then lets them chant a text, which unfortunately lacks speech bubbles for being iconic and striking. Like all of the objects in Oblivion, the actors act more for aesthetic purposes. And you know what? I don't give a fuck. The scale is epic, clean and shiny, the clinical and illuminated visual is breathtaking in every detail, the hypnotic sound waves of M83 give it an inconvenient depth... I consider the first half an hour or so to be the captivating audiovisual trip that I expect from current sci-fi films (and usually don't get). As soon as the inevitable comes along and the story unfolds, Oblivion drowns in the familiar twists and unfinished ideas (will anyone pay Duncan Jones his royalties?)... but the action goes away, the image is overflowing with the sort of pomp I haven't seen in a long time (forget the experiments by Prometheus that are short of breath) and those few noticeably unsuccessful attempts to "make a thrilling story" will be destroyed by the bulldozer of the ultimate design. Finally, I understand what some viewers liked about Tron - Oblivion is also a brilliantly designed "sci-fi musical", this time with music that drew me in and sometimes, in collaboration with the image, gave me a taste of unadulterated euphoria from the big screen. It can be seen that it was supposed to be / wanted to be more than just a breathtaking spectacle, that someone wanted to move the promising indie trend of intelligent sci-fi to a blockbuster format and buried it with "fanzine" storytelling... but sometimes even a failed intention can offer enough space for spectator delight. Oblivion and I are an effective team. [75%] (04/15/2013)

When watching Joseph Kosinski’s sci-fi worlds, it’s impossible not to forgive them for any plot shortcomings, if there even are any shortcomings to speak of. His vision of technical and design excellence and the ambient feel of the “sound of reality” are so unique that the need to guide the audience through the story almost disappears. Kosinski goes beyond our dream imagination. Living in his world means not needing the sense of smell. In addition, Oblivion moves forward not through shootouts, but through unexpected twists, and the atmosphere is fantastic, given the minimalist set designs (by which I mean the beautiful, barren exteriors of Iceland and California, where nothing flashes or shines). The sound and music arrangement in the pool scene, and the pool scene itself, made this movie what it is and almost gave me an orgasm. Recalling the dressing scene in TRON: Legacy, I begin to hope that Kosinski is laying the cornerstone of a new sub-genre of transcendental erotic-sci-fi (i.e. something that would make your brain come). Once Google (and FilmBooster) take over the world, it will happen with M83 playing in the background. (04/15/2013)

The mood-setting question provoking intimate first half with the visions of a postapo janitor is in sharp qualitative contrast to the second, cheap action-ridden (stupidly) explanatory half. And it just has no idea when to stop all of this with honor and so the hitherto pleasant Cruise is now faced with emotional scenes that mostly go wrong or else he becomes immediately out-acted by everybody, even the GLaDOS/Sponge Bob duo. The second half is simply a regular product, which just cannot be said of the first half. In any case, in terms of visuals, design, sound and music this is on a level rarely seen of late. (04/15/2013)

Joseph Kosinski. A name that will be stuck in my head for a long time. But also, a person who has managed to make me incredibly happy for the second time already by creating an absolutely great and fresh movie environment altogether with an awesome music that suits his movies well. Tron and Oblivion have a lot in common. If nothing else, the music connects the two movie atmospheres, but also the design of some of the spaceships or at least the motorcycles are reminiscent of the most recent Tron. But that doesn’t change the fact that Oblivion is still an incredibly original movie. When I put aside the story (which I didn’t have any issues with and I even liked the way it shifted interestingly halfway through the movie), I must say that I was absolutely awed by the world that Kosinski brought to the viewer. Each and every time there’s a sci-fi movie, I can’t wait to see how the authors handled an accurate description of the given era.In this case, it was marvelous and the entire post-apocalyptic world looks incredibly beautiful. Beautiful to look at, even though Tom Cruise’s character would probably slap me for writing that. In any case, the environment that Kosinski created is just awesome. And the most amazing thing about it was the fact that the CGI is barely noticeable. It all seemed very natural. And don’t even get me started on Tom Cruise who has once again played an incredibly amazing character that I’ll always remember when I think of him from now on.But he wasn’t the only intriguing actor. For example, Andrea Riseborough who I wasn’t familiar with up until now made me really happy and Olga Kurylenko surprised me, too. Somehow, the actresses look somewhat… perfect throughKosinski’s camera. And the story? Don’t get mad at me, but I just thought it was original. I like that it doesn’t try to push the typical Hollywood storyline and it marches to the beat of its own drum.In the very first scene, Tom almost ends up in a thrall of his enemy, but he does his routine and he goes back to his base to relax. The viewer almost feels like they’re not watching a movie but rather a life of someone in an alternative future reality. And I must say that Oblivion was an extraordinary cinema experience. Anda big part of that was thanks to the music that hasn’t been this good in a very long time. (05/13/2013)

What’s more important for a film, to tell a story or to visualise it? Both are, no doubt; there’s no objective answer, and yet, in the lay debates among film fans the prevailing idea is that an exceptionally narrated story = elaborated art, and perfect visuals = just expensive commerce. That’s often the case, of course, but we shouldn’t generalise. Oblivion is a film with amazing visuals, with this I don’t mean that it “looks expensive”, I’m judging the aesthetics of images and scenes – the swimming pool scene will be one of the highlights of the year. To some extent, it’s similar to Prometheus – you can pick on the details of the story until the end of days, if that’s your thing, but the source of an aesthetic experience lies elsewhere, as does the source of an intellectual one. Oblivion is smart sci-fi (actually, there hasn’t been such pure sci-fi for a long time, fans of Clark must be happy!) that in its higher level offers a lot of food for thought – the good side of all proper sci-fi, greetings to Star Wars… :D PS: I want Kosinski to adapt “Rendezvous with Rama”!!! (04/21/2013)