Oblivion (2013)

I thought this was going to a Elder Scrolls movie...

Set in the year 2077, Earth was nearly destroyed during an invasion by aliens, called Scavs (short for Scavengers).  They first destroyed our Moon, which did most of the destruction to the planet, but during the subsequent invasion, nukes were used to beat the aliens back, making Earth largely uninhabitable.  Humanity has relocated to Titan (one of the moons of Saturn), but a few humans remain behind to maintain the machines used to gather resources for the Titan colony.

Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of these technicians.  He's partnered with Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), who handles the communications, and is also his lover.  I guess if the powers that be are going to pair you up with someone, you could do worse than Tom Cruise or Andrea Riseborough.  Kind of a good deal for both of them there, eh?

Their mission is up in two weeks, so they are basically just trying to get through it without any major events.  The drones they are responsible for repairing seem to constantly need maintenance, and they are short on resources.  They are in constant communication with Sally (Melissa Leo), who commands them from a large orbital station called the Tet.  It all seems pretty routine, outside of the threat of running into the remaining Scavs still on Earth, wreaking havok.  Because there's still the possibility of being captured by the Scavs, they have their minds wiped for security reasons.  However, Jack has flashbacks from time to time of a life he knows he didn't live.

After a few days, a ship crashes that contains pods with human survivors.  Jack recognizes one of these survivors, Julia (Olga Kurylenko), from his flashbacks, and she seems to know him, too.  Shortly after, he meets a group of remaining humans, led by Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman), who needs Jack's assistance, but Jack doesn't trust them.  Beech tells Jack that things aren't what they seem, and he'll find the truth if he travels outside of his assigned zone.

It just kind of keeps going and going, and that's really the only problem I had with Oblivion.  It drags out a bit too long, and really would have benefit from some tightening up, especially in the second half. Oblivion initially seems fresh, but you'll eventually realize you've seen this all somewhere before.  It borrows pretty heavily from other sci-fi films, and you'll recognize many things as if they were just lifted directly out of them.  As a result, it's pretty predictable, but your mileage may vary.  There's a twist around the halfway point that was very obvious to me, but I heard many gasps of surprise from those sitting around me.  I think it's going to depend on how familiar you are with movies like Planet of the Apes, 2001, The Matrix, Moon, and even Independence Day.  The movie drops a lot of clues throughout though, so even if you're not a sci-fi junkie, you're likely to figure out a lot of this stuff on your own.  Even though it's pretty predictable, I still found all the various reveals satisfying.

Another thing hurting the film is that outside of Jack, all of the characters are pretty thin and underwritten.  In retrospect, it makes sense for a few of them, but some of the characters don't do much more than point guns at people.  Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has a small role and I think you can count the number of lines he has on a hand.  I'm pointing out Waldau's character, but nobody is given all that much to do.  The film is carried by Tom Cruise, and he's great as usual.  I'd also like to know what secret treatments he's receiving to prevent from aging.  Then again, I'm sure at that point in the future, 50 will be the new 20.

Despite my issues with the pacing, length and recycled plot elements, it didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the film.  This is mainly because of how beautiful the world they created is.  In keeping with the familiar themes of the film, you'll see landmarks hidden in the altered landscapes.  Even though they are on Earth, most of the time it looks like it could be another planet.  The house the live in, as well as the vehicles they use, have that dichotomy of being advanced, but still having a clean, bright simplicity to them.  The design makes sense, and I didn't think anything looked unrealistic.  Another thing I liked was that I never got that feeling of too much CG.  It's also a great sounding film, so overall it makes for a very immersive experience.  I saw it on IMAX and definitely recommend seeing it in that format if available to you.

Originally written as a graphic novel by director Joseph Kosinski (who also directed Tron: Legacy) and Arvid Nelson, several studios got into a bidding war to make it into a film instead.  Disney originally had the rights, but eventually passed when they realized they couldn't make this PG without making too many story changes.  It's only PG-13 though, so it's not like  The screenplay went through a few re-writes as well, with even Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Little Miss Sunshine) taking a pass through it.  Perhaps all the rewrites are why much of this feels so familiar and there isn't a lot of depth of the characters.  Oblivion is still very much a step up from Tron: Legacy for Kosinski.

Oblivion will feel all too familiar for experienced sci-fi fans, and there are some pacing issues, but it's such a gorgeous looking and sounding film, that it's easy to get past that.  Tom Cruise is excellent again and continues to show why he's still a star.  Oblivion isn't a perfect film, but I was able to lose myself in it for a few hours, and some of the images have really stuck with me, so I chalk that up to a success.  I recommend it as a matinee, but if you can see it in IMAX or similar format, then go for it.

3.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

Mama (2013) - Movie Review

Yo Mama's so dumb that...um...that's all I got.  This is why I'm not a stand-up comedian.

I know a lot of people really like Guillermo del Toro, but I'm starting to think his name attached to a movie is a sign that it's either going to be over-hyped, or it never sees the light of day.  Mama was only produced by del Toro, but he got behind the project after seeing a short film by Andrés and Barbara Muschietti.  For the feature film, Andrés directed and shared writing credit with Barbara and Neil Cross.  Neil Cross you may know as the writer and director of Luther, which is an awesome BBC that I highly recommend you all check out, especially if you like Idris Elba.  The fact Neil Cross was involved in the writing disappoints me all that much more with how this played out, but we'll get to that.

If you're interested, you can watch the original Mama short below.  Don't worry, it won't spoil anything about the movie to watch it.  It's mainly a version of a few things you saw in the trailer and doesn't have any of the story of the movie.



Mama has a tragic, effective setup.  A man kills his wife (along with some co-workers) and kidnaps their two daughters.  While speeding away on an icy road, they crash in the woods, and find small cabin.  I thought this abandoned cabin was a little unusual as it seemed to be in pretty good condition, and looked like it was decorated in the late 1960's or early 70's.  As the father is preparing to kill his kids, something intervenes and takes him away.  Right away, this kind of surprised me as the evil in the movie is already revealed, and you have a good idea of what it looks like and know it can interact physically with the outside world.

The kids are left to fend for their own, but we all know that this 'Mama' is watching over them.  Five years pass, and we meet Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) the twin brother of the man from the opening scene.  He's been spending every dime he has trying to find any trace of his brother or nieces.  I'm a little surprised it took five years to find them considering you'd think the police would have been looking for him, and his car couldn't have crashed that far from the road. Anyway, the kids are found in a feral state.  The older of the two, Victoria (Megan Charpentier), was old enough when abandoned that she at least had some speech skills and remembers her father.  However, the younger of the two, Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse), was too young to remember her parents and was raised only by her older sister and Mama.

After a short time of being studied by a psychiatrist Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash), the kids are sent home with Lucas and his rocker girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain).  This was another unusual part of the film for me as Lucas and Annabel didn't have the funds to watch over the kids, but Dr. Dreyfuss puts them up in a house with the condition that he's allowed to still study them.  It's not long before weird things happen around the house.  Lucas is actually knocked into a coma really early on into the film, which leaves Annabel to watch the kids on her own, and she's already established that having kids isn't high on her list of things she wants.

Jessica Chastain, fresh of her Golden Globe win, elevates the material, but I felt like her character was a little too cliched.  She plays bass in a band, all tatted up, and everything is dark about her.  The fact that she was a musician in no way played into the plot at all.  I did like the fact that her arc involved her getting over the fact she didn't want kids, but was forced to watch them and eventually bond and become a parental figure to them.

I also thought Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse were very good.  There's a nice contrast between watching Victoria slowly acclimate back to normal life, while you can tell that something isn't right about Lilly.  Lilly is eerie without having to say anything.  The interaction between the two was kind of heartbreaking, especially towards the end.

Is Mama scary?  Not really.  The setup works for a bit and there are some good jump-scares, but the movie starts to rely on those too much.  It's also a case of taking too long to get to the point.  The more they reveal, the less effective it comes.  The effects for Mama initially looked good, but it eventually turns into a really bad CG effect that took away anything that was scary about her.  Towards the end people were laughing out loud at the events that played out, rather than being scared.  These are the same people that were jumping early on.

It just all falls apart at the end.  There are a lot of plot holes, and character decisions that didn't make any sense.  They introduce things that aren't really followed up on, or would have resolved the movie sooner if they had been.  Plus, there are some conveniences at the end that make it tie up too neatly.  They try to explain why Mama was doing what she was doing, and it attempts to make her sympathetic, but I didn't feel that way.  I won't spoil the end, but it had this almost fairy tale quality to it that just didn't fit the tone of the film.  I also don't like it when a movie isn't consistent about it's mythology.  Sometimes Mama is real, other times she's intangible, and it's not like she's invisible or can't be heard.  Everyone is powerless to stop her, so why is there even a setup to what she's doing?  She can get what she wants at any time.

Mama has an effective setup and some creepy moments, but the more they reveal, the more it falls apart.  Sometimes it's better to leave things to the imagination, and that's probably Mama's biggest flaw.  What could have been an effective ghost story, ended up being a really uneven film with an ending that didn't fit.  It does have some strong performances, but that's about the most I can say about it.  This is a rental.

2.5 (out of 5) Death Stars