Oblivion

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”!!! (2013-04-21)

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. (2013-04-15)

Based on the trailer, I was expecting the same concept as Prometheus, that is, a visually spectacular and utterly captivating experience for sci-fi lovers that in the end is not nearly as sophisticated as we would like. But Oblivion is different, it is much more minimalist and modest, with its biggest weakness being Joseph Kosinski as a screenwriter. I believe he did his best, but he is a much better director than a writer. The biggest drawback in terms of the script, in my opinion, is the fact that they drew inspiration from older films such as Independence Day or The Matrix. Some years ago, we would have been amazed, but things are different today. However, Kosinski confirmed his role as an incredibly talented visionary in terms of audiovisual execution, and many scenes are literally breathtaking, the scene in the pool for example, in combination with perfect lighting, music, and sound, provides the ultimate feeling of excitement and cinematic experience. Similar feats could also be seen in Tron: Legacy. Kosinski knows how to create a different world where the viewer is willing to forget for a moment about their own, only a very few filmmakers can do this. (2013-04-27)

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. (2013-05-13)

The most interesting ideas from the best sci-fi fantasy movies blended like a smoothie from Jamba. Cruise plays a human version of Wall-E, but thanks to a large amount of evolution leaps, he has become the biggest boss on the planet. Other cast members worth a mention (apart from Morgan, he never disappoints) include the new discovery Andrea Riseborough, who won my heart in the scene in the pool. Paradoxically, Olga isn’t so impressive in this movie. But what makes Oblivion such a unique movie is the visual side. In terms of design, everything is very novel, it has the right massive scale and the final trip, combined with reminiscing about how it all began, is something so audiovisually/sci-fi-wise perfect (I want Kosinski to film “Rendezvous with Rama", or something by Asimov), that I was tempted to give it a fifth star. It bothered me a little bit that M83’s music wasn’t as wow was expected. It reminds me a lot of TDK and Tron, even so it sets a more than decent standard among the competition. P.S.: I was completely alone in the largest screen in the theater = no interference. :) (2013-04-23)