Oblivion (Tom Cruise)

Mickeroo

^^Spoilers dude!

Edit: Not you Catallus, nyarlothohep.

nyarlothothep

haha, sorry, I have a real habit of doing that

Corholio

rossy1044 wrote: »

sxt wrote: »

Oblivion > Prometheus[kQUOTE]

That's a tough one. Both were massively disappointing but I think Oblivion was a far worse movie. Although Prometheus was bad at least its plot was ambitious possibly to a fault. Also people were discussing Prometheus long after they watched it. Its thread here was 164 pages which I cant see happening with Oblivion.

Discussing how bad a film was doesn't really add to the weight of the film. Both have gaping plotholes but at least Oblivion kinda knew what it was, Prometheus felt like a film that thought it was telling us more than it really was, and in the end just ground to a mess.

DjFlin

Just saw this. My guess as to how it was made is as follows;

"Hey, remember all the cool scenes from every science fiction film? Lets have Tom Cruise recreate them & call it a movie."

They should have called it 'Be Kind Rewind 2: SciFi'

Kinski

Goldstein wrote: »

Aliens want our water...again. You know that abundantly available compound of hydrogen and oxygen that can be easily obtained in massive quantities in moons, asteroids, comets etc anywhere throughout the entire universe. No wonder they lost the war.

and that ridiculous idea is every bit as idiotic now as it was in the 80s. It's an unforgivably stupid premise that keeps being recycled by clueless writers and undermines the story from the beginning.

You had better not be knocking this:

hadepsx

a big massive meh

that is all

Mickeroo

Goldstein wrote: »

A few other small things were irritating too:

How was there real time communication with Earth from Titan?

There wasn't any realtime communication with Titan since there is no people on Titan. As far as the characters in the film thinking there was realtime communication with Titan, I don't think that was the case either, Melissa Leo's character was supposed to be on the Tet not Titan from what I gathered.

constitutionus

I think he means

between misson control on earth and the oddessy that was near titan when it met the tet for the first time.

i definetly remember em getting the nod to approach it .

personally i can forgive it as i dont fancy waithing half an hour to see the next move in a film.

DeSmasher

Classic film with some epic visuals, a must see on a cinema screen, forget about tom cruise or holes in the plot, this film rocks, brilliant soundtrack, pure mass effect feel to the movie. loved it watch it

Mickeroo

constitutionus wrote: »

I think he means

between misson control on earth and the oddessy that was near titan when it met the tet for the first time.

i definetly remember em getting the nod to approach it .

personally i can forgive it as i dont fancy waithing half an hour to see the next move in a film.

That makes more sense now.

johnny_ultimate

Space wi-fi, folks, all about the space wi-fi.

indough

well either that or some development in quantum entanglement. the technologies dont actually have to work in real life, it is science fiction after all

constitutionus

always seemed like a no brainer to me for instantaneous communications across vast distances.

movey movey quantum particle here = movey movey quantum particle there.

your not broadcasting, so no time lag.

thegreengoblin

Saw it last night in the IMAX and as a spectacle it was hugely impressive. The effects were as good as any I've seen. But the amount of references to other films was just taking the piss by the end. Moon, 2001, Planet of the Apes, Attack of the Clones, Alien, Silent Running...the list could go on.

I would say it's nowhere near as bad as some are making it out to be but also it could have been so much better than it was.

And by the way, to the scumbag who eventually got thrown out near the end of the 8.30 showing in Cineworld , consider yourself lucky that I was as far away from you as I was and didn't really notice you until you were being dragged out. To those who were sitting near this neanderthal, sorry that you had to put up with that kind of crap and I hope it didn't ruin your night.

noodler

I quite enjoyed it.

Hyzepher

constitutionus wrote: »

I think he means

between misson control on earth and the oddessy that was near titan when it met the tet for the first time.

i definetly remember em getting the nod to approach it .

personally i can forgive it as i dont fancy waithing half an hour to see the next move in a film.

It wasn't near Titan. The Odyssey was on the way to Titan when they were asked to break off and intercept. Thats why only two of them were woken.

MisterAnarchy

Mr E wrote: »

I won't spoil anything, but I will say this - I thought the trailers gave too much away, but that wasn't the case at all. Most of the trailer was from the first hour, and things happened very differently to how I thought they would happen (which is always a nice surprise).

I cant agree with that ,the trailer gives away a huge amount.
I saw the trailer and heard a Tom Cruise interview and I had enough to create an impression of what the film was about and it played out exactly like that.

But the amount of references to other films was just taking the piss by the end. Moon, 2001, Planet of the Apes, Attack of the Clones, Alien, Silent Running...the list could go on.

Alot of the plot is similar to a Swiss scifi film called Cargo released a few years ago,its a good show.

Goldstein

indough wrote: »

well either that or some development in quantum entanglement. the technologies dont actually have to work in real life, it is science fiction after all

Yes, good answer, that's plausible. If that was the intention even a throwaway mention of quantum something would have been a nice touch but I suspect they didn't even think about it. As I said it's a tiny forgivable quibble compared to the more fundamental problems it has overall as a film.

Opposite to all of the great films of science fiction which garner even more appreciation and admiration with time, having time to think and reflect isn't doing Oblivion any favours.

I'd love to see what another director/screenwriter/cast could have produced from the same basic premise. There's a solid story hiding there crying out to be told in a less force fed / exposition heavy fashion. Take out the scavs for starters and it's already a more focused film without that whole arc.

Bullseye1

Oblivion 9/10. Rarely has a movie looked more beautiful. Stunning set design, visual effects and outstanding audio. The sound track was similar to Legacy yet felt different and for me fitted the movie perfectly. The director Joseph Kosinski is fast becoming one of my favourite Directors and this is one of Tom Cruises best movies in years. While nothing original the story is effective. This movie has been a very nice surprise for me as it kinda flew under the radar with everything else coming out this year.

SimonTemplar

I saw it again for a second time tonight. While I fully understand the criticism aimed at this movie, I do think it is a tad undeserved. It is far from perfect but I was gripped and intrigued for the whole running time. I was still very impressed by Andrea Riseborough the second time also.

On second viewing, the weakness of the dialogue was very apparent with some very poor lines - "I have to work on that" near the start was a terrible gag and a awkward attempt at humour. Later on, Andrea Riseborough's line "We are told not to remember, remember?" is very clunky. Also

the reveal of the alien is a letdown. I was expecting something more interesting than just a triangle with a big red eye in the middle, especially after the rather cool design of their tower.

However, seeing the movie again after knowing how it unfolds was very interesting, especially the first few scenes with Jake, Julia and Victoria. When Julia wakes up in the sickbay, she naturally assumes that Jack is her actual husband and Victoria is the co-pilot of the mission back in 2017. When Victoria says that everyone onboard her mission has died, that makes no sense to her because she is apparently in the same room as two survivors, at least from her point of view. Also, after Jack explained the history of the past 60 during the dinner scene, she starting laughing which I thought was an odd response during my first viewing, but it is much more obvious what was going through her head at that time - her husband who doesn't recognise her or anything about their past life has just said the world was invaded by aliens 60 years ago and everybody now lives on Titan! WTF from her point of view. That laugh of disbelieve means much more now.

Not a classic but certainly an above average sci-fi spectacle.

thegreengoblin wrote: »

And by the way, to the scumbag who eventually got thrown out near the end of the 8.30 showing in Cineworld , consider yourself lucky that I was as far away from you as I was and didn't really notice you until you were being dragged out. To those who were sitting near this neanderthal, sorry that you had to put up with that kind of crap and I hope it didn't ruin your night.

This kind of bull really annoys me. I was tempted to go to that 8:30 screening in IMAX but went to screen 9 at 8:00 instead. I'm glad I made that decision. I saw two movies today in packed screens (this and A Place Beyond The Pines) and both audiences were as quite as a church with only the very occasional rustling of bags. To be honest, Cineworld isn't an ideal cinema (noisy popcorn paper bags, dodgy location, certain clientele) but as I go to the cinema about 200 movies a year, their unlimited card saves me thousands of euro a year so I've little choice. However, I do think it is a little better than its reputation would suggest. I've gone there about 200 times a year since 2007 and I've only had 3 or 4 really negative experiences. That is a healthy ratio. Having said that, I do usually try to avoid weekends.

Mr Simpson

Saw this tonight, its not bad. Worth a look anyway

krudler

It's...ok, not great, not terrible. Lovely looking and sounding, some excellent visuals, m83's score was good, very Tron in places. I thought they first hour was stronger than the rest, its a good premise that kinda falls apart in the middle once Morgan Freeman arrives. It does come across as a mishmash of about two dozen other sci-fi films, from Wall-E to Moon to even Independence Day.3/5 for me

johnny_ultimate

I'd usually tend to step back a bit from picking holes in inherently absurd space opera plots, but this film definitely needed several more screenplay drafts - if not only to cover up the gaping holes but even more vitally to make the dialogue come across as credible and natural. There's a certain amount of plot justification for the characters talking like emotionless automatons, but they go well beyond that here.

I also think visually I may have been spoiled by Spring Breakers a few days before this (and I'm not just talking about the parades of scantily clad people). That's a beautifully composed, inventive work of visual wonderment. Aside from some nifty architecture and mildly diverting fly-bys, I really never warmed to Oblivion's presentation. I do think the sound designers did a much better job than M83, though: the sound of the drones particularly was suitably unnerving in a surround sound of environment.

johnnysmack

A horrible little film.

DirkVoodoo

Andrea Riseborough was the only one capable of acting in this movie. She pretty much saves it. Olga can't act, period.

And Tom, jeez, that opening sequence was nearly cringe worthy as he greeted "Bob" and his mechanical panning from inside his orbo-copter thing. He doesn't even seem able to imagine what he might be looking at, it was all very rehearsed and practiced. I've never thought Tom Cruise really acts, he just repeats and repeats until he gets it "perfect". A complete automaton but I can't argue that his name pulls people into cinemas.

There was a lot to like about the movie itself, it seemed like it was threatening to head off in interesting directions at the beginning before settling for cliched sci-fi blockbuster status.

The ending was ridiculous and for me, destroyed many of the themes that could have potentially been explored during 120 minutes

Essentially, individuality doesn't exist, if you are a clone you are incapable of any thought or feeling independent of your original. Does this mean thousands of Tom Cruise's will be lining up to court Olga? Will thousands of Vikas be murderously jealous? And why did Tom not show that much affection for Vika? When he met another clone he didn't give her a hug, he just asked her a question he knew (because they all must!) she would reject.

Outkast_IRE

Enjoyable film, which poses some good questions but ultimately doesnt bother trying to answer them or go into any great depth about them.

Would watch again, but honestly a bit less of the flying around scenes being chased etc, and a few more on story would of resulted in a better film.

Looked great on the big screen, but i do think it will pale in comparison to the other sci fi films of the coming year.

krudler

Was this filmed in the same place as Prometheus? that giant waterfall looks identical

Outkast_IRE

krudler wrote: »

Was this filmed in the same place as Prometheus? that giant waterfall looks identical

Both filmed in iceland as far as i remember

pixelburp

Hmmm, what a frustrating experience that was: I wanted to enjoy that, think it fantastic - frankly there's a dearth of "high concept" Sci-Fi out there - but in the end it was too flat, drab and I couldn't shake the sense of how ... pointless everything felt. It definitely has some problems with its plotting: I consume film as an inherently visual medium, often narrative subtleties or deficiencies pass me by in these sort of 'event' films - so when even I notice issues, the film clearly needs rewrites. Between this and Prometheus, big-budget, 'adult' Sci-Fi isn't faring too good at the moment.

All that said, I don't agree with some in this thread who are decrying this film as dreadful, or even "worst of the year" - that's a patently ludicrous thing to say given that only a month back Movie 43 came out & destroyed our faith in humanity. Or that Scary Movie 5 opened this weekend.

Ultimately, Oblivion's worst crime is its mediocrity, which is simply down to a lack of energy or dynamics from all involved. Visually it looked great, and had an apocalyptic beauty about it you don't see often outside of Concept Art, but it was a classic case of all surface, no depth. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. I couldn't even get behind M83, who is frequently on my playlists; the soundtrack was equally uninteresting and only the track that played across the credits showed some of the group's flourishes.

As for the lead, wellllll that's another thread in of itself; I'm actually sick of Tom Cruise at this stage & wish he'd stop, well, ruining films he appears in. Whilst I object to hating him on the grounds of his personal life, I have no problem objecting to him on the basis that he's the most unnatural, stilted & one-note actor in the A-list category. His sheer presence simply sucks the atmosphere out of any scene with his contrivances & forced mannerisms. Ok, Kosinski clearly can't direct human beings but Cruise doesn't act like one so the director is exempt from criticism in that regard.

McGrath5

Saw this last night, very enjoyable film.

The soundtrack really did well to set the general tone of the film, downloading t as I type!