There’s been a slight resurgence in sci-fi cinema over the past year or two, a very good thing after the long dry spells of the 2000s. Just in the past few years we’ve had Gravity, Europa Report, Prometheus, Ender’s Game, Star Trek: Into Darkness, After Earth, Elysium and so on.
Released in 2013 Oblivion stars Tom Cruise as a field engineer named Jack, tasked with keeping defense drones operational. Earth has been attacked and nearly destroyed by an alien race, and while the humans prevailed Earth can no longer support life and the drones protect vast hydro syphons used to collect energy for the trip to Titan. His only companion is Vika, his loving partner and radio operator for their tour of duty.
What follows is a well paced and thoughtful science fiction, with a decent plot which is sold well to the viewer. The effects are stunning and mostly understated, which suits the drab post apocalyptic world Jack lives in. The performances are uniformly excellent but the main bulk of the film focuses on Jack – and Tom Cruise does a perfect job here. He has a lot of controversial … ‘views’, but the man has not lost his touch in front of the camera (also recommended – Magnolia).
The Blu-Ray was released a couple of months ago and I finally picked a copy up last weekend now that the price has come down a little, having previously seen it on pay per view. The picture is possibly one of the best looking BR transfers I’ve seen, as such I’d highly recommend picking it up rather than just streaming it.
