Is Oblivion as empty as its harsher critics suggest, or is there something more subversive within it?
Here’s Ryan’s spoiler-filled view…
Note: this article contains spoilers fromOblivionfrom the outset.
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Are you an effective team?
In a lengthy introduction, Tom Cruises Jack Harper outlines the story behindOblivions devastated Earth.
Gradually, however, Harper learns that all is not it seems.
The Tet isnt a last refuge for humanity, but the conquering aliens mothership.
I want mankind to survive.
This is the only way.
There is much inOblivions story and plot twists that is familiar from other sci-fi touchstones.
The unexpected return of a loved one and the use of a woodland house recalls Andrei TarkovskysSolaris.
It was poignant, thought-provoking, and had at its centre a career-best performance from Sam Rockwell.
InOblivion, the Harper clones are stuck on an artificial treadmill of work and shallow relations.
Wed fight and get drunk.
Then wed die and be buried in a meadow by the lake.
What are you looking for in those books?
Pare away the science fiction surface detail, and whats left?
A story about a loyal soldier manipulated into fighting an unjust war against primitive people.
Expected to follow orders without thinking (Dont ask too many questions.
For a film widely dismissed as superficial and meaningless, these are heavy themes.
