Preview: ‘Oblivion’

This April Oblivion will hit cinema-screens across the UK. Director Joseph Kosinski has assembled an A-list cast including Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman in an attempt to win over sceptics of this genre, much like he did with the largely successful TRON: Legacy.

Oblivion is based on a Graphic Novel written by Kosinski himself and is set on a dystopian planet Earth. Cruise plays a former marine by the name of Jack Harper, one of the last drone repairman left on earth. The planet has been left on its knees by an Alien race, simply known as Scavs, following an invasion some 50 years previous. In a perhaps all too familiar post-apocalyptic nuance Harper is part of an operation to extract the remaining resources from earth. He lives in an airborne town and life is predictably tough for those who have stayed behind on the gruelling mission. The real ‘Hollywood-element’ of the film rears its familiar head when, in the closing stages of his mission Harper is inclined to save a pilot from a crashed spacecraft. By saving his new lady-friend, Harper triggers a chain of events that turn this post-apocalyptic nightmare upside down. He begins to question everything he has been told regarding how the war started with the Scavs and why things had turned out so badly for the humans.

Oblivion feels a bit like Total Recall and looks like the video-game Fallout 3 – a tasty combination. And with a calibre of cast to rival its main mid-Spring competitor Iron Man 3, Oblivion should attract audiences of all ages and fans from a variety of genres. Once we get into its gritty side, Oblivion looks like it will show both a political and fantastical edge that blockbusters have been guilty of lacking in recent years. If Kosinski can pull all the factors of the storyline together, then Oblivion will be an early contender for the surprise-package of 2013. Daft Punk will add some gloss to the movie by making a return alongside Kosinski for the soundtrack and Olga Kurylenko and Andrea Riseborough round off an impressive cast.