I didn't see a post for this movie on the site. My gut reaction is to hate all movies with Tom Cruise on principal alone. So the first time I saw it I didn't like it. The plot is confusing and there are a lot of technical / storyline flaws that annoy. But I watched it again and it kind of grows on you. Once you sort through the tangles of the plot it is quite interesting. Spoiler
An alien race that breeds clones of humans to assist in conquering and plundering the planet, all the time thinking they (the clones) are human and fighting the Tet (aliens) to save the planet. But the clones have genetic memory that begins to surface.
It is interesting. Many reviewers said it is a rip off of the movie Moon. I haven't seen Moon so I can't say. I just wish they would be done with Tom Cruise. And they have a cooooool house in the sky with a pool to die for.
I saw this in the theatre when it came out, lorin. I have no problems with Tom Cruise so I mostly enjoyed the movie. I actually had a problem with the casting of Morgan Freeman. I was just plain annoyed when he turned up yet again in that paternalistic we'll-all-be-okay-now-that-Morgan's-here role! Talk about a lack of imagination.
I thought the film was decent but it didn't add anything new that I could see and once I'd guessed/realised what was going on my interest kind of petered out. I'd seen 'Moon' (a better film than 'Oblivion', IMO) so I understand the comparisons.
It was fun to note all the nods to other sci-fi films, like Wall-E', 'Total recall', 'Star Wars' etc, but apart from the stylishness and the production values I don't think that I took anything else from it.
u.
Tho' all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There's no one who has told us yet
What Boogie Street is for.
I'v never seen oblivion, but i do understand your tiredness of Tom Cruise. I come here in hopes that you haven't seen the movies Collateral and The last Samurai. Those films, IMO, are the greatest Tom cruise films out there. With the exception of his role in tropic thunder, which he did amazing with. I'm not a Tom cruise fan but i have to say that i do love those two movies and do recommend them to you.. and i shall be taking a look at oblivion very shortly, I think I have it on rogers on demand.
"I am He, that arrogant fool who thought he could thwart death itself with his money."
Rau Le Creuset wrote:I'v never seen oblivion, but i do understand your tiredness of Tom Cruise. I come here in hopes that you haven't seen the movies Collateral and The last Samurai. Those films, IMO, are the greatest Tom cruise films out there. With the exception of his role in tropic thunder, which he did amazing with. I'm not a Tom cruise fan but i have to say that i do love those two movies and do recommend them to you.. and i shall be taking a look at oblivion very shortly, I think I have it on rogers on demand.
Minority Report was another cruise film that I personally enjoyed.
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Rau Le Creuset wrote:I come here in hopes that you haven't seen the movies Collateral and The last Samurai. Those films, IMO, are the greatest Tom cruise films out there.
I second this--Collateral was an excellent movie. Last Samurai was okay but not as good as Collateral. I thought Minority Report was pretty good--SoulBiter beat me to it--and even stayed mostly true to the short story--if handled correctly it is difficult to ruin a Philip K. Dick story. I also liked Vanilla Sky (some of you might know it as "Abra Su Ojos", the original movie) and Eyes Wide Shut (primarily because Kubirck was such a skilled director).
You know, I have to agree.. I kind of put the last Samurai on a false pedestal, it's just one of those films that I seemed to like where everyone else seemed to think was mediocre. It's kind of historically accurate I guess, i just love it. Another one is shutter island.. i thnik that movie is better than people made it sound.
"I am He, that arrogant fool who thought he could thwart death itself with his money."
Oh, I enjoyed Last Samurai--make no mistake about that. However, the believability of the plot stretched pretty far--there is no way a white man would have been inducted into a samurai clan at that point in history. Taken with that little grain of salt, though, and the story itself is pretty good.
The Firm--a pretty good movie all the way around. Likeable and watchable.
I have heard that Jack Reacher is pretty good but haven't seen it.
Mission Impossible: I--pretty darned good, II--enjoyable enough given John Woo's ability to film action, III--meh, IV--not too bad since Bird knows how to handle a good story but the plot moved too quickly, even for an MI movie
War of the Worlds--what a lousy bomb this was, bringing nothing to the story that wasn't already in the original except for Dakota Fanning screaming
Gotta say I generally like Tom Cruise in the kinds of movies I like. (I don't like action movies so haven't watched any of the MI series.)
A friend of mine who is very astute commented that he thought that Kubrick had cast Cruise in 'Eyes Wide Shut' because he always seems slightly out of the scene. He also noticed that Kubrick used bluescreen for certain of Cruise's city scenes to highlight this. I didn't notice this when I saw the movie, but I wouldn't put it past Kubrick.
I enjoy 'Minority Report' everytime I watch it. Spielberg always tells a good story. Oddly I'm not much a Philip K. Dick fan but I liked what they did with this story.
u.
Tho' all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There's no one who has told us yet
What Boogie Street is for.
Cruise is annoying but he has a maddening habit of picking good films every once in a while.
Collateral and Minority Report were very, very good. I love Top Gun. Rain Man....Phenomenal. The Color of Money.
But then there's all the garbage he does. I'm one of the few people that hated A Few Good Men.
Oblivion wasn't awful, but it wasn't memorable either.
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_____________
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I would normally say I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise but I somehow ended up watching Oblivion and Jack Reacher on the same afternoon and was kind of surprised that I enjoyed both films when I was pretty sure I wouldn't. Now that we've brought up the subject of TC I started thinking about all the films he's starred that I like and there are quite a few. Maybe I am a TC fan after all and didn't know it.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
I also wasn't a fan of A Few Good Men, but I also actively disliked Top Gun. I've often said that Cruise has his ego roles and his "artist" roles. I remember Born on the 4th of July looked to be an ego role until I saw the film, which impressed me with him. I also really liked him in Legend, even though I frequently forgot that is him in the role. And he was the right guy for the role in Eyes Wide Shut, for the same reason that ussusimiel mentioned.
Life is a waste of time
Time is a waste of life
So get wasted all of the time
And you'll have the time of your life
I didn't mind A Few Good Men, but the outcome was celebratory rather than tragic..... taking down "Jack" was literally cutting off your nose to spite your face and was somehow lauded as patriotic rather than idiotic.
I also enjoyed Last Samurai but Cruise annoyed the hell out of me with the incredible arrogance of suggesting that he (in his role as non Japanese) could just waltz in and go from severely unfit and drunk to be able to be on par with a trained, dedicated Samurai warrior using Samurai Weapons in just a couple of months: I mean how condescending can you get!
As for Oblivion I liked it (Cruise can be occasionally palatable as he is here). The shorts on the BluRay/DVD are interesting in that they reveal that the home is actually a 360 degree screen which actually projects the backgrounds and outdoor scenery (rather than green screen) and this comes across in things like the pallor reflected off skin and the reflections in the eyes ...... small details but they account for a lot of believability of the environment the story is set in.
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I watched oblivion today, I thought the movie started out incredibly strong but towards the end I felt that the plot came from way to far left field. I still enjoyed It a lot, but I feel that the ending plot was rushed and rather silly compared to the well paced first first half of the movie.
It's alot better than I thought it would be though, thanks for the recommendation.
"I am He, that arrogant fool who thought he could thwart death itself with his money."
I watched it again the other night, it's slick and stylish and watchable. There are some glaring plot holes though, like: Spoiler
if you can build drones as sophisticated as the defensive ones you can surely either build repair ones or ones that can be operated at a distance. Ditto a few satellites; line of sight to the Tet or zilch!
u.
Tho' all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There's no one who has told us yet
What Boogie Street is for.
lorin wrote:I didn't see a post for this movie on the site. My gut reaction is to hate all movies with Tom Cruise on principal alone. So the first time I saw it I didn't like it. The plot is confusing and there are a lot of technical / storyline flaws that annoy. But I watched it again and it kind of grows on you. Once you sort through the tangles of the plot it is quite interesting. Spoiler
An alien race that breeds clones of humans to assist in conquering and plundering the planet, all the time thinking they (the clones) are human and fighting the Tet (aliens) to save the planet. But the clones have genetic memory that begins to surface.
It is interesting. Many reviewers said it is a rip off of the movie Moon. I haven't seen Moon so I can't say. I just wish they would be done with Tom Cruise. And they have a cooooool house in the sky with a pool to die for.
A year and day since Lorin's original post. I watched Oblivion on DVD this evening and enjoyed it immensely.
For me it was the soundtrack by the French electronic band, M83. Worth watching for that alone.
I'll be searching the music shops this week for more of.
Wasn't that rusty metal thingy perched on the roof of Jack's cabin a rotating figure 8 ? ... Spoiler
... the reason why the aliens never knew the place existed
... the reason why the aliens never knew the place existed
* 
