The next step up from a motorcycle.
Like many science fiction films, Oblivion (2013) faces the opportunity and the burden to clearly explore some moral question, often with a faux-futuristic facet, with great clarity. Science fiction has this opportunity to a greater extent than some genres because it is not quite as burdened with the trivia of reality; it can draw out the question of interest with perhaps some greater clarity than in other genres.
Consider Blade Runner (1982), which takes on questions of artificial intelligence and how the manufacture of an artificial intelligence – for that is the essence of the rebellious replicants wreaking havoc in the city, even if they have a human ancestor – and deploying them in combat roles with a sharply and shortly defined lifetime ripples through those replicants’ consciousness of themselves as individuals and community – and affects their interactions with their creators.
Or Gattaca (1997) in its study of the ultimate in the ability to shape your offspring, and how that consciousness of this peculiar version of the Greek Fates impacts those who’ve been shaped – and the virtual refuse of humanity, those who came out of the oven without the shaping.
Unfortunately, Oblivion is more interested in the practical problems when faced with an opponent with such power that they, to borrow a phrase from Arthur C. Clarke, appear to be magical. The movie opens with Jack Harper, Tech-49, memory wiped for security reasons, heading out to work on a drone (think something about 20 feet long). The drones, heavily armed, protect great fusion generators powered by the Earth’s oceans, and we learn that Earth, after fighting and winning a war against the invading aliens, are moving to Titan as the Earth was ruined by the war. The energy from Earth’s oceans is transferred to Titan to power those colonies. These installations are under attack by the survivors of the invading force, the scavs. Jack and his partner, Vika, answer to their superiors on the Tet, an orbiting satellite whose crew coordinates the various tech crews responsible for maintaining the installations harvesting the energy.
But Jack is bothered by dreams. When an old spaceship re-enters Earth’s atmosphere in response to a scav-set beacon, he arrives to find the survivors of the crash are human – and are then exterminated by one of his drones. He saves one of the survivors from the drone and returns her to his base, where he and his partner, Vika, revive her. The survivor, Julia, is unwilling to talk until the flight recorder of her craft is recovered – and she’s a character from his dreams.
Jack, against orders, takes Julia to recover her flight recorder, but they are attacked and captured by the scavs.
Who are human.
The great conspiracy is then revealed. Jack is working for the invaders, and is, in fact, himself an artifact of the invaders. He can’t believe it, but is released by the scavs after they reveal a plan – they have a drone, armed with a nuclear weapon. Its target? The Tet satellite, which in reality is the invading aliens. The problem? Jack has the expertise to program the drone. Jack refuses and, in a great bluff move, the scavs release him. He and Julia return to Jack’s base, only to discover Vika has lost faith in Jack. The Tet satellite orders everyone killed, but the drone is destroyed after killing Vika.
Jack and Vika escape but are trailed by more drones (they’re a bit like locusts, but they only eat each other rarely), and when they’re shot down, Jack runs into … Jack. Jack Tech-52, that is. After some fisticuffs, Jack wins, and Jack and Julia end up at the scav hideout, where Jack programs the drone and the humans win.
Well, not really. The humans win, but there’s some fairly meaningless final plot twists that I find too tiresome to rehash.
So the problem here is Jack, for all the questions about his humanity, isn’t really facing any interesting moral questions. The question of where his loyalties lay, and should lay, are never really explored, and they’re not worth exploring. So this is really just another action movie with little bite to it.
Not to suggest it’s a waste of time. Tom Cruise continues to prove to be an adept actor who, while perhaps not quite as flexible as Hanks or Lewis, is certainly worthy of respect. The visuals were good on our TV, and probably magnificent on the big screen. We did occasionally have problems with the wide range of volume used, but our living room is hardly an ideal theater space.
But don’t go into this one expecting to get knocked on your ass by another Blade Runner or Gattaca. It’s fun, but not that wonderful. And if that dangerous word Why rears its ugly head, look out! The plot may come cascading down around your head. I suggest you just lean back in the barcalounger and enjoy the fun.
