Oblivion Roams

I am not terribly certain that Oblivion as a title isn't confusing the word with Oblivious.  Let me state from the onset that while sitting in the theatre watching Oblivion, I enjoyed it.  I mean I wasn't checking my watch every few minutes wondering when it was going to end.  I did find it a bit meandering at time as if it wasn't really sure whether it was action, pure scifi or a romance movie, but still I was drawn in to it despite its  poorly constructed plot.  Not to think about the problems of the movie though, one would have to be somewhat Oblivious.

It was well acted although I doubt the two dimensional characters were much of a stretch even for Tom Cruise.  It also seemed to be at times something of a mash-up of plot ideas from a number of other scifi movies.  I don't want to offer spoilers, but if you are a scifi geek you will get them.

The movie is also somewhat visually trite.  Like most post-apocalyptic movies it has the required scenes of destroyed landmarks.  I am honestly tired of seeing The New York Library, the Statue of Liberty, and The Empire State Building as the only landmarks that movie makers seem to want to show destroyed.  I know I didn't include the Capitol dome and the Lincoln and Washington Memorials.  I feel sorry for the East Coast because come the end they get the worst of it.  Why not just once blow up the Disney Castle or Decca Records?  Aliens just don't like the East Coast.

The movie is also very predictable.  Not one event really caught me off guard.  The real problem comes after the movie.  There is usually a discussion of most movies.  Ours quickly devolved into the number of gaping plot holes in the movie.  I am not going to discuss all of them here because if I do, I will give away the entire film.

Spoiler Alert for example:

I will give you one though that is pointed out at the beginning of the movie.  The aliens blew up the moon, and the ensuing chaos from the destruction -- floods, tidal waves, earthquakes, tsunamis -- devastate the Earth and its people.  I am not terribly certain that blowing up the moon would do all these things, but if we accept that it would, why would the land masses be re-arranged?  Tom's character moves from buried New York to mountains with magnificent falls, and forests to vast dessert wastelands to a football stadium that is for some reason on the coast.  If the destruction from the war with the aliens that followed was so complete how is it after on 60 years so much as grown back?  Why is everything seemingly buried except the football stadium?

I don't feel like I wasted my money on the movie.  It is just that I won't be seeing it again anytime soon, and I doubt that I will buy the DVD.  It's one of those movies that you can enjoy while its on; just don't spend too much time thinking about it.

My take is