Oblivion and Summer Movies

So I think the summer has officially begun, at least if we are talking about movie releases.  Oblivion is kind of a precursor to all the big movies that are going to be released starting in May.  We also have the next Star Trek Into Darkness May 17th, Iron Man 3 May 3rd, The Great Gatsby May 10th, The Fast and Furious 6 and The Hangover III May 24th, After Earth  May 31st,  Man of Steel June 14th, World War Z and Monsters University June 21, Lone Ranger July 3rd, Pacific Rim July 12th, The Wolverine July 26th, 300:Rise of an Empire August 2nd, Elysium August 9th, and Kick-Ass 2 August 16th.  I will probably skip several of these, and probably left some non-action or blockbuster type movies off the list, but I very much want to see a lot of these.  Probably most excited for Fast 6, and 300.  Ya I like gratuitous action films, sue me.

On to Oblivion.  I had been looking forward to this movie for quite a while.  For one, I like Tom Cruise movies.  Say what you want about the mans personal life, which is the only thing most people complain about, but his movies are entertaining.  He may be a one trick pony, but I for one happen to like that particular trick.  For roles that are very different for him, go watch Collateral and Tropic Thunder.  The movie is set in a futuristic, war torn earth, and Tom Cruise is tasked with keeping water purifiers running so the earth survivors can be transported on the Tet to their new home of Titan, one of Saturn's moons.  Of course things don't go according to plan and everything unfolds from there.

The visuals throughout the film are very strong, the director Joseph Kosinski also did Tron: Legacy so his futuristic touches are very clean while having very clear juxtaposition with the landscape of war torn earth.  the special effects are believable and definitely do a good job of adding to the experience and not becoming the focus of attention, see Star Wars episodes I, II, and III.  It was my wifes first time seeing a movie in IMAX and it had been quite a while since I saw one myself and I was fairly impressed.  The movie was filmed in full 4k resolution, and translated well to the IMAX screen.The sound is also very well executed, and although the soundtrack was a little Tronish, it still did the right things at the right times.

Being a new movie I will not divulge any specifics, but there were several things about the movie as a whole that were a little bothersome.  It borrowed a LOT of imagery from other sci-fi films.  Off the top of my head there are scenes that reminded me of Star Wars, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Independence Day, Minority Report, iRobot, and Demolition Man. It did not completely detract from the movie, but many parts gave me the feeling like I had seen this movie already.  It was still an entertaining flick to watch, but you could tell there were concessions with the studio on direction for the story because there was opportunity for some really interesting characters and twists that were never focused on enough to come to fruition.

When I saw Dennis Leary, I mean Jaime Lannister, I mean Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in this film this was what I thought of, haha.

Overall it mostly accomplished what it was trying to be, and is a good opening for the summer action movie train.  If you have any interest in seeing it, go for it.  3 out of 4 stars.

IMDB score 7.2  Might be a little high on the grand scale of things, but its below most of the other movies I have reviewed, but on par for its watchability.