Oblivion

Nothing to do with The Elder Scrolls, the film Oblivion is an epic post-apocalyptic sci-fi that it is no surprise was based on what was going to be a graphic novel by Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski. It has a whole lot of visual appeal, some decent performances and some great action sequences, but it was very much lacking in soul and had a twist that was far too obvious, telegraphed from very early on by tell-tale signs like ‘our memories were wiped’ and ‘in two weeks our mission will be over and we will rejoin the rest of humankind’, which set warning bells ringing after having seen the likes of Moon and Cloud Atlas and, indeed, having played Portal. And I must say, Moon did a lot more with the idea.

Tom Cruise’s character lives in a very clean, glassy futuristic apartment with his lover/coworker, maintaining drones to protect huge machines that are taking the water from Earth for a mass migration to Titan. Scrabbling on the surface and trying to capture him are the ‘scavs’, aliens who have lost the war that destroyed the moon and killed most of the human population. Everything changes, of course, when a beacon set up by the scavs brings down a ship with another survivor.

In the end there are many twists but also many plot holes. Why don’t the scavs just take their masks off when the drones aren’t around but Tom Cruise’s character is? How did the flight recorder found in the sleep capsule record things after the capsule was detached. And most pressingly, if Morgan Freeman saw the thousands he described pouring out, presumably all of whom were needed in active service, where are the rest at the end?

But the main problems are not plot holes – they’re really that between the exciting sequences are long stretches that get tedious – without really likeable characters to carry them forward, despite Tom Cruise’s remarkably youthful looks at half a century old. Too much is clinical and detached, including Morgan Freeman who until his last scenes is doing a totally unnecessary take on Morpheus from The Matrix – a clear influence here.

For some, the lush visuals, nice use of classic rock (Procul Harem!) and the impressive CG will carry the film. Others will find it tedious. But I really doubt any will get emotionally invested, or consider it a masterpiece. 

Iron Man 3

Tony Stark may have become ever more annoying in the Marvel comics, essentially being the antagonist of Civil War and providing most of the many low points of Avengers Vs X-Men, but as this last part of the trilogy shows, his films continue to be the best of all Marvel’s big-screen adaptations, and his anchoring presence in The Avengers make it much more palatable.

That film’s presence here is somewhat oddly incorporated in a series of anxiety attacks that actually make Stark much more vulnerable and sympathetic. The existence of aliens and gods hasn’t entirely transformed the Marvel Movie Universe, but it has certainly affected Stark, who can’t sleep and spends his time tinkering with new suits. Meanwhile, the terrorist threat of The Mandarin begins to put pressure on the American government and faces from Stark’s indifferent party-boy past begin to come back to haunt him.

The film manages to adapt from the Extremis storyline but makes its own distinct and complete statement. It does a lot in its run time, and paces it all excellently. You have the huge explosions and suits of armour flying about shooting things. You have thrilling rescues of people falling from thousands of feet. You have helicopters blowing up buildings and damsels in distress. But you also have Stark having to deal with mental illness, bonding with a random kid, regretting his past and having to deal with putting those he loves in danger. You have James Bond-style infiltration. You have brilliant comedy, including scenes with grunts that come from the Whedon school of humour yet do not jar like his similar lines do. You have an utterly brilliant way to use Sir Ben Kingsley and the Mandarin character that will no doubt have some comics purists gnashing their teeth but is brilliant for this film and the post-Bane superhero world, with the ever-current terrorists-sending-videos-and-making-threats paranoia of the States both used and subverted. And in a concession that just about manages not to be patronising, you get the damsel in distress solving everything. Everything you want from a blockbuster, and more.

The film wraps up a little too neatly, and though I was thankful that it didn’t just ignore the possibility of Stark using a miracle healing formula to deal with that shrapnel in his heart, the epilogue felt very artificial, especially as we all know there’ll be more from the Avengers yet and the film appends a very Transformers the Movie ‘Tony Stark will return’ anyway.

Guy Pearce does a brilliant turn as a man transformed over the course of 13 years, and both Jon Favreau (director of the first two films) and Gwynyth Paltrow doing a lot in limited screen time. And the naturalistic acting of Ty Simpkins, with all the ums and ahs and gabbled lines of a Downey Jr, will very possibly lead to a long and accomplished career. James Badge Dale puts in some gangster swagger, but he has an edge that makes him very compelling to watch. Of course, Stan Lee makes his appearance, and it’s one of the funniest yet, and they get Mark Ruffalo in for a silly stinger scene at the end.

I have to say, though, it does seem to me that this Christmassy film ought to have been released at Christmas. 

Evil Dead (2013)

1981 isn’t that long ago, but The Evil Dead is certainly dated. The remake may feel a little redundant, but it’s going to bring horror fans in and put bums on seats, that’s for sure. A bit of a cult classic, the original is perhaps better-remembered than it deserves, but I understood the motivation and the financing behind the reboot.

Unfortunately, with the quirky humour replaced by a po-faced refusal to acknowledge how the plot (ancient evil unleashed by affable young people in a secluded cabin thanks to vague evil magic in artefacts) has become cliché enough that it underpinned Cabin in the Woods, and the attempts to scare replaced by post-saw attempts to make you cringe with the visceral depictions of extremely painful acts, it mostly just felt dull. I’ve always found torture porn on the lame side, and if there’s no underlying psychological element, which here was at a bare minimum, it’s just not very interesting.

And the character types were not very likeable. I’m not going to like a drug addict, a jock, a geeky stoner guy, a firm female doctor-type and a token girlfriend unless they’re more than those archetypes, and none of them are. There was more of interest in the 2-minute prologue than in the entire remainder of the film, and the fact that when ancient evil is truly unleashed it gets only to the car park is truly anticlimactic. The only smile that the film raised was also the grim shaking-my-head sardonic one that came from realising deaths were coming in the least politically correct order possible.

Really, I couldn’t have expected much more than this. They couldn’t exactly throw out the entire plot. But I certainly expected to be much more entertained than I was.