Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski)

[Dukefrukem]

Oh man, such great music. Someone find me the ending credits song.

[Stay Puft]

Oh man, such great music. Someone find me the ending credits song.

I could have sworn ETM posted it in this thread, but I must be thinking of another thread?

Anyways, here it is:

[Dukefrukem]

Thanks.

[

Show Spoiler

Why would a robot need to suck resources off our planet? What do they need water for?

]

[Morris Schæffer]

Thanks.

[

Show Spoiler

Why would a robot need to suck resources off our planet? What do they need water for?

]

Irrelevant no? Why do the Borg need to assimilate other civilizations?

[Dukefrukem]

The same reason the Reapers need to conquer civilizations....

But a robot wanting water? Is weird.

[max314]

If you can steel your concentration away from playing "Spot the Movie", Oblivion will haunt you as a beautiful and surprisingly intimate piece of mega budget filmmaking.

★★★★★

[Dukefrukem]

This is another one of those movies that would be considered a bomb if the intentional market didn't propel it into the upper $200 mil.

[Thirdmango]

I liked this movie a lot. I love the mixing of like 8 stereotypes in one bowl and mixing them all together. Cool stuff.

[Grouchy]

Didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as some of you. The complete rip-offs of different movies weren't the worst part, but the languid pace and predictability of absolutely everything.

I'd watch any other film from Kosinski because I trust the guy. But this was bad.

[Mal]

If this movie wasn't so visually impressive and entertaining in its first hour, it legit would be one of the worst movies I've seen in years. I was rooting for Tom Cruise, but then Morgan Freeman showed up and it was like the script gave up on its ideas to spell everything out.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Yeah, this movie spells out too many things too clearly too many times, when I think that inference and simply showing us the information would've worked. Freeman's shpiel while Cruise works on the drone in the Underground Lair is dispiriting. And as with Tron Legacy, Kosinski remains a weirdly humorless director, which hurts the humanism he clearly thinks his movies contain.

But it's still a pretty picture, retaining the glossy home magazine sheen of Legacy and offering nice visual twists on the usual post-apoc imagery. I also liked the none-too-subtle DNA references in the design of the rustic home's windmill and the spiral staircase in the control tower domiciles. Also, is this the most terrorist-sympathetic Hollywood film, like, ever? Technologically advanced force comes in, wars desert land, recruits locals to aid in its drone-aided police force, until one person remembers his heritage and saves the day with a suicide bomb? I mean, props for taking a premise that would wet Osama's panties and releasing it to mass audiences.

Or maybe it's just anti-war.

Regardless, the drones kneecap the film to a degree, since they're not interesting villains and don't inspire anything in the humans besides gloomy apprehension. The reveal with the alien intelligence as being a big-ass triangle is also disappointing, although it's a nice visual touch that she's in the center of a womb full of Tom Cruise eggs, each of the clones no doubt ready to pop out and start running and shouting questions.

So, I don't know, a B? B-? How about a B.

[Ezee E]

Ugh, once Morgan Freeman shows up (not his fault), this goes to a heap. Lame.

Score is pretty awesome though.

[Dukefrukem]

Ugh, once Morgan Freeman shows up (not his fault), this goes to a heap. Lame.

Score is pretty awesome though.

And some of the set work.

[Watashi]

The score is so fucking good. Might be my favorite of this decade.

[[ETM]]

The score is so fucking good. Might be my favorite of this decade.

Martinez almost disowned it because the studio kept demanding "more epic".

It did introduce a wider audience to Susanne Sundfør, which is awesome.

[Henry Gale]

Martinez almost disowned it because the studio kept demanding "more epic".

Yeah, which basically translated to "more typical action-movie strings, bigger percussion" and "Do what we're more comfortable with hearing" in the end. I like the score significantly more than even Gonzalez seems to, but I do imagine what it could've sounded like if him, Trapanese and even Kosinski got their way.

I mean, Kosinski said he hired M83 because he first wrote the outline and earliest drafts back when Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts had just come out and was all he was listening to as a soundtrack of sorts for his process, so once he was setting up the final film he knew he wanted exactly strike me as the same sound. Obviously the final product doesn't exactly remind me of that album (except maybe as a loose tribute of sorts to it with arrangements on a way more towering scale), but again, imagine if it did...

It did introduce a wider audience to Susanne Sundfør, which is awesome.

Absolutely. Gonzalez basically said in an interview (maybe the Pitchfork one?) at the time that theme/title track was the only piece he was given complete freedom with. It is exceptional.

Anyone heard his score for a film his brother made? The things I've heard from it are really strong:

[transmogrifier]

I can't believe this has a positive reputation here. It is one of the shiniest, hollowest, nothings of a film I have ever seen. It is like a scan of a photocopy of a fax of a polaroid of a movie. In a way, it is an absolute wonder of a movie; 100 minutes without a single affecting moment (an emotion, a plot point, a moment of tension, etc.) or reason to exist.

[megladon8]

I can't believe this has a positive reputation here. It is one of the shiniest, hollowest, nothings of a film I have ever seen. It is like a scan of a photocopy of a fax of a polaroid of a movie. In a way, it is an absolute wonder of a movie; 100 minutes without a single affecting moment (an emotion, a plot point, a moment of tension, etc.) or reason to exist.

Is it at least pretty? I've heard it's really pretty, and that the music is awesome (I love M83).

[Dead & Messed Up]

It's definitely pretty. Kosinski is one of the best image-creators in sci-fi right now.

[[ETM]]

Different standards, I guess. It had affecting moments.

[transmogrifier]

I don't think it looks great. Washed out and sterile. I can't remember the score one way or the other.

[[ETM]]

Well, that's okay too, I guess.

[Stay Puft]

Anyone heard his score for a film his brother made? The things I've heard from it are really strong

I've heard the whole thing. It's kinda what I imagine Digital Shades Vol. 2 would sound like if it existed. A lot of brief tracks, play more like sketches than songs, lots of half-formed ideas... hit or miss but still with a lot of good moments circulating around in there, certainly worth a listen.

[megladon8]

This was pretty darn good.

[Dukefrukem]

All this Tron talk made me rewatch this today. Yes the story is thinly laid out and not a novel idea by any stretch... but god damn the camera and music work move this thing along. Can't remember the last time I wanted to watch a movie strictly for these types of technical reasons and barely care about the story.