Oblivion

[Marvin]

she can be with who she wants to be. but i think it is wrong that she could be with new version of Jack. t:

I suppose I was just nudged when you wrote this little gem.

Kosinski in the last 4 years completely failed as a storyteller and doesnt even realize it?

It's not easy to objectify art, story telling in particular, but we will try, god help us we will try.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Look the fundamental premise of the movie makes no sense. That's a problem. All the visuals and music in the world, can't make up for that.

Tron: Legacy had its problems (dropped plot lines, and a few unanswered questions), but the core of the movie worked.

Spoiler

Why would this advanced AI need to spend what must be considerable resources cloning Tom Cruise and Andrea Riseborough over over again, while maintaining an intricate charade just for them to repair drones? Repairs which apparently the alien AI apparently can do by itself?

That's never explained. Presumably because there is no valid explanation.

 

[Marvin]

Spoiler

Why would this advanced AI need to spend what must be considerable resources cloning Tom Cruise and Andrea Riseborough over over again, while maintaining an intricate charade just for them to repair drones? Repairs which apparently the alien AI apparently can do by itself?

That's never explained. Presumably because there is no valid explanation.

The simplest answer being, because it needed to...

You can presume all you want but what you presume will of course either be limited by what you want, or limited by your imagination.

Like I said before, the same thing could have been said about the Matrix, the only difference I suppose, is that there is a scene in said matrix that ends with a Duracell product placement. The same question could just as easily be presented..."yea but why..." I mean why not just any of the other indigenous life on earth. Maybe the machines saw an irony there...not really an issue at that point in the film imo.

I personally didn't find a problem with it, but you're entitled to your opinion.

A passionate human with a heart of gold and his side kick perhaps make for a more effective team than another drone...which would most likely need another drone to fix it and so on and so fourth.

 

[Marvolo]

The simplest answer being, because it needed to...

You can presume all you want but what you presume will of course either be limited by what you want, or limited by your imagination.

Like I said before, the same thing could have been said about the Matrix, the only difference I suppose, is that there is a scene in said matrix that ends with a Duracell product placement. The same question could just as easily be presented..."yea but why..." I mean why not just any of the other indigenous life on earth. Maybe the machines saw an irony there...not really an issue at that point in the film imo.

I personally didn't find a problem with it, but you're entitled to your opinion.

A passionate human with a heart of gold and his side kick perhaps make for a more effective team than another drone...which would most likely need another drone to fix it and so on and so fourth.

You make a good point about the Matrix. That movie falls to pieces when you start questioning the machines decisions. The humans the machines bred would have been far better batteries if they would have created them in a lobotimized state. No need for the matrix if the human mind doesn't exist. Yet, they breed humans at full mental capacity then have to create some elaborate simulation to keep them happy. If it was necessary to keep them at full mental capacity then they could have written a code into them that would not allow them to consider leaving the matrix. Every time a human thought that everything might be a simulation the idea is wiped and to distract them they suddenly remember some important thing they must do. This would keep the humans running in circles in their own mind. Anytime humanitry starts to go off the tracks do a massive wipe and reset them to a time before they went off the rails. Same thing we do when a computer starts acting up. Anything would have been better than what the machines did.

Yet, they did what they did so maybe there was a reason for it. Some can go with it , and some can't. If the movie entertains me enough I can go along with whatever they are serving up.

 

[DorneyDave]

Another thing about this movie I didn't care for was the character development outside of Cruise. The resistance members were very underdeveloped, I didn't care about who Jack was saving because I didn't know a single thing about them. Just because you throw a little kid in the crowd at the last second for Jack to see doesn't undo a whole movie of underdeveloped characters. Same with Cruise's wife, Freeman's character. Hell, even the main villian was such a weak character. The story gives us so little while talking so much, that's unforgivable in my opinion.

 

[terry78]

Kosinski wrote the graphic novel as a little sci-fi thing, so take that as you will. They gave him the money to film it, made his dream come true.

 

[THANOSRULES]

I thought it was a very solid Sci-Fi flick, I can understand why some dont like it...it did harken back a bit to those "depressing 70s sci fi flick with guys in turtle necks" ..but as someone said very Philip Dick etc..and well done..I enjoyed it.


As for some of the plot gripes

Spoiler

-No one ever said the TET was omnipotent and many are making wild assumptions. Clearly the TET was not able to manufacture enough drones to destroy a healthy earth...we know of 170 or so drones by the numbering and the characters took down 10 or twelve of them in the film..they were pretty powerful, but not anywhere near invincible.

not to mention it was pretty clear the TET destroyed the moon to wreak havoc with earth and depopulate the planet using what came from that.

So the clone army makes sense, it is likely this was a cheaper and easier way to build an invasion force. This is an "assumption" but one i think we can assume.

It's likely that the humans were needed to repair these drones. The TET may have been able to reanimate the broken drone , but it was already stated it was mission ready and only missing armor. The TET had operational control of the drones.

The TET was very concerned with the drones and they were clearly a limited resource. Victoria even complains about the time it was taking to get new armor for the broken drone.

As for the TET "letting" Jack enter her inner sanctum..this is probably the most legit plot hole, but the TET had utilized thousands of these clones before, it's possible it just felt betrayal was not conceivable.

As for those calling out Kosinski ..I think he is establishing a nice rep for highly stylized films with amazing visuals,sounds and mood that are works of art and thought provoking. I fully understand the flow of his films may not be everyone's cup of tea. He's basically developing into the Wes Anderson of Sci-Fi...and I really like his stuff.

 

[Thundercrack85]

He does great visuals, but the writing is just bad. He's like George Lucas. Man needs to leave writing to writers.

 

[Kane52630]

Michael Arndt (who's doing the next Star Wars movie btw) reworked on the screenplay.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Michael Arndt (who's doing the next Star Wars movie btw) reworked on the screenplay.

Oh hell.

 

[TheVileOne]

Michael Arndt is one of the credited writers on this movie .

 

[THANOSRULES]

I had no problems with the dialogue

 

[terry78]

If WB ever decides to move on with The Jetsons I'd like Kosinski to take it on. Just to see how he'd do with sci-fi on a more colorful comedic scale, yet still keep it as epic as he did Tron and this one. The current draft was kind of an allegory about relying too much on technology.

 

[Still Wynning]

Oh hell.

Michael Arndt is one of the credited writers on this movie .

To be fair, they also had some guys from Pixar do some consulting on the script for Tron: Legacy, and that film (as much as I like it) still didn't benefit much from it.

I still don't think this bodes badly for the next Star Wars film. Michael Arndt is a very passionate Star Wars fan and his past work is pretty solid. The idea for this film was Joe Kosinski's from the start, and script polishing can only do so much to improve an already weak script.

 

[Kane52630]

The script was far from weak but hey I guess some didn't get it.

 

[Solidus]

Oh hell.

Eh I would not worry about that. he was the final "re-writer" they also had William Monahan (another academy winning writer) that re-wrote another draft. The initial draft was/"graphic novel was done by Joseph Kosinski and Karl Gajdusek from what I read. Arndt does better I think by himself and Toy Story 3/Little Miss Sunshine I think shows more of that. Sometimes when you get too many writers in the kitchen, it just never really works out. Sometimes it does if there is a strong outline/story. But I think some of the main ideas is where the film really suffered. A lot of the flaws from this came again from the same exact flaws of Tron: Legacy and that did not have the same writers. I kinda feel that he "the director" just needs to work on certain things.

I just got back from seeing it. It was not bad, but not great either. To add what was above, I did not find the "dialogue" to really be that bad, it was just a lot of ideas that kinda just went no/where or really ambiguous. Though the visuals and the music again were just amazing. It was a visual feast to be seen on the big screen for sure. But other than that I was not super impressed. But still entertained enough. Too bad I could not have seen this on IMAX. I bet it was even better on that. I may have to get that soundtrack though for sure.

Oh I better rate it lol. I'd say a 6.5/10.

 

[DorneyDave]

The script was far from weak but hey I guess some didn't get it.

Oh I understood it, it just wasn't even remotely gripping or entertaining. Too many ideas and not enough focus in my opinion.

 

[Poeman]

I liked it, but it was only above average...Nothing unique about this sci-fi film, they just rehashed an idea from another great sci-fi film that I loved

 

[Thundercrack85]

The script was far from weak but hey I guess some didn't get it.

You make it sound like there was something to get.

 

[Project862006]

 

[Superhero 101]

Went to go see it and I enjoyed the film it kept me guessing what was going to happen next and I didn't expect the twist until I realized the scene when it was about to happen. cruise gave a good performance and the direction was pretty good the visuals were pretty good as well story was a little confusing at times when the characters would narrarate about the past but It wasn't t too bad I'd say its a good movie and I give it a 7.5/10

 

[combocaz]

Saw it last night, i thought it was ok. 6/10 for me. Visuals were stunning but other than that it was nothing special.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

Visuals and music were incredible as was the concept/story. I think Tom Cruise is horrible though - especially his delivery of every single goddamn line. They all sound so cheesy when he delivers them. The sound design was great too, but I was a bit disappointed in the Atmos mix - I guess it's still kind of new though. The cinematography was great - the Cinealta f65 is stunning - very crisp. I normally love the look of film, but considering the context of this story, I think this definitely worked. I think the characters were VERY underdeveloped and there was a LOT of missed potential on the plot and questions raised (cloning alone, was BARELY touched on but it's a HUGE topic. This sort of thing was apparent in Tron Legacy as well). I hope Kosinski can learn to take this thought provoking topics and flesh them out in future films.

In the end I give it a 7/10.

 

[LostSon88]

One of the most confusing movies i've seen in a long time.

Even as we were about an hour and 30 minutes in, I still had no idea WTF was going on. Not saying it was bad but not saying it was good either. I honestly need to re-watch it.

The whole thing left me absolutely lost.

 

[dark_b]

The script was far from weak but hey I guess some didn't get it.