Kosinski is a sci-fi director to keep an eye on. After face-lifting Tron through a philosophical 2010 sequel, here he creates an extremely intelligent version of a famous (but lousy) 1990s alien invasion sci-fi, by telling the story of a couple who after succeeding an apocalyptic battle with aliens, stay behind to maintain drones that secure the remains of a devastated Earth. Twist after twist after satisfying twist, makes you wonder about the components of human identity, and what is defined as "us" as opposed to "them". I'm eager to see what Kosinski has in store for us next.
PS: Sina and Mohi, you were right. This was better than After Earth.
Mo says:
Agree with you in your facebook's comment that it cheers up sci-fic fans absolutely! however, I think it's a mixture of some best of everything which were told us already. Don't you think ?those drone & space battles as exact copies of star wars ships and scenes,so familiar plot and elements,.... let me bring the note of Peter Travis in Rolling stone . I agree with this part of his idea:
ReplyDelete"Get ready to play "Name That Reference." Tom Cruise stars as Jack Harper, the fighter pilot (Top Gun) charged with eliminating any leftover aliens and protecting the drones at work on a hydroelectric energy plant. He's the Chosen One (The Matrix). There are hints of mind-tampering (Total Recall) as Jack and Vika (Andrea Riseborough), his British partner and bedmate, take orders from a computer named Sally, a magnolia-voiced Melissa Leo (think HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey). Vika stays in the glass bubble she and Jack use as home base. Is Vika real (Blade Runner)? She does get jealous when Jack discovers Julia (Olga Kurylenko), a beauty who reminds him of his past (Inception) when the Empire State Building still stood (Planet of the Apes). It takes a roving band of humans (The Matrix Reloaded), led by Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, to spark a climactic battle that has Jack seeing double (Avatar). For all the bells and whistles – an electronic score by M83, a screen-busting Imax presentation and Cruise going full throttle – Oblivion feels arid and antiseptic, untouched by human hands. Bummer."
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"Spoiler !
I read the IMDB synopsis to better understanding of the plot.At last it was the clone of Jack coming back home? Did you get the same? I thought he is real.He had not the abrasion on his nose but it was 3 years passed! even it was the sword's wound,it had been healed!
Spoiler alert!
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of Travis' references, except the "Inception" one - I think that's too far-fetched. But he fails to mention the most important movie reference: "Independence Day"! The entire concept of infiltrating the mother ship in a suicidal mission at the end was taken right out of ID4.
I've seen in reviews mainly the critics who didn't like the movie are the ones who didn't understand the story. Apparently the IMDb synopsis didn't get it either. In the middle of the movie, Morgan Freeman clearly explains that the aliens had created thousands of "perfect" warriors out of the original Jack and Vika who were trapped by aliens (showed in flashbacks at the end of the movie), and released them on Earth to destroy any remaining humans. That's why at the end when Jack goes into the mother ship, he sees thousands of himself being cloned on the walls (reminiscent of "The Matrix"), and that's why the story is so amazing: the original Jack is already dead, and there are thousands of Jack clones around Earth, who are told never to enter the neighboring "radiation" zones, because they might see another of their own clone and realize this is all a huge trick. The only "normal" humans, are the scavengers (lead by Morgan Freeman) who are being killed by the drones, which the "Jack"s are on Earth just to maintain them.
Isn't that an great story? It explains why the main Jack had a cut on his nose, and the second Jack didn't. Actually, I thought that was a simple but clever way to differentiate the two Jacks for the viewer. It's the obvious reason the camera zoomed so many times on the first Jack's cut nose.
But I found it curious Jack feeling Earth to be his home ... if though he's merely a clone. Seriously, what do we define as "home"? This message should especially strike hard with immigrants to any country: no matter how long you've been away, even if you weren't born in that country, you still think about it as "home".
Why?
A question . when you say the original Jack is already dead , you mean that jack with cut on the nose and whom we saw through the movie was a clone as well ?
ReplyDelete* to answer your question question , I define the home is somewhere brings you up security & piece of mind and respect you as a human and value your thought ,feeling and your identity.it never humiliate your belief or ignore your rights or insult your intelligent as a human. No matter , you were born there or not ,the place where I and my family are calm and safe is defined home to me.
No, the original (human) Jack is the younger dark-haired Tom Cruise they show with Vika in a space shuttle at the end of movie in flashbacks (year 2017), who at the last moment tells his sleeping wife (in the spacepod) to remember him. All other Jacks in the movie are clones - both cut-nose and healthy-nose.
ReplyDeleteI guess you need to watch the movie again!
(PS: "Home is where you are missed.")
Yes I guess so. I saw a low quality version in the internet. Anyway,thank you so much for clarification.
ReplyDelete