Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinski recently conspired to deliver the near-perfect Top Gun: Maverick, one of the finest blockbusters of the modern era that rode a wave of critical acclaim all the way to almost $1.5 billion at the box office, ensuring their second collaboration turned out a great deal better than the first time they teamed up on Oblivion. 312o2e

Not that the ambitious sci-fi epic was a disaster, but a great deal more was expected from the world’s biggest movie star making a rare detour into the genre, especially when the visual mastermind behind Tron: Legacy was at the helm. Once again, though, Kosinski’s stunning visuals failed to paper over a narrative that was severely lacking.

A 54 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a $287 million take at the box office on production costs of $130 million is almost the very definition of solid-if-unspectacular for a project with Cruise front and center. Starting off strong with the leading man embracing his lonely existence, the introduction of more familiar sci-fi trappings and action sequences ultimately conspires to send Oblivion down a route marked “seen it all before,” something we weren’t expecting given the stellar opening act.

Nonetheless, shiny big budget spectacle and A-list superstars remain bulletproof on streaming, which is no doubt one of the reasons why Oblivion has conspired to fly onto the Prime Video Top 10 in a dozen countries spanning three continents this weekend, per FlixPatrol.

It’s decent, but nowhere near as good as it could have been, which is a major missed opportunity when you consider what Cruise and Kosinski went on to cook up almost a decade later.

Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick is the biggest hit of the year by a mile, racking up over $1.3 billion at the box office to secure a place as one of the highest-grossing movies of all-time, while near-universal acclaim has also seen it justly deemed as one of the finest blockbusters of the modern era, with a Best Picture nomination at next year’s Academy Awards looking likely. As a result, fans have taken to revisiting the duo’s first collaboration on Oblivion in their numbers.

By the standards of both big budget sci-fi and Cruise star vehicles, the ambitious epic was fairly underwhelming on both the critical and commercial front. It was far from a flop after earning $287 million on a $120 million budget, nor was it panned as respective Rotten Tomatoes score of 53 and 61 percent will attest. Instead, it was kind of just… there.

The visuals are regularly jaw-dropping, and Cruise is as reliably solid in the lead role as you’d expect, but Redditors have been placing Oblivion under the microscope almost a decade on from its initial April 2013 release to reassess and reappraise the existential intergalactic adventure.

Up until Maverick knocked everything out of the park, Kosinski was regularly labeled as one of the best visualists in Hollywood, albeit one who failed to bolt a satisfactory story onto his unbridled creativity and imagination. Oblivion does fall into several of those traps, and it devolves into generic action movie territory at points, but there are some interesting thematic elements, stunning vistas, and emotionally-charged undercurrents to be found throughout.

Will Oblivion go down in history as a classic of the genre? Almost certainly not, but it may be a lot better than many people it to be.

From a purely stylistic perspective, there’s no denying that Joseph Kosinski is an incredibly talented filmmaker, but his big budget efforts have so far failed to marry jaw-dropping visuals and impressive world-building to a substantial narrative and well-developed characters.

In addition, neither Tron: Legacy nor Oblivion set the box office alight, which has raised some questions regarding his Netflix actioner Spiderhead, and his reunion with Tom Cruise in the long-delayed Top Gun: Maverick. He’s clearly won the approval of the A-list megastar, though, even if their initial collaboration left a lot to be desired.

Cruise gives a reliably strong performance in Oblivion, which is the least we were expecting when he’s required to drive the first half of the story almost entirely on his own. Jack Harper thinks he’s the last man on Earth, but he soon discovers that there are other survivors, who draw him into a battle for the fate of the entire human race.

There are plenty of big ideas and interesting thematic questions posed in Oblivion, but very few of them are answered in a particularly strong or satisfactory fashion. A 53% Rotten Tomatoes score and $287 million haul from theaters on a $120 million budget was lukewarm by Cruise’s high standards, but the existential epic has been cutting a swathe through the Netflix most-watched list so far this week.

As per FlixPatrol, Oblivion is currently the 15th most-watched title on the platform’s global charts, and it could yet continue to rise higher. Cruise is always going to be a draw on either the big or small screens, even if Kosinski’s blockbuster isn’t one of his better sci-fi star vehicles.

Tom Cruise doesn’t really tackle sci-fi all that often, but when he does, the results tend to be stellar at the very least. The A-lister has only made a handful of movies set in the genre, but they’ve each been distinctly different and taken a unique approach to the well-worn tropes audiences have become accustomed to over the decades.

Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky was a heady thriller that was equal parts psychological and existential, while his Steven Spielberg collaborations Minority Report and War of the Worlds yielded strong reviews and bumper box office. Edge of Tomorrow is comfortably one of the finest sci-fi blockbusters of the last decade, but Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion often tends to get lost in the shuffle when discussing Cruise’s recent filmography.

A Rotten Tomatoes score of 53% and a $287 million gross is middle of the road by the star’s lofty standards, with the visual polish and heady ideas on display often undercut by a script that’s painfully lacking in several important departments. Cruise is as reliable as ever in the lead, and you can never fault a Morgan Freeman performance where he’s relied on to deliver exposition in those syrupy tones of his, but Oblivion is lacking a certain spark to take it to the next level.

Nobody’s going to take issue with the visuals, which are regularly stunning, nor the impressive sense of scale and world-building on display. That being said, it just isn’t one of Cruise’s best efforts. Still, that hasn’t stopped the 2013 epic from finding a new lease of life on HBO Max, where it’s one of the most-watched titles on the platform.

back in the 90s, when people spoke exclusively via Friends quotes, and Google was still just a search engine? They were simpler times. Better times. Especially regarding video games. For a while, your precious playthings were still physical entities, encased in plastic cartridges, and the notion of ing extras for them was the stuff of science fiction. Like Velcro. And now? They’re all “gigabytes” and “update required” and “bullshit.” There’s two problems with this. Firstly, that publishers put the screws on developers to release games before they’re properly finished – because they can just send an update down the pipes a bit later – resulting in some of the most broken games ever going on sale. The second problem is that this new found ability to glue bits of games together means that publishers can also decide how much of a game they actually want to give you, and how much they want to charge you to get the rest of it later. It may be that I’m being slightly unfair. Certainly some game DLC is well thought-out, fairly priced, and really brings something new to the core experience (I’m looking at you, Far Cry: Blood Dragon). Let’s be honest though, most of the time it’s not that. It’s a twisted attempt by publishers to bend captive, fan-blind players over a barrel in order to rinse them of everything they’re worth before throwing the rotting corpse of their once-favourite franchise out the window of a moving car, once it’s no longer “viable.” Or an incentive to stop people buying used games. Either way, here’s a countdown of the seven worst offenders. Of DLC so unscrupulous that had it taken a human form, it could be cast as a Bond villain. Click on and see if you don’t agree.

No one can deny that most movie studios in Hollywood occasionally run a little low on originality. Luckily for them, there’s over a century of classic films that can provide inspiration for new ones… in addition to already-formed characters, plots and dialogue, if need be. So, it’s never a surprise when a remake gets the green light – this year alone, we’ve had many. Now and then, one of these remakes is pretty good. Other times, a remake is bad or just utterly pointless. Sometimes, they’re even masquerading as original films. us as we count off the top five best (and bottom five worst) remakes and rip-offs from the past year.

TRON: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski’s latest “original” sci-fi film Oblivion is a disappointing failure of the highest order. Tom Cruise is mostly wasted in a film that does nothing more than show off its expensive budget and fancy set pieces. Oblivion is far from original, often-times stealing from previous genre efforts entirely and rarely ever constructing an idea or thought of its own. Kosinski has grown as an action director, but fallen flat on his ass when it comes to writing a script with interesting concepts and characters that serve a purpose that’s bigger than highlighting one of the film’s impressively-shot action sequences. Jack (Tom Cruise) is a glorified janitor living in a futuristic world where Earth has been abandoned. The only thing left is the aftermath of an alien attack and Jack and a few others must work in rotating shifts to scan the globe and make sure that the maintenance drones are properly performing their day-to-day tasks. His mission is simple and it’s in that very simplicity that he constantly finds himself questioning each and every thing that is around him. He also experiences strong dreams that hint at a past that he swears he once lived. These dreams, combined with what he perceives as reality makes Jack unbalanced and confused and almost always questioning higher authority. One day while patrolling Jack discovers something that could possibly change his entire future and help give him a better understanding of his past and what it all means. Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion is the latest big-budget studio sci-fi film to deem itself as original, yet in actuality is just another genre rip-off that we’ve seen a dozen times before. Oblivion‘s biggest problem isn’t even the fact that it rips off more than one idea from previous material, but much deeper in the film’s writing, which is mostly hollow and meaningless. The film’s story is fairly basic, yet when the twists and turns start to reveal themselves you’ll have a hard time acting surprised, because almost everything is telegraphed from a mile away. Every single scene in the film has been done before, if not better. Kosinski has clearly grown as a director. The film’s action sequences are fluidly shot and displayed with a complete understanding of how to maximize any specific scene given such a budget, yet almost every piece of action is cold and lifeless, because nothing really matters. Tom Cruise’s Jack is just another simplified version of a character that Cruise has played before, only this time he’s much more of an “everyday” type of guy versus his usual bad ass persona. Cruise does fine work as Jack, but is never challenged by his director. He clearly knows how to play Jack in his sleep and he does so with ease, but the film never reaches a point when its director is called to challenge his stars. Cruise seems more than willing to go the distance, yet Kosinski and his team of writers do nothing for him. They fill up most of the film with Jack cruising around in his aircraft searching for answers, but rarely finding them. And when he does, they’re obvious and carry little impact. All that being said, the film looks and sounds spectacular. Kosinski fully utilizes the budget to give us some of the best-looking CGI of the year and he follows that closely with a score mostly composed by M83 that is reminiscent of the techno-fused Terminator days. Seriously, the set pieces are large and seem to go on forever, while the techno-fused score is a refreshing listen in a world full of traditionally composed films. But that doesn’t save Oblivion from being a disappointing failure that’s predictable and almost always afraid to take any sort of risks. Director Joseph Kosinski clearly has a visual eye for constructing a sci-fi film that looks like it was lifted out of the 70’s, yet he completely misses the mark when it comes to capturing that same slow and steady pacing and reveal that made those films so unique and interesting. Oblivion is typical Hollywood garbage on the inside, surrounded by an outer shell of stunning photography and excellent sound work. Once you see past the shiny effects you’ll quickly realize that Oblivion is yet another failed attempt at becoming something a little deeper than what we’re used to. Universal’s 1080p video transfer is remarkably clean and mostly spotless. Black levels are always consistent, while the film’s lighter color palette boasts impressive clarity. Everything about this presentation is densely detailed and always stable. The 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is a winner too. This effectively mixed track comes pouring onto the screen with action sequences that are well-mixed and highly-detailed. Dialogue remains planted on the front channels, while the back ones open up for surrounding noise that is always loud and active. Here’s a list of bonus material found in this combo pack:

• Audio Commentary
• Promise of a New World (HD)
• Deleted Scenes (HD)
• Isolated M83 Score (HD)
• DVD Copy
• UltraViolet Digital Copy
• Digital Copy

Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion is a disappointing failure. The film’s visuals are top-notch and the score composed by M83 is an engaging experience, but the film’s surface-level beauty rarely makes up for the lack of a well-written script. Even Tom Cruise can’t save a film that looks pretty, but is as hollow and pointless as most other studio affairs. Joseph Kosinski unfortunately still has a ways to go before his writing is considered polished enough to direct, even if he’s advanced a lot as a director since his last feature-length film. Universal’s Blu-Ray release is pretty solid and even comes with enough bonus material to make this worth a blind purchase, but beware of the film’s disappointing quality before spending your hard earned dollars on just another forgettable piece of modern sci-fi. [springboard type=”video” id=”627013″ player=”wgtc007″ width=”600″ height=”350″ ]

Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion may be familiar science fiction, but that in no way prevents it from being top-notch science fiction. It engages the senses, creates a powerful sense of spectacle, features a brilliantly designed and fully realized futuristic setting, and is, most importantly, extremely thoughtful and entirely earnest in its creation of character and presentation of theme. None of it is groundbreaking – unless this is your first sci-fi film, you have seen this narrative and thematic territory covered before, sometimes better, sometimes worse – but if the filmmaking is ionate and the execution effective, I will never knock a film for being derivative. So it goes for Oblivion. Originality matters little when the experience is this rich and rewarding. The film is Kosinski’s second, and proves that the clear potential he showed in Tron: Legacy, his debut, was no mere fluke. Visually, Legacy was imaginative and awe-inspiring, an absolute aesthetic marvel from top to bottom, and while the story came up short, the film had me feeling sure that its director had something great in him, waiting only for the right story and circumstances to come along. Oblivion is not quite ‘great,’ but it is a remarkable step forward for Kosinski, one that puts his truly extraordinary aptitude for cinematic craftsmanship to use in service of a compelling, multi-layered story with a poignant human element at its core. Exposition, however, continues to be one of Kosinski’s weak spots, as Oblivion opens with one of the longest exposition dumps in recent memory. Related through narration by star Tom Cruise, we learn that Earth has been attacked, its moon destroyed and landscape ravaged, by an alien race called the ‘Scavengers.’ Humanity won the ensuing war, but at a cost – the use of nuclear arms made Earth inhospitable, and the survivors have moved off world to colonize Titan, a moon of Saturn. Cruise’s character, Jack Harper, is one of the last humans left, he and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) managing the sophisticated technology that gathers Earth’s water for energy. It is a dense, detailed set-up to relate entirely through narration, and though the opening does not fall flat – this is an interesting premise, and is set to absolutely fantastic visuals – it feels as if Kosinski lacks faith in his own skill. For in the scenes that follow, all the pertinent information from the introduction will be shown to us, rather than told, as Harper executes his normal routine. Once the exposition is over, the film becomes properly fascinating, for we are immersed in a spectacularly designed world populated by characters worthy of emotional investment. Oblivion is a terrific exercise in world building, and I hope that next time, Kosinski trusts both himself and the audience enough to forego formal exposition. What Oblivion achieves in transporting the audience to another time and place really cannot be understated. This is the most aesthetically accomplished film of 2013 so far, one where every single visual is stunningly rich and deeply thoughtful. The best science-fiction landscapes are the ones where every detail – each device, costume, vehicle, piece of furniture, etc. – seems rooted in a larger cultural and technological whole, and Oblivion absolutely lives up to this ideal. The production design and visual effects are so meticulous and visually enticing – every last penny of the $120 million budget is put to good and obvious use – that it is easy to take for granted, but they are key to what makes Oblivion so successful in building its palpable, believable world. Moreover, the film simply looks and sounds breathtaking. The music, by Joseph Trapanese and electronic band M83, is cut from the same cloth as Daft Punk’s work on Tron: Legacy (Trapanese was an assistant composer on that film), and is even more effective in crafting tension, inspiring awe, and underlining emotion. It may not be quite as bombastic and attention grabbing as the Tron soundtrack, but that can be seen as a good thing – this functions better as a film score to my ears, and is the best set of compositions so far this year. Similarly, the cinematography is absolutely marvelous, a much better showcase for Director of Photography Claudio Miranda’s talents than his overrated, Oscar-winning work on Life of Pi. The camerawork creates an immersive sense of depth and scale and is more than adept at producing true wonder, an achievement that should not be taken lightly. It is even more pleasing in IMAX, where the matte is opened to somewhere in the vicinity of 1.85:1, and Kosinski proves, as he did on Tron: Legacy, that he has an intuitive understanding of large-format photography. I very much hope he uses real IMAX cameras one day, for few are better at taking advantage of the space an IMAX screen affords. What really matters, though, is that all this visual work goes towards something narratively meaningful. Oblivion may take cues from a dozen different sci-fi stories, but it never feels ‘cobbled together.’ The screenplay – officially credited to Kosinski, Karl Gajdusek, William Monahan, and Michael Arndt, the latter two being some of the bigger hitters working in Hollywood today – is very strong, constantly rooting its big ideas and expansive story in the arcs and emotions of its main characters. The opening introduction suggests a vast and impersonal plot, and while the film’s endgame is extremely substantial, this is mostly a character piece for Cruise and his co-stars as the central figures grapple with issues of identity, morality, love, and memory. It all feels earnest and hits home effectively, and while I would not call the film ‘provocative,’ it has moments that are intellectually and emotionally challenging, and is consistently intelligent throughout. The pace, too, is razor-sharp, moving at exactly the right speed to immerse us in this world and familiarize us with the characters, and allowing the major secrets and twists to come out organically as the film moves along. Tom Cruise displays his usual strong, confident screen presence, and as I watched, I realized just how much I love and respect the work he consistently does on film. The character of Jack Harper is not a major departure for him – a tad more vulnerable, perhaps, and less adept in action heroics – but whenever Cruise walks on screen, I believe him 100 percent, no matter the part. Oblivion is no exception. Cruise is a ‘movie star’ in the truest sense, and still one of the best working today. Olga Kurylenko is an actress who seems to improve with every role she is given, and her part here is an interesting one that I do not feel disposed towards spoiling. The same goes to Morgan Freeman, who employs his wonderful voice beautifully in his relatively limited screen-time. But aside from Cruise, the best performance comes from Andrea Riseborough, who has do a lot of dramatic and expositional heavy lifting as Harper’s romantic and professional partner, Victoria, and pulls it all off with aplomb. Oblivion is one of the very best films to arrive so far in a highly disappointing year for movies, and I suspect it will give some of this summer’s major offerings a run for their money. If the next few months were not entirely devoted to franchise releases, I would think Oblivion would work just as well as a major summer tent-pole. Universal has something special on their hands, if not something revelatory, and I can imagine audiences responding enthusiastically. This is smart, exciting science fiction, the likes of which American cinema only achieves occasionally, and definitively marks Joseph Kosinski as a major directorial talent. [springboard type=”video” id=”627013″ player=”wgtc007″ width=”600″ height=”350″ ]

Olga Kurylenko may not be an A-list talent just yet, but she’s definitely starting to prove herself amongst the Hollywood elite. After earning a role as the Bond girl in Quantum of Solace, she went onto grab parts in To The Wonder, Seven Psychopaths and Centurion. Now, with serious buzz surrounding her name and many in the industry starting to sit up and take notice of the Ukrainian born actress, her latest film, Oblivion, is about to make its way into theatres. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, and starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, the sci-fi epic tells the story of Jack Harper (Cruise), a drone repairman stationed on Earth. While on a mission to extract resources, he rescues a woman named Julia (Kurylenko) from a crashed spaceship. Though a stranger at first, her arrival sets off a series of events that make Jack question everything he thought he knew. Recently, Kurylenko sat down with us for an interview at the press day for the film in Los Angeles. While there she discussed what it was like working with Tom Cruise, what appealed to her about the character and more. Check it out below. We Got This Covered: This film is Joseph Kosinski’s baby in a way. When it came to the role, did he give you a lot of free reign to further expand and develop your character more than he ever imagined. Or was it kind of the opposite? Olga Kurylenko: Well, it’s always about teamwork. We spoke a lot and had a lot of meetings between myself Joseph and Tom. We would discuss the characters and their backstories and flesh it all out. We grew the characters together. We spoke a lot. We just had a lot of conversations. It was just a question of exchanging ideas and talking. That’s quite often the case. We Got This Covered: What’s the biggest challenge you faced playing your character in this film and what attracted you to the role? Olga Kurylenko: I loved the fact that there was this mystery to the character and that I couldn’t reveal everything about her right away. The fact that she had to uncover her story throughout the story intrigued me. She’s a completely different character in the end than in the begininning. All that mystery that surrounded the character was probably the toughest part of playing her, but I loved that element of the character. We Got This Covered: You’ve worked with two of the biggest movie stars in the world (Daniel Craig and Tom Cruise), can you compare and contrast working with each of them? Olga Kurylenko: Well, one thing that they have in common is that they are both action heroes. They are involved a lot in action films and they both do their stunts by themselves. They train a lot, physically work a lot and are very hard working. Tom though, in a way, he’s fascinating. He knows how to do everything. It’s very inspiring to work with him. Don’t try to outshine him though. There was a stun guy who tried to compete in running with Tom and Tom ran much faster than him. It was also very interesting working with him creatively. He gives so much to the other actors on set, he’s such a generous partner. I’ve never seen him just sit in his trailer. He’s there for every scene, he never leaves the set, even if I told him that I didn’t need him. He’s involved 100% and that’s a wonderful thing. He’s just so ive and helped me through a number of my stunts. He’s not just an actor who is there to read his lines, he knows how things work and you feel safe with him. Continue reading on the next page…

Filmmaker Joseph Kosinski follows up his directorial debut, TRON: Legacy, with an even more ambitious science fiction film, Oblivion. It takes place in a distant future where aliens have shattered the Moon, which in turn nearly destroyed Earth, and Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) spends his days repairing drones that are designed to protect the planet from another alien invasion. But one day Jack meets up with a mysterious woman named Julia Rusakova (Olga Kurylenko) who alerts him to a past he wasn’t aware he had, and he soon calls into question all that he was led to believe in. We met up with Kosinski at the Oblivion press conference last week, which was held at the back lot of Universal Studios, and he talked with us at length about his new film. He discussed the incredible score, the fantastic production design, the challenges he faced while writing the film and more. Check it out below. We Got This Covered: How does the finished film compare to what you originally envisioned, and is there anything you wish you had known on the first day of shooting that you learned in the process of making the film? Joseph Kosinski: I wrote this story, the first version of it, eight years ago. I thought it would be my first film so I wrote it as a contained cast. The Sky Tower was going to be the main setting. There was always this story of drone repairman Jack Harper and his journey of redemption, but I never would’ve imagined eight years ago that I would be able to make it on this scale; going to Iceland, New York City, building all the incredible sets and vehicles and getting the cast that I was able to get for this film. But I will say in the end that it’s the same story I originally wrote. Despite the spectacle of the final product, the story of Jack Harper has remained unchanged so that’s something I’m really proud of. In of what can I tell myself on day one of shooting, I don’t know. I would say it’s all going to be fine, don’t worry, but it’s a lot of work and there’s a lot of challenges. Some of the experiences I’ve had in this movie of shooting on a mountaintop in Iceland, working with Tom Cruise and seeing him and Morgan Freeman together were just spectacular. It’s kind of what I always dreamed that filmmaking would be like. We Got This Covered: What’s great about Oblivion is that you are not afraid to let the audience wonder and you pose questions. Most of the time, every movie has to be clear, otherwise you’ll confuse the audience, but you didn’t do that here. How were you able to pull that off? Joseph Kosinski: Well you don’t want to make a confusing movie. I wanted to make sure that people understood the story which is not a straightforward story, at least in the context of watching the movie. You never want to intentionally make a confusing movie, but I love movies that ask big questions but don’t necessarily answer everything. I like people walking out thinking about something. I wanted this to be a movie that people would talk about and debate and argue over and discuss and think about a couple of days later, and hopefully great science fiction films help you think about issues that relate to yourself whether it’s “what’s my purpose,” “why am I here” and “what is it that makes me who I am?” Those kinds of questions I think my favorite science fiction films ask. We Got This Covered: The film’s score by M83 is fantastic. How did you get them on board? Joseph Kosinski: I I was listening their song Unrecorded. I think it’s on the Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts album which came out in 2005 and they were relatively unknown back then, but I listening to that track while I was writing this treatment. It was such a great experience working with Daft Punk on TRON: Legacy that I wanted to find that artist from outside the film business and try to bring them in and create a film’s score. Anthony (Gonzalez, one of the founders of M83) always wanted to do a film score so we met and talked about it, I showed him some imagery and explained him the story. Then I paired him with Joseph Trapanese who was the orchestrator on TRON: Legacy and he ed Anthony as a co-composer. I really wanted to create something that sounded original and different and fit the film. It’s a more complex film than TRON: Legacy in of writing music for it because it’s got so many different types of scenes, but considering it’s his (Anthony Gonzalez’s) first film, he did a pretty phenomenal job. Continue reading on the next page…

Morgan Freeman has almost reached the status of “legendary” actor at this point. The man has given us so many great performances over the course of his career that it’s hard to pinpoint his best work. Films like Street Smart, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Driving Miss Daisy, The Dark Knight and Million Dollar Baby, which finally earned him the Oscar he deserved for the longest time, have more than proven his worth. And he rarely, if ever, disappoints. Now, with Oblivion, he gets to work in a genre we often don’t see him in: science fiction. We can only say so much about Freeman’s character of Malcolm Beech without giving away some of the movie’s biggest secrets, but you can rest assured that he gives the same great performance we have come to expect from him time and time again. Oblivion also marks the first time that Freeman and Tom Cruise have appeared on screen together, and at the film’s recent LA press day, Freeman talked about what it was like working with the megastar as well as what excited him about this particular project. Check it out below. We Got This Covered: Do you and Tom Cruise have different ways of working while on set, or did you find that you and him work similarly? Morgan Freeman: I don’t know. I think everybody works the same. Preparation very often may be different, but you cannot work differently. You have to say the words that were written on the page and you have to make your marks. That’s the work. We Got This Covered: Oblivion has something positive to say about humanity in a way that many other science fiction films right now don’t. Without giving anything away, could you talk about that? Morgan Freeman: No (laughs). I mean if I talk about it I’m going to give something away, aren’t I? But I will give it a shot. One of the things that does stand out in this film is the love story. It’s not like ones that we’ve seen before. And then there’s the awesome technology. This is one (science fiction movie) unlike many we’ve seen prior. It’s very intelligent and extremely creative. Joseph (Kosinski) designed these doggone toys that are awesome. Those drones are things you can’t believe, but there they are. We Got This Covered: In Olympus Has Fallen you let Gerard Butler do all the dirty work while you played your usual authoritative character, and in Oblivion you got to play with a machine gun. What was that experience like, and was that your decision to shoot the machine gun? Morgan Freeman: No, no, no. I don’t make decisions like that (laughs). That was written in (the script) that my character gets up there and mans the machine gun. That’s the writer’s thing, not the director’s. It was fun. There were dual 50 calibers on that tractor, and I had never fired 50 caliber machine guns before. We Got This Covered: What was it about Oblivion that made you want to do it? Morgan Freeman: Tom Cruise. It’s a Tom Cruise movie. If I was going to be a truck driver hauling supplies, I would’ve taken the job. I’m one of his huge fans, have been for I don’t know how many years. I know that at this point I’m not going to be offered a minor role. If you compare the script to the movie, they don’t compare. The movie is so much more than what you can read on the page. It’s a big science fiction film with Tom Cruise, so it’s hard to go wrong. Continue reading on the next page…

Charting the genre’s resurgence one galaxy traversing story at a time… It’s no secret that Hollywood’s reserve of fresh, innovative ideas is beginning to peter out. Like a booming coal mine during the industrial revolution, the once abundant minerals have been exhausted and all that remain are fragmented film scripts that inevitably end up on the infamous Hollywood ‘Black list’ – a collection of unproduced screenplays that reside in development hell for varying reasons, such as a lack of funding from a studio. And so, executive heads search for unique storylines that don’t stray too far from what audiences’ desire. Unfortunately, the reason sequels govern the cinematic calendar is because studios have become apprehensive when financing a film outside the formula for success. In particular, summer blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean, a franchise that should have retired as a trilogy but, instead, has outgrown its plot structure and become a financially sound monstrosity that inadvertently stifles originality. It seems ingenuity has been ushered out of the theatre to enforce a filmmaking by committee mentality which, coupled with the currently stringent economy, has pushed the once burgeoning film industry against the wall. Be that as it may, there is a genre that has stood against these conventions and broke new ground outside the mundane framework. These bold, high concept films have existed like an endangered animal recently. Hunted to the point of extinction for their science fiction novelty and subsequently, their presence on the screen has become somewhat of a rarity in recent years. But now, in a post-Inception world, the demand for this uncommon breed of film has grown exponentially. And that’s a good thing, so let’s get on the road and have a look at what 2013 has to offer in of sci-fi. Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads…