Okay, so I didn't have much feeling for this movie before I saw it. Why? One, I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan. Two, it seemed rather bland and recycled. Also, the title must be said in the same way Riff-Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show says it... Okay, maybe that's just something me and my sister think whenever we see or hear the title. So how was one of this year's first tries at a blockbuster?
So here's the plot, without giving away any spoilers. It's 2077 and Tech 49 Jack Harper is having dreams. Dreams of a woman that repeat in the same way over and over again. This is odd, because it's not the same woman he's living with, who is called Victoria. To make things even more odd, they are the only two people on what's left of the earth. See, sixty years ago, an alien race apparently destroyed Earth's moon, which caused the planet to suffer earthquakes and other natural disasters. (How the Earth's tectonic plates are controlled by the moon, I do not know.) Mankind fled Earth and settled on Titan, which is one of Saturn's moons. They left on a big ship called the Tet, which sixty years later in 2077 is hovering above earth as Jack and Victoria fix the drones that kill the aliens that are left. Of course, this being science fiction, not everything is as it seems. That's as far as I'm going.
Now, I will say that I love science fiction films. Sadly, these days good ones are in short supply. This one is pretty good, if a bit mediocre in it's story elements. The best thing about the movie is that it is stunning to look at. There's desolate wasteland, areas that look like they're right out of Yosemite National Park, and of course, a futuristic home or two. I would suppose that the IMAX version of the film looks even more breathtaking, but I saw it in lowly standard theater quality. If you are looking for a good action-based science fiction film, you may also want to look elsewhere. There are action sequences, and the ones the film does have are excellent, with air chases and shootouts, but there are long stretches of character moments which action fans may find tedious. And when the characters are as bland as they are here, that's not a good thing. Now I'm not saying that these are the most bland characters on the planet... In fact, of the few characters in the movie, only Tom Cruise is bland, and that's just because we've seen his same shtick in many movies over the past two and a half decades. Before I forget, to add to the plus side, the movie has a very good music theme that pops up a few times during the film. I believe the theme is done by some music duo called M83. Never heard of it before this film.
The one minus to the film is it's story, which I won't really go into. I'm really starting to wonder if the science fiction genre has run out of ideas. Or if Hollywood won't allow any new ones. I'll go with the latter, I think. Hollywood plays things so damned safe these days. The story here does not break any new ground, whatsoever. It just takes elements from better films and hopes we won't notice. Normally I would take off a lot of points for this, but since no new ideas have come up in science fiction film in such a long time, I'm not going to deduct much. Heck, there's a movie that came out just 4 years ago that was similar to this movie in many ways. (Not the basic plot, though.)
To conclude, the film isn't a bad start to the blockbuster season. It's not mindless action. It wants you to think, but what it wants you to think about isn't all that vexing. It's a theme that runs through today's movies time and time again. In other words, the movie isn't nearly as smart as it thinks it is. If you want to go see a movie before Friday, this is the best one out there right now. It's probably the best thing that's come out this year so far, but that doesn't take much, as it's just now almost May. It's beautiful to look at, and the action sequences are worth it. See it before it's gone. It will be almost forgotten by time Iron Man 3 starts this Friday.
5 stars out of 7. Recommended.
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