‘Oblivion’ Trailer: Tom Cruise, Per Usual, Won’t Back Down
Years ago, commercial director Joseph Kosinski was one of the hottest up-and-comers, with a bright, bright future. Then we actually saw that his feature debut, Tron: Legacy, didn’t play as much more than a technically impressive showcase for the filmmaker. He took $150 million and had Jeff Bridges saying stuff like, “Bio-digital jazz, man.” Money not put to good use, I say.
Kosinski was then written off as a director with nothing more than a nice eye, no true knack for storytelling. But after seeing the first full-length trailer for his new sci-fi epic, Oblivion, I think maybe some of us spoke too soon. This original science-fiction pic, starring Tom Cruise roaming a desolated Earth, seems like a fairly routine hero’s journey, albeit told on a far more ambitious canvas than what we saw on display in Tron: Legacy.
This trailer does a fine job of setting up film’s the world and Cruise’s character, Jack Harper (not to be confused with Jack Reacher). Take a first-look at Oblivion for yourself after the break (or on Apple.com).
It’s easy to forget about Tron: Legacy’s grave pitfalls during these two-and-a-half minutes. The trailer showcases an interesting blend of a modern and atypical futuristic style and, more importantly, Morgan Freeman doing his “Morgan Freeman has questions and will give you the answers later” exposition routine. It’s not just any Morgan Freeman exposition, though, as Academy Award winner William Monahan (The Departed) had a hand in the script. What Kosinski’s first film lacked the most was a solid story, but with Monahan involved, we can expect more from the director’s sophomore effort.
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Oblivion opens in theaters on April 19th, 2013.