The Gates of Oblivion

You know it's still early in 2013 when I'm having a hard time even recommending that you see one of the more action-oriented science fiction stories outside the Summer movie season. After being floored by the big screen visual wonders of director Joseph Kosinski's feature debut Tron: Legacy, getting to see his followup in the form of a post-apocalyptic tale like Oblivion ought to have been a guaranteed treat. After all, this wasn't just a random story, but one Kosinski had been attempting to make for years in homage to sci-fi movies from the seventies (even co-writing the screenplay with The Departed's William Monahan, Toy Story 3's Michael Arndt and Karl Gajdusek). Combining his love of the genre with his innate mastery of all things visual, the oddly-named Oblivion should have been the kind of mysterious, fun thrill ride that forced you to see it on the big screen. So why am I having such a hard time recommending it?

Yankee fandom will never die, it seems.

It's certainly not the concept that falters. Sixty years after aliens known as Scavs destroyed our Moon and most of the planet, the surviving remnants of humanity are now off-world, transported to the orbital space station known as the "Tet" in preparation of being transported to a new colony on Titan. Left on the planet are technician Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his communications officer Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), tasked with maintaining the security drones that protect operations that mine Earth's natural resources for use on our new home. While Victoria can't wait to leave, Jack is the curious type, always searching for new discoveries and dreading the coming time when he will have to leave what he considers his home. But a crashed shuttle pod with a human survivor raises all kinds of questions about their mission, especially when that survivor (Olga Kurylenko) seems to have some mysterious connection to Jack's missing past.

The Scientologists are invading!

The acting and special effects are both as strong as the concept they are wrapped around. Cruise of course no longer needs to stretch his abilities for his movies to be successful (so far), but here he actually displays more than his trademark charm, parsing a bit of genuine emotion for good measure as well. Of course, he's well within his action wheelhouse, and it's difficult to imagine the now-51 year-old slowing down anytime soon, and certainly not if he can keep putting forth good performances like the one he showcases here. His female leads struggle a little, not via lack of talent but more through lack of romantic chemistry with Cruise. Even if you can get past their age differences (both Kurylenko and Riseborough are almost twenty years Cruise's younger), their inability to connect on-screen with their lead actor only hampers their performances and the story. They still put together good efforts, albeit flawed ones. The cast is rounded out by solid and expected showings from Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo and Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau (who is having a very good 2013, himself), populating the mostly-lifeless Earth with enough personality to keep the audience invested.

And wait... it that Zoe Bell?

As for the effects and action, they're everything we've come to expect from Kosinski, whose Tron sequel was visually amazing despite the story's irregularities. Earth is a cratered wasteland, but the director adds depth to the surroundings via famous destroyed landmarks, gorgeous vistas and little slices of natural heaven. Unlike many end-of-the-world movies, he doesn't just coat everything in grey in post-production to add mood. You get the feeling that he's got an emotional attachment to his imagery, and that he really puts his whole heart into what you watching. It's also the biggest and best argument for seeing Oblivion on the big screen, if not necessarily in 3D or IMAX; these exquisite visuals simply may not translate when introduced to your too-small television screen, or underpowered DVD players (sorry, but at this point it's officially past time you upgraded to Blu-ray).

That's a lot of resource-harvesting action.

And you'll need those visuals to get past Oblivion's biggest flaw; the story is just not there. It's not that it's a bad tale, or even all that poorly-told. You'll genuinely be engaged by plot twists, progressive storytelling and a competent if overly-direct vision; Kosinski doesn't quite trust his audience yet, and so he plugs everything important into the center of the shot so that you can by no means miss so obvious or clever a moment. A bit of subtlety couldn't have hurt, but patience is often the game of veteran directors (and even they don't always get it right), and so his youthful inexperience isn't the detraction it perhaps could have been. Instead, Oblivion's biggest issue is that it brings absolutely nothing to the table. It might have started off as homage, but unlike JJ Abrams' Super 8 - which successfully paid respect to early Steven Spielberg without outright copying him - Kosinski cannot help but crib from his superiors, borrowing plot, themes and sequences from classics such as Wall-E, Moon, District 9, the Matrix Trilogy, 2001 and Independence Day, and that's just scraping the surface.

Soooo, you couldn't see this coming?

You won't find a better example of Hollywood hubris than that of a seemingly original tale that brings absolutely nothing new of note to show. How many sequels a year are we getting from the movie industry? How many remakes? At least we know what we're getting into when we buy a ticket to those. Oblivion is gorgeously designed, well-acted, and certainly cannot be called a waste of time should you decide to venture out and see it right now, not even by me. But there's just no REASON for it, sitting through over two hours of material you could cobble together from a home movie collection. It's a fine time suck if you really have nothing better to watch, but with Iron Man 3 just over the horizon and the true pantheon of summer action movies not far behind, soon you'll be able to do much better than this second-rate sci-fi flick, which won't likely be remembered come the year's end.

Dear Mama

If there's anybody in Hollywood whose career has taken a sharp upturn recently, it's Jessica Chastain. The actress has starred (not merely appeared in) eleven films in the past two years, and for each one the response to her performance in particular has been unanimously positive. She was nominated for her first Oscar in 2011 (for The Help) and will be the likely WINNER this year for her role in the excellent Zero Dark Thirty. But it's not by acting talent alone that she has managed to attract so many followers and supporters, but her willingness to transcend genres and adapt herself fully into any character. No matter what movie Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie find themselves in, you never quite get over the fact that they are themselves playing parts. Chastain's talents are much closer to those of Meryl Streep or even Daniel Day Lewis; she so completely folds herself into a role that you lose her in the transformation and are left only with the person she has become. Her first film of 2013 is the horror flick Mama, based on a Spanish-language short of the same name by Argentinian director Andres Muschietti, who also helmed the full-length edition. Apparently the short for Mama was so scary that it convinced filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to produce a big screen version for the rest of us.

Be honest, you didn't realize it was her at first.

Five years ago, amid the chaos of the financial crisis, one man breaks down, murders two of his business partners and his estranged wife, and kidnaps his two daughters, then disappears. In the time since then, his brother Luke (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has been searching, hiring teams to canvass the area in which they disappeared. Just as the money funding the mission is running out, one team makes a discovery: young Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse), Luke's nieces, have been found, feral but alive in a remote cabin in the woods. Though their father is nowhere to be found, Victoria and Lilly are brought back home for psychiatric treatment and a loving home with Luke and his girlfriend Annabel (Chastain), a rock-and-roll musician who doesn't think she's ready to take on a motherhood role. But something else has followed the girls to their new abode: something that spent the last five years caring for Victoria and Lilly, and isn't nearly ready to give up that role to a pair of young upstarts. The girls refer to her by one haunting word: "Mama."

There's something WRONG with that girl...

When it comes to a man like del Toro, you know Mama is going to be at least one thing: CREEPY. I don't know how much of the dark imagery in this film can be attributed to Muschietti (it's his first feature film and I've never seen his shorts), but while he might crib more than a few visuals from del Toro, Muschietti succeeds in establishing a style very much his own. While his creature effects are certainly good enough, where he astounds is in his ability to fool the audience. As a director, he succeeds in hiding things in plain sight, or just off screen, where a simple tilt of our perspective opens up floodgates of tension and terror. On more than one occasion, the audience will witness what they think is a perfectly normal instance, only for the next moment to reveal that everything they thought they knew was a lie, often putting them in a state of panic as they struggle to discover the truth. That is Muschietti's greatest strength, and it's thankfully brought to the forefront often.

Big twist: she's his sister! (Obligatory Games of Thrones reference)

The acting is also top notch, most notably because of the peerless Chastain. I know I seem to say this every review, but she is one of the new greats; not only does she wow us by sinking completely into this role of newly-minted mother figure, but Mama goes all out in focusing on her trials and tribulations as a parental figure to the two children. While Abigail is gleefully rough around the edges (and unafraid to cuss out loud in front of her charges), it's both fun and funny watching her grow as a character and an unexpected mother. She brings a life to the role that most actresses can only dream of, and is solely responsible for keeping this film from becoming boring or one-noted. The rest of the cast is talented but not "Chastain-like". This is the first film I've seen Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in outside of his starring role on HBO's Game of Thrones, and when he was actually given something to do I was impressed. Unfortunately, his character was greatly scaled back (likely to showcase Chastain) and I can't help but feel that there was a whole other storyline for him cut from the final product. Daniel Kash has a nice, small role, but similarly doesn't get as much exploration. The closest in quality to Chastain must be the two children, played by Charpentier and Nelisse. While Charpentier competently leads more than a few scenes and is the more vocal of the two young actresses, I was most impressed by Nelisse's ability to create an almost animalistic, emotionally-stunted child through her body movement and limited vocabulary. She doesn't just look like a child acting out motions, but one wholly natural in her actions. Together, the pair add a layer of authenticity crucial to making Mama work on the most basic levels.

They just wanted to go on a hike!

Sadly, while the unique premise and great acting carry so far, it's Mama's script that ultimately lets it down. Illogical character motivations, plot holes, contrived plot devices and more overflow from the screenplay, especially in the film's final act. While very little of it is on the wrong side of cheese, what does manages to subvert all the good that Muschietti and company achieve. The ending, while certainly not pat or typical for this style of horror, still carries a veneer of schlock, reflecting the director's inexperience. You can't help but wonder what would have been if the more experienced del Toro had been behind the camera instead of the amateur Argentinian.

Creepy kids, decent flick.

Fortunately, what errors there are do little to detract from the overall atmosphere of Mama, which is by far the best movie of early 2013, easily coming in at #1. Muschietti succeeds in his first major outing, and I can't wait to see what he adds to his resume in the coming years. Of course, it helps to have such an artistic savant as Jessica Chastain atop your cast, but even without her this would have been a great old-school creep fest. If you're not into supernatural, clever psychological thrillers, then nothing I can say will convince you to see Mama. But even if you aren't the biggest fan of the genre, this scary movie is well worth a look. Scouting at the coming film release schedule, this might just be the best movie you see until Summer rolls around.