DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

OBLIVION at its finest moments, is a stirring ode to humanity. Joseph Kosinski outdid himself this time, creating a futuristic vision that's loads better than TRON LEGACY although TRON LEGACY is on a league of its own greatness.  Fragments of TRON LEGACY can be seen all over OBLIVION (music, production design, and story) with some hints of INCEPTION (without the ambiguous ending) and TOTAL RECALL.  Tom Cruise in sheer, muscular form is Jack Harper, a drone technician who is weeks away from concluding his mission on a now desolate Earth. Alongside him is his communications officer and lover Vika (Andrea Riseborough), and together they are "an effective team". On a routine mission to repair two drones in separate locations, Jack encounters scavengers who try to capture him. But not everything is at it seems.  On a desolate facade, with sunken ships and monuments, Earth is now close to its end. Aliens once tried to steal our moon and succeeded. Now, all of w...

One things's for sure. Stephenie Meyer likes her love triangles.  Somewhere in THE HOST, we find ourselves watching a teenage love story involving (at least) three players and more than one kind of species. Seem familiar? That's because you've probably seen too much of the TWILIGHT saga, also by Stephenie Meyer, which is unless you've been living under a rock the past decade is barely news to you.   But give Andrew Niccol enough credit for making THE HOST an escapist entertainment that's not too cringe-worthy. There came a point in time while watching NEW MOON that I wanted to rip my seat from the floor and hurl it onto the screen.  THE HOST benefits from Niccol's adequate understanding of the subject matter, and his gifted writing skills that produced the likes of THE TRUMAN SHOW and GATTACA. There is a rich philosophical question in the midst of the story of which is the better race, humans or aliens, and the answer isn't clear-cut. On the...