Over the weekend, the marketing campaign for next year’s sci-fi Tom Cruise starrer Oblivion suddenly kicked into gear. First, a poster was released, and not much later, a trailer as well. So how does it look? Well, it’s refreshing that the poster has no sparks (I am so tired of sparks) or flying debris, even if it does use the too-worn “centered on a character with their back to the viewer” layout. As for the trailer, I like that the movie doesn’t appear to be awash in teal and orange the way so many other blockbusters are.
Oblivion is directed by Joseph Kosinski, who also co-wrote the graphic novel on which the script is based. That script has also had Departed scribe William Monahan take a pass at it, as well as Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine writer Michael Arndt. Since Arndt is also writing Star Wars Episode VII, you might want to look to this film as a barometer of how well he might possibly handle that one.
Cruise plays Jack Reacher Harper, who’s in charge of maintaining some drone thingies that are flying around an abandoned Earth. Except it looks like Earth isn’t abandoned, because Morgan Freeman and some other guys are still on it, and there’s Olga Kurylenko, who seems to know Jack, and he has memories of the past Earth or something? It’s all very ambiguous. We’ll understand when Oblivion comes out April 12th. For now, check out the trailer: