First Impressions: "Oblivion", "The Place Beyond the Pines" + "Trance" (2013)

   I've been so busy that these reviews are coming a week late.
   So, this could well be my last batch of rentals from Xtra-vision. Nearly every 2013 release that I've rented so far has been either bad or just mediocre and underwhelming. And, if this really is the end… it's certainly not a brilliant bunch to end on, but at least this week's three are somewhat superior to most of the other shit. Nothing great, but nothing terrible.

   The premise of Oblivion would take far too long to explain, but here it is in a nutshell… In 2077, Earth has been devastated after an alien invasion destroyed the moon. Now mankind is being relocated to Titan, with only a crew of two left on Earth. They're in charge of maintaining the power stations that harvest energy from seawater for the future of humanity.
   There's a tonne of other stuff going on besides; I could literally spend this entire review just talking about plot details! But obviously I won't. :) So let's get down to some of my own personal thoughts.
   One thing that bothered me was how long it took to get to the actual story. In the first act, there are two fake-outs that lead you to believe it'll be about Jack stranded on the ground.
   While the plot did keep my interest and I wanted to know where it was going, a lot of it is very predictable. For example, the true identity of the alien bandits, or "Scavs", can be seen coming from a mile away. Plus, spoilers here, but there's a scene where Jack meets a clone of himself, and all I could think about was Duncan Jones' Moon.
   And the last thing I'll mention is the music. It's all wrong. A lot of it's just the same melancholy piece that sometimes sets completely the wrong tone.
   So my overall impression is that it's interesting but sadly lacklustre.
   My rating: 55%.

   The Place Beyond the Pines starts out following Luke Glanton, a stuntman who turns to robbing banks to support his former lover and her baby. Then, for the second act, the focus abruptly shifts to Avery Cross, an ambitious detective in a corrupt precinct. And then the third act follows Avery's son fifteen years later.
   When I first read the plot summary for this movie, I was expecting the stories of the detective and the criminal to be told in parallel. But instead, it tells three entirely separate stories one after the other. So imagine my confusion when Ryan Gosling's storyline ended abruptly early in the film, and Bradley Cooper's storyline was then resolved equally quickly!
   It may be because of this story layout that the movie felt very long indeed. It's 134 minutes, but it feels more like three hours! It has a rather slow, methodical pace, so each section feels like a whole movie in itself.
   Not to mention, each story is less interesting than the last. Despite Ryan Gosling's characteristically wooden performance, his character is such a good parent that I really did start to root for him and felt he should absolutely be a part of the baby's life. But, on the other hand, I couldn't care less about Avery's son's story, centred around drugs.
   In short, while it's well written and does have its moments, on the whole, its jarring narrative structure makes it seem increasingly longwinded.
   My rating: 60%.

   And in Trance, Simon, a fine art dealer, double-crosses a gang during the theft of a highly valuable painting, and ends up with amnesia so he can't remember where he hid the picture. They send him to hypnotherapist Elizabeth Lamb to try and get it out of him.
   So you can probably guess from that premise that Trance is equal parts psychological and straightforward thrills – and director Danny Boyle has always been brilliant at that. The depictions of Simon's mind always ring very true, especially in how Elizabeth sometimes appears in the rooms he imagines as she talks to him. And later on, after Elizabeth finds out about the gang and has them sit in on the therapy sessions, they too start to appear in Simon's mind, making it clear that he feels crowded and can't concentrate with them around.
   The movie does take a very predictable turn by suggesting that Elizabeth may have ulterior motives, but to be fair, I was still interested in how it would all be resolved.
   Sadly, though, the last act is where the movie really falls apart. Obviously I don't want to spoil any details, but the climax throws first one plot twist at you, then another, and another – almost to the point of lunacy! Not to mention, one particular reveal is a ridiculous lapse in logic.
   In conclusion, while it's not Danny Boyle's best work, this is still an interesting psychological thriller – and probably the best 2013 release I've rented so far.
   My rating: 70%.

   So thank you, Xtra-vision, for serving me so well for the past few years. I'm really sad to see you go, and I know I'm not alone.