Unused short scene for Oblivion showing the CGI Bubbleship flying by the camera
I live in a bit of a vacuum these days without any cable (or broadcast) TV at home. It started as a cost-cutting measure about a year ago, but even now, when money is not the problem that it was, I find I'm much happier without cable in the house. So, still no cable. This shift has brought about a new process for the relatively small amount of TV we consume: we watch completed TV series on DVD (just finished watching all 5 seasons of Fringe in about 3 months) and we watch some movies. So a few nights back we rented the recent Tom Cruise movie Oblivion. (I hadn't even heard of the movie, an interesting side-affect of life without cable TV.) It was actually a test of an upgrade to a Blu-ray DVD player, and it was the first live-action Blu-ray DVD I've ever seen. (Blu-ray looked fantastic... feel free to welcome me to the 21st century)
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Video screenshot: The very cool Bubbleship VTOL from the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion
I'm somewhat surprised to say that I really liked Oblivion. It doesn't hurt that the living quarters are a fabulously modern house sitting at 3,000 feet above the ground on a thin spire, and there's a lot of flying in a very cool VTOL called a Bubbleship.
After I watched the movie, I watched it again with the special-feature commentary that replays the film with Tom Cruise and writer/director Joseph Kosinski making comments about the scenes and the production process. I love this stuff. After seeing the commentary, I find myself quite taken by the film. I have to say that I recommend checking it out if you haven't seen it yet.
The video above gives a great overview of the Bubbleship in Oblivion
There's a certain simplicity and open-ness to the film that I'm drawn to. As life here on Earth seems to increase in quantity and diminish in quality everyday, the uncongested landscape of Oblivion's post-alien-attack Earth seems oddly attractive to me. (maybe I just need to move to Wyoming)
Your mileage may vary on that.
This video gives an overview on the 3,000 foot high Skytower in Oblivion
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Video screenshot of the Bubbleship on the landing platform of the Skytower in Oblivion
I really enjoyed these videos since they show how some of the effects in the film were made. The way that they created the background sky and cloud views for the lookout from the skytower is extremely cool. Fascinating stuff... and a movie I actually liked. Watch it, I think you might like it.