Cyborg Betty & Veronica

...the holidays are finally over. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was not able to finish my complete series of Top 5 lists. While I wish I harbored the delusion that people have been waiting with great anticipation, I will guess that many read the last sentence and said "Top what?". Never fear. I do plan to complete my final lists tomorrow so those refreshing their browsers will get their just rewards in less than 24 hours.

...blizzards abound here in Chicago. Or would that be one singular blizzard enveloping the entire region? Pick your poison. Some might find this odd, but I tend to enjoy this weather. Granted, I am ready for it to move on once my birthday arrives in March, but I intend to bask in the glorious snowy white serenity while January and February roll on. To me, this is the best time of year to relax with friends or that significant other human or sex robot. Start the fireplace, watch some movies, make out and make any necessary repairs to said sex robot's software as needed. Even as a singular entity, it is a good time to relax with a pot of coffee, watch some Regular Show on DVD or Bluray and possibly use some much earned free time to research how and where to purchase a sex robot of your very own.

...finally was able to get a free moment to watch Oblivion. I am not generally a big fan of Tom Cruise (though I maintain that The Last Samurai is a masterpiece). Still, between comics and film, I am finding myself fully invested in science fiction these days. The possibilities for commentary, drama, comedy and creative weirdness makes the genre so endlessly appealing to me. 

Oblivion opens with Tom Cruise's Jack Harper embarking on one of countless daily maintenance missions upon his assigned region of a post-apocalyptic barren wasteland once known as Earth. He spends the majority of his day accounting for and sometimes rebooting various drones that patrol the land while giant triangular ships consume the water for fuel. By night, he relaxes in a futuristic luxury penthouse in the clouds with his beautiful British female counterpart. 

For the first hour, Oblivion is somewhat of a slow burn. Jack encounters the occasional scavenger, but even the closest call ends up being nothing that he cannot handle or survive. That said, the back half of Oblivion rewards the patient viewer with a series of plot twists and revelations that opens up the movie and turns Jack Harper's existence on its head.

About 90 minutes in, I actually said out loud "This would make one hell of a graphic novel." Turns out, Oblivion was based on a graphic novel (though I have not yet been able to locate it on Amazon). The special effects are perfectly in line with all of the current tentpole films of the sci-fi/franchise variety. While I maintain that a better actor would have been a bonus, the story and world surrounding Tom Cruise cancels out another performance that felt like it was completed during extreme hemorrhoidal flare up. The missteps are few and the film was consistently interesting, making Oblivion a very good modern science fiction tale.

Read: Sex: The Summer Of Hard by Joe Casey

Listen: The New Pornographers Twin Cinema

Watch: Oblivion