Oblivion is the sort of thing I really want to encourage. After the lukewarm reception of yet another reboot of a popular franchise (In this case, the pretty darn good 2010 film Tron: Legacy), the creative team behind it turned around and used the resulting mountain of moolah to finance a heady sci-fi original property that uses top-notch visual effects to explore deep themes of the self.

But why has this movie not made more of a splash? A year later, you’ll barely find anyone who even saw it the first time, much less remembers it. And I think the reason for this can be summed up in three simple words: Ambition exceeding ability.

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