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In 2017, Earth was attacked by aliens known as Scavengers. They destroyed the moon (which only made it more beautiful, kinda like a manly scar), which caused all sorts of natural disasters. Nuclear war against the scavengers also rendered Earth largely uninhabitable.

As the 5 minute voiceover so helpfully clarifies, “we won the war, but lost the planet”.

The year is now 2077, and Tom Cruise is Jack Harper, a drone technician, in charge of maintaining weaponised drones equipped to seek out the last remaining scraps of scavengers, and protect machinery built to extract Earth’s resources for use.

Most of humanity now either reside in the Tet (a space station Jack’s scheduled to return in the next 3 weeks), or on Titan, Saturn’s moon, where we’ve colonized. He works in a team with lover Victoria, but often dreams of a hotter woman at night. His dream abruptly turns into reality when a spaceship Odyssey crashes on Earth, carrying a number of sleeping capsules with humans in hibernation, in one of which lays Julia (Olga Kurylenko).

Obviously, by this stage, the director clearly wants us to ponder over these questions: Who is this mysterious woman he dreams of? Why did the drones attack the humans in the sleeping capsules? Are the aliens really defeated? Where does Morgan Freeman get his cigars in a post apocalyptic world? How long more till the movie ends?

Like Tron Legacy, Joseph Kosinski manages builds a really beautiful world, with awesome looking tech laid out on a barren, desolate landscape. It’s his sense of pacing and story development that’s sorely lacking, and results in a film that feels 20 minutes too long.

Besides ogling at the half destroyed moon and the awesome architecture, there’s really not much else going for it.

Come on, you know you want a ride… *wink*

Also, the climax is so anti-climatic and borderline dumb, you’d actually have enjoyed the movie better if you left the cinema with 10 minutes to go.

Come to think of it, the entire movie seemed like a bet Joseph Kosinski took up, to have an alien invasion film, without ever showing any aliens. Challenge Accepted!

Rating: 5/10

Movie would have been a 4 if not for the other bright spark in the film: Olga Kurylenko

When I was young, I remember being wowed by David Copperfield’s Great Wall trick, as well as making the Statue of Liberty disappear. That was in the late 80s – early 90s, and magic was often dark and mysterious, and full of elaborate costumes and beautiful assistants.

As we progressed into the world of reality TV, newer magicians like David Blaine and Criss Angel, and my favourite illusionist Derren Brown burst onto the scene, with more visceral and in-your-face magic, blending mentalism, live audience circling the performer and a prowling cameraman to capture the most authentic angles and ensure the trick was rooted in reality.

Once, it was perfectly fine to saw a woman in half covered in a box. But with the advent of youtube and the opening up of the information superhighway, that trick was quickly explained away as “that box is bigger than it looks”.

So now, n Criss Angel’s Believe (in 2012), the game’s since been upped to saw a woman in half on an open plank. Gross, but man, how’d he do that?!

In a similar vein, we see 2 old time Vegas stage show magicians trying to keep up and stay relevant in the age of street magicians.

Steve Carell plays the titular Burt Wonderstone, half of the duo, together with Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi), who were once popular stage magicians. However, 10 years performing the same tricks over and over cost them an audience and passion, resulting in them going through the motions to a 20% crowd.

In danger of losing their headlining act, things get worse when street magician Steve Gray (a back to form Jim Carrey) starts grabbing the headlines (and the money), with his antics and a tv show, Brain Rapist.

Guess where your card is?

Together, Burt and Anton has to get their act together, if they are to have any chance at redemption.

Burt Wonderstone received pretty bad reviews, mostly for its uneven tone and pacing. But I was just entranced by the magic on display. Sure, there are problems with the film, but I came away liking what I saw.

And if I were to experience that last trick in the audience, I’d be super impressed!

Also, bonus points for casting Olivia Wilde as the magician enthusiast-assistant.

Rating: 7/10

Fun fact: David Copperfield not only had a cameo in the film, but also acted as a consultant on set.