User Reviews

It's obvious that "Oblivion" is supposed to be a light-hearted adventure and a novelty fusion of Western and Science Fiction. And that would have been fine if Full Moon had actually produced that. Instead, we got a half-baked effort that needed a lot more work and polish. (But if we got that, it wouldn't have come from Full Moon, would it?)

First warning that things might not be as good as you'd hoped: the script is by Peter David. Now, Peter David is very good at what he usually does - writing off-beat, wry interpretations of familiar comic tropes. (His runs on "X-Factor" and "The Incredible Hulk" are classics of the genre). But it is tricky to make a successful transition from the comic page to the movie screen, especially when it comes to dialogue, especially FUNNY dialogue. (Just ask Roy Thomas or Gerry Conway, two fine, hard-working comics writers who co-wrote a "Conan" sequel that was one of the most embarrassing things to appear in the 80s or 90s). You can see how most of this would have been good if it was handled right. Instead, the cheap, off-hand, "just point the cameras and let them roll" direct-to-cable quality hamstrings everything. I'm certain that David was not happy with the results.

2nd warning that things might not be as good as you'd hope: the "Muppet"-like thing perched on top of the town sign in the opening credits just doesn't work. It's generic, badly animated, and looks as if someone walked off with a discard from the set of "The Dark Crystal".

And from that point on, the cheapness and shoddiness of the production undercuts everything. Nothing works here. Not the art direction, not the sets (which have a very unconvincing "ceiling fan" motif), not the plot, not the special effects, not the in-jokes.

I felt bad for George Takei, whose four "fan service" references to "Star Trek" whiff harder than a Pee-Wee batter facing Major League fastballs. In fact, I felt bad for nearly all the actors, and I doubt most of them will call a lot of attention to 'Oblivion' on their CVs.

"Oblivion" is not outright awful on an Ed Wood/Jerry Warren level (except for the "Star Trek" fan service.) No one blows their lines, some attempt is made at action and humor, Meg Foster is still hot in her spandex uniform, and about 1 joke in 5 sort of works. But you don't need to see this one unless you want to see every science fiction film ever made.

In which case, go to it.

OBLIVION is another cheesy science fiction flick from Full Moon. It's posited as a simplistic 'cowboys and aliens', with a Wild West setting and lots of oddball characters added to the mix: a reptilian villain (Andrew Divoff, of course) and a female cyborg (Meg Foster of THEY LIVE fame). Sadly the plotting is hackneyed and entirely unremarkable, and the most fun comes from seeing various genre personalities showing up: George Takei as the town drunk alongside Isaac Hayes and Julie Newmar. As with most Full Moon pictures, this was shot in Romania on the cheap, so don't expect anything special.

The special effects of this movie are, especially for its time, laughable and used in such an over-emphasized way that you can't deny their terrible existance.

The acting redefines the term "terrible overacting" at the hands of Meg Foster and Richard Joseph Paul, where julie Newman and Andrew Divoff just redefine "bad".

***spoilers***

The charm in this movie can be found in two things: First is the excellent casting of Carel "Lurch" Struycken as the mysterious psychic Gaunt, who can sense where and when people will die and is always there.

The second are original finds, the combination SF-Western is obviously original, if terrible, but other finds are more original, like the gunman Zack Stone being able to sense the pain of the people he shoots (though his acting falls short here).

Overal...don't see this movie, except if you love that ol' hunk-o-brutal Carel Struycken, as any self-respecting Dutchman should.

Full Moon, you so crazy. You filmed this Peter David written story and somehow put aliens in space and got Andrew Divorff to play the villainous Red Eye in a movie that feels a lot like an adult version of BraveStarr. They also grabbed Meg Foster, Isaac Hayes, George Takei, Julie Newmar and Carel Struycken, the giant from Twin Peaks to help tell the story of how the outer space west was won.

If a Western can contain empaths, aliens that can foresee death and cyborgs, then let this be that Western.

They filmed Backlash: Oblivion 2 at the same time, so if you liked this, good news. There's more waiting for you.

Written by Charles Band, this was directed by Sam Irvin, who also made Elvira's Haunted Hills.

Full Moon Entertainment pictures and Charles Band put out a lot of films and some are pretty good, but even the bad ones are still entertaining. I thought this one would fall under the category of a pretty good film as it had a nice premise, but it just did not work for me. A whole slew of third rate actors are in this film that just never really goes anywhere or does anything. A fusion of cowboys in outer space seems like it would be a good idea, but they just do not measure things out well in the fact it may as well just been a western in the same vein as Wild Wild West rather than be something set on another planet. I mean, the best they can come up with is ceiling fans as their futuristic ambient touch?

The story, some outlaw lands a ship and this is the only ship you really see and comes to the town of Oblivion where he takes out the sheriff using tricky methods, but c'mon, the sheriff was literally using a force shield during a stand off. That comes across as a bit unfair, doesn't it? Well after he kills the sheriff the outlaw who looks like a lizard and is called Redeye can now start his master plan! Of not really doing all that much besides wanting a threesome with the locale shop owner who looks a bland as white rice while he already has a super sexy whip gal. The son of the sheriff is notified about his father's slaying and after rescuing a Native American, which makes no sense on another planet, decides to head to town, but he absolutely has no desire to fight because he feels everyone's pain and do not wait for an explanation as to why one of Redeye's thugs takes hit after hit, but doesn't die...oh, there is a wacky poisonous frog that looks on at arm wrestling matches!

So we get a plot that really has no substance and lots of unexplained stuff and we get a to be continued at the end of this one, but seriously, were we expected to do reading for this to understand the world? Why is ceiling fans like everywhere? Why can you even buy a poisonous frog creature that attacks if you are afraid at a pet store? Why is George Takei in anything? That is a serious question, the guy was one of the most boring characters on the original Star Trek and then comes out as gay to make himself significant again and somehow makes a career out of other people's memes, he is not clever and he cannot act, he should of been phased out of our subculture, but people think he is some sort of sage guru or something. Once again, those memes he posts, not his!

So, if you want to see a film with a few old semi stars this is the film for you! I just thought Julie Newmar's appearance was sad and Issac Hayes was pointless. I don't know, maybe he gets more time in the sequel? The film does feature some cool stop motion creatures to behold, but still doesn't feel like another planet as this could easily and be better explained as an irradiated earth than another planet because I doubt the only thing they would include in an outpost on another world is ceiling fans! Arm wrestling frog though, he was cool.

Introduced by Elvira I knew it would have earned it's fair share of rotten tomatoes.

The Sheriff's funeral service was held on a Thursday, they always have bingo on a Thursday, not cancelling that for anyone! Bits of this film were written by someone with an unusual sense of humour - in any other film they would have been really funny, but the acting's not up-to pulling it off. When it's my time please hold the memorial service in the nearest Meca bingo hall - simultaneous bingo, memorial.....