Oblivion Review

Oblivion is takes place in the year 2077, which is set 60 years after Earth is attacked by aliens known to humans as Scavengers. The humans and the aliens go to war, with the human race emerging victorious. Sadly the earth is left largely uninhabitable due to the moon being destroyed and the overuse of nuclear weapons during the war.

Tom Cruise plays Jack Harper, a technician and one of the few humans stationed on the planet with the task extracting the earth’s remaining resources for the new planet called Titan, where the rest of the surviving humans have settled. He does this by fixing drones, which help drain the resources and are used as weapons. One day everything that Jack knows is brought to a halt when he discovers a beautiful stranger in the wreckage of a downed spacecraft. Jack is drawn to her arrival and it triggers a chain of events that makes him question everything he knows about his mission and himself.

Joseph Kosinski directs the film and it looks beautiful. It is a visually striking movie that portrays apocalyptic earth brilliantly. Of course, this is not a surprise considering that he also directed the visually stunning "Tron: Legacy". Although the drones look simplistic, they also give off a menacing vibe at the same time. Plus Tom Cruise gives a pretty good performance compared to his last several films.

However, this film suffers from the same problem that Tron: Legacy suffered from, which is that the film is stunning, but thinly scripted with weak characters. With the exception of Cruise, all of the actors are flat and undeveloped. It is especially disappointing that despite giving Morgan Freeman top billing, he is still given nothing to do.

Unfortunately, Oblivion ends up being an empty experience despite having flashy special effects and a good performance from Cruise. Kosinski will make a great science fiction film someday, but as long as he places special effects over character development his efforts will be mediocre.

Oblivion - 3/5