Finally a fresh looking Sci-Fi movie.

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2013)

Recent Sci-Fi/Action movies have unfortunately left any kind of story sitting on the back seat, and they hope that all of the done-to-death special effects will carry it through to success, so I had some misgivings going into this movie despite the overall appeal of the preview. But this simply wasn't the case with this movie.
As a Sci-Fi fan, I found the story to be quite fresh, given that the overall premise was of an post-apocalyptic Earth, it didn't have that bland or depressing barren wasteland feel that so many post war devastating movies have.
The film starts in the year 2077. Sometime in 2017, (yes just 4 years away), our moon is attacked and left in a crumbled mess. This sudden change in the gravitational field creates earthquakes and tsunamis that devastate most of our planet. Humans apparently then deliver the coup-de-grace, by setting off their nuclear stockpile in retaliation to these attacks. Despite learning that man won the war, what's left is a permanently altered Earth and one that's no longer fit for habitation.
Enter mans salvation, a large orbiting space station called the TET, (I assume it's called this due to it's shape, that of an immense tetrahedron). The TET is supposed to be a stepping stone we have created for our journey to our new home, Saturn's largest moon - Titan.
In order to accomplish this and so our new home can support human life, huge water filtration plants are set up along the coastline of old New York. These plants are protected by a series of automated and powerful drones, equipped with infra-red, swivel cannons and heavy shielding. Tom Cruise is Tech 49 who's job it is to repair and maintain the drones as they are regularly attacked by remnants of those who attacked us, called Scavs, (short for scavengers), as they bring down these drones and then strip them of essential parts.
At this point you think that this is just a simple movie of human survival, but the reality is far more insidious. The TET was not built by us, it was the TET that attacked us. The scavs, are what's left of the human race and their attacks on the drones are so they can stop this water filtration process. We find that the water is not for our future use, instead it's for an alien intelligence wanting to suck the earth dry of all it water resource.
There are of course random undertones from other movies that followed this premise, such as "V" and more recently Independence Day. Tom Cruise and his assistant on Earth in 2077, are actually space shuttle pilots from 2017 that were sent to investigate the TET when it first arrived. In turn they were captured, had their memories erased and cloned. After Earth bit the dust, the clones were returned to various sectors on Earth so they can look after the water plants and the drones.
The special effects in Oblivion are top notch as are the action scenes. I'm not the biggest fan of Tom Cruise, but I didn't mind him in this, I thought he played the character well. The random scenes of a devastated U.S were incredibly well done, the CGI was not so obvious and for many scenes, in particular the now ground level observation deck of the Empire State building was incredible.
If this type of movie appeals and you're a fan of decent Sci-Fi/action films then you'll want to see this again.