A stunningly beautiful, mind twisting sci-fi thrill-ride. Just don't watch trailers.

Rating: 9/10 (7 September 2016)

As I said, the biggest problem with this movie is the fact that trailers ruin so many other-wise completely unexpected plot twists. And since I advised you to stay away from those, I feel like it's my duty to tell you what you need to know about the film before going into it. Here we go. Earth got invaded by aliens, we won the war by ruining it with nukes and now we are getting ready to leave it and Tom Cruise's character Jack Harper, who is one of the last few people still on Earth, is tasked with defending the final stages of preparation of our departure. That's it. Very briefly that's all you need to know.
This movie does have a slow build-up, introducing you to our two main characters of Tom Cruise and Andrea Riseborough, followed by a mind-blowingly beautiful reveal of the world they live in and their job in it. Immediately you can tell that something is not right in this world, that there is something greater going on and I adored this aspect of the film. You also get to see some cool action sequences that mainly introduce you to the so called scaves, the renegades of an alien army that attacked us.
Now it's time to talk about by far the best thing about this film. Cinematography and visual effects. They. Are. Mesmerizing. The gorgeous desolate wasteland in an awe-inspiring wide shots (often notably shot in camera) and completely seamless CGI make Oblivion one of the most beautifully looking films I have seen in my life. Let me emphasize this... CGI is completely seamless. There are so many instances where I just can't tell if what I'm seeing is real or visual effects. When the CGI is so good that you can't tell that it's CGI, that is praise-worthy. There is always that one shot that makes you go "oh, that's CGI". There is not a shot that is even remotely close to that in Oblivion. Same goes to Cladio Miranda, once again proving that he is one of the best cinematographers we have.
The structure of the story is so that you can learn and discover new things about the past and the events taking place prior to the world's desolation through flashbacks and this is where we get to my one very slight problem with the film. Though these flashbacks are very meaningful, they sometimes take you by surprise, often during a sequence that you were already really sucked in. But they by no mean break the immersion or hinder the storytelling, is just that they often happen when you didn't expect them. This is the only reason this film doesn't get 10 out of 10.
Also, if you ever feel that other characters besides Tom Cruise are kind of underdeveloped just wait until the grand reveal that wonderfully concludes the film, while leaving a good number of thing ambiguous.
Oh, and yeah, the score for the film from M83, huuuhhh... wow.
Overall I adored this film, it's one of the best looking film I've seen, pristinely directed, well acted, mind bending, meaningful... and it leaves us wondering what will be the next visual treat we get from Joseph Kosinski.