The visuals are surely not prone to Oblivion

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2013)

In a vast seemingly endless landscape, Jak travels on a bike surrounded by what appears to be the remnants of the Manhattan Bridge. In another shot, Jak's Bubbleship circles a destroyed football stadium which hosted the last Superbowl before the alien invasion that destroyed earth. These are simply two of the many shots that you see in Oblivion showing a ravaged Earth circa 2077. And they're a sight to behold no matter the countless times such sights have been and shall continue to be shown on celluloid. The effects blend in seamlessly and after the initial few shots, it ceases to matter what's real and what's digital.
For a futuristic sci-fi that claims to be original (and it is if Kosinski's unpublished graphic novel by the same name is considered just that: unpublished), Kosinski nails the look and atmosphere. But then, Kosinski's already done that in Tron: Legacy, his last outing, which was no less of a visual achievement by any means. Fortunately, at least for me, this one comes out to be a tad bit better than his previous attempt.
Jak Harper and Victora a.k.a. Vika work as a team with Vika serving as the operator and Jak handling the drone maintenance work on Earth: repairing drones that have been programmed to destroy any alien life on sight. Earth was destroyed in an alien attack 60 years ago and while the humans won the war, the planet was sabotaged beyond habitation. On one of his routine missions, Jak encounters a flying object that crash lands on Earth. It turns out that there were five objects housing humans with one of them resembling a woman Jak has been seeing frequently in his dreams. Jak rescues her and the real story takes off from there.
Joseph Kosinski takes the simple route and has the film begin with a narration by Cruise explained the aforementioned scenario. Perhaps he chose to do it because the film already has plenty of surprises in store in the second half and as such, there was no need to obscure Earth's current situation. As expected, the movie feels like a well polished product in all departments. Cruise, Olga and Andrea turn in pretty decent performances despite having no distinct character arcs to follow. Cruise in particular gives in a very, shall I say, sincere performance playing it low key. Freeman essays his cameo with ease. The Zimmerish music does get a bit repetitive and generic but manages to keep the tension at appropriate levels which suits my tastes so that'll be a plus for me. And thankfully, the movie refuses to go all out into Haloesque action mode for a long time with the action being interspersed and well spaced and most importantly, kept to as much as is required and no more.
What you will take in the end with Oblivion are the visuals. Lets face it, by the time the whole movie ends, you'll realize all the plots elements have been borrowed from a flick or two in the past. But these days, its not only about an original plot but an original execution. And for a movie that's not a remake, or a sequel, or an established comic book or adapted novel, Oblivion does the job. It may not be an Avatar but Oblivion is decent enough for a one time watch. And going by the visuals, that watch is best suited for the big screen.
Score: 7.5 / 10