Oblivion - Proper SF despite a couple of pretty serious mistakes

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2013)

Summary: The world was attacked by the Scavengers. They destroyed the moon, which caused many natural disasters across the planet. The war was eventually won by the humans after deploying nuclear weaponry, but afterward the planet was mostly uninhabitable. The humans now live on Titan, a moon of Saturn, apart from a few who stayed behind in a large space station, or on earth, where large machines now harvest water for fusion energy. Some remaining Scavengers continue to disrupt that process. Drones defend the machines, and a few humans remain to repair the drones if they get damaged.
Jack (Cruise) is such a repairman. Assisted by his communications partner and girlfriend Vika (Riseborough) he finds damaged drones and repairs them, or takes them back to his base/home if he doesn't have the parts to repair them on the spot. Jack often dreams of a woman (Kurylenko), and is haunted by several "memories" that he is not supposed to have because of a memory wipe he had to undertake for security reasons. This causes him to question the things around him, and gets him into trouble. I will stop here, because otherwise I will reveal too much.
Oblivion is a post-apocalyptic SF movie with a couple of upsides and a couple of downsides. Let me start with the downsides, so I can end on a positive note. ;-)
1. The movie contains lots of plot ideas that were already used in other movies. It's not a one on one copy of another SF movie, but there are many things that are not very original.
2. The movie is pretty predictable. There were many plot twists that I saw coming, even though I am pretty naive when I am watching movies. I didn't really mind this, but I am sure some will.
3. There is a pretty extensive list of mistakes they made in the movie. Some of them bothered me a bit, most of them not really, but if you are a severe critic when watching movies, they might stop you from enjoying the movie. Other reviews reveal that this is a serious possibility.
4. The acting isn't perfect. Cruise does a decent job, but the problems arise with the supporting cast. They just don't seem to get the chance to have their characters develop properly. Freeman should have had way more screen time, and Riseborough also doesn't get the chance to make Vika grow on us. Kurylenko does get quite some time to have her character develop, but she seems to just underperform. Not sure who is to blame here though. Might be the director's fault instead of Kurylenko's.
Now, enough with the criticism. Time for some upsides! And the movie deserves a positive end note, because I enjoyed watching it a lot, despite of its flaws.
1. Visually, the movie is spectacular! The large machines look great, the destroyed moon looks great, the action scenes are really nice and the combat drones are outright frightening. Their speed and efficiency are really impressive. The landscapes from the destroyed planet Earth are also very beautifully made.
2. The plot, though somewhat unoriginal and containing many errors, is actually really interesting. The starting point is nice, and there are many twists that I liked. An SF fan should definitely not be disappointed by it. If we compare this plot to say Star Trek (2009) or the Transformers movies, it is quite a relief to finally watch a proper story again.
3. The speed of the movie is very good! If you read other reviews, you will find that some thought the movie was slow. Perhaps they liked the speed of the last Total Recall movie, but normal movie fans will find one big roller-coaster of action sequences and special effects just tiring and pointless. The slower pace in Oblivion helps us familiarize with the characters and the story. If the movie would have been any faster than this, the story would have become one big mess and we would not at all have been able to enjoy character development (which I feel was already lacking a bit in the current pace).
Conclusion: I would rate this movie a 7/10. Yes, there are many flaws, but I enjoyed the movie a lot, and there is lots to enjoy about it. Most SF movies have plot errors, but that's what you get if you make a movie with a complex plot, action sequences, special effects, a love story and so on. SF movies are never perfect, and this one is a solid effort. To a general audience I would say 'mildly recommended'. For SF fans it's a must see, though it probably won't become your all time favorite.