Stylish sci fi with a great story

Rating: 8/10 (13 October 2014)

In the future, humans battle invading aliens, use nuclear weapons, and end up winning the war after pretty much destroying life on earth. The moon also was destroyed in the process. Humans are now living on Titan but have some water-based energy-producing devices on earth. Drones monitor the area to protect these devices from alien "scavs". A pair of humans live on earth to repair and monitor drones in a some specific area of earth. Well, they live in a house way up high over the clouds. Jack and Victoria are this team and they communicate with some mission control lady in Tet, which is some floating station. They are two weeks away from moving to Titan.
Victoria, called Vika for some reason, is all about the rules, of which they are plenty. Her job is to stay at home and monitor Jack during his patrols and communicate with control. Jack patrols the wasteland, looks for downed drones, repairs them, always watching out for the scavs. But he's also curious and interested about life on earth before the war. He is nostalgic. And lives somewhat of a double life. He keeps a cabin by a lake filled with human things--books, vinyl records, and other stuff he finds during his patrols. He also has visions of life in the past and of a woman.
He starts finding strange things though. One day a craft crashes. At the crash site he finds humans in a pods, but immediately drones shot the pods. Jack manages to save one pod. Inside is a woman who looks just like the woman in his visions. He takes her home and on trips. One day the scavs grab them. And from there Jack starts a journey that will challenge everything he believes in and will change everything.
Oblivion is an enjoyable science fiction flick. It's stylish while some of the style is questionable. The house Jack and Vika live in is gorgeous and the views and sceneries are pretty neat. The famous bubble ship on the other hand is a bit goofy. Everything is a bubble here. Tet and the energy station looks interesting but we don't get to see much of those.
Acting is alright. Freeman gets the usual Freeman role. He must be getting tired of them. Cruise is reliable as always. Olga is lovely. But I would have cast someone else as Victoria though.
It's the story here that shines, although I think the director could have presented it in a more exciting way. The movie is also about 20-30 minutes too long. Oddly enough while it shouldn't be at all, toward the end it starts becoming depressing, mainly because of the music and the pace.