Best Sci-Fi Film since INCEPTION

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2013)

Yes, better than MELANCHOLIA, MONSTERS, SOURCE CODE, DREDD and AVENGERS ASSEMBLE - all good science fiction, but not up at this level. Way, way better than LOOPER, PROMETHEUS, SUPER 8 and Kosinski's own TRON: LEGACY.
OBLIVION was a total surprise. Intelligent, exciting, properly large- scale spectacular and ultimately thoughtful, and rather heartbreaking.
Cruise is magnificent, Riseborough is magnetic and enigmatic, and Morgan Freeman's brief screen time stays just the right side of Hollywood cliché.
The M83 score is beautiful .. and in the final twenty minutes, OBLIVION does exactly what you want it to do - it goes big. Very big. It really gives you everything.
There are surprises - stay clear of spoilers - which are handled intelligently and logically. Think it through afterwards, and you'll find the normal slightly head-scratching plot holes, but really very few.
I expected 2013's best science-fiction films to be ELYSIUM and GRAVITY, and went in confident that OBLIVION would look gorgeous, but mean nothing. I was wrong. This sets the bar very, very high for Neil Blomkamp and Alfonso Cuaron. 2013 may just be the best year for science fiction in a very long time.