Good CGI and Cinematography but bad acting and direction ruins a good story.

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2013)

The movie was a sci-Fi, action genre, about a post alien invasion world, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is the protagonist, initially he is well settled into his role as a drone technician, who is waiting for an extraction to an alien planet as earth is being abandoned after the alien invasion. He is assisted by his partner Victoria Olsen (Andrea Riseborough) who guides him by serving as flight report desk, as she talks with Sally (Mellisa Leo) who is overseeing the extraction mission. They are neutralizing aliens who are part of the invasion force with the help of automated weaponized drones. On a mission of scouting the area Jack sees a forced reentry of a space module, which he investigates and suddenly finds someone he has already seen in his dreams. He then goes about trying to find out who she is and uncovers all the mystery that surrounds his dreams.
The movie is well paced and the action sequences are well-distributed, they have tried adding a lot of character strength to Jack Harper along the way. There were some surprising "cameos" by Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Costner-Waldau but felt other characters were not given clarity or screen time. The cinematography was well done with beautiful panoramic & CGI shoots of post-invasion alien world, showing grim surreal landscapes. I wish the sound effect was more complementary to the heroism and action theme but it was dull and generic. Wardrobe design was "interesting'" especially the wardrobe of the resistance, but I guess they were trying to stick to the comic book art ideas. The drone chases were well choreographed, there were obvious similarities to other Sci-Fi action movies but it does have sprinkled original ideas. All the action sequences of Tom Cruise has "generic tom cruise" action moment, cliffhanging almost falling into the ground below, escaping from a blast and is blown through the air , those ideas are getting stale for Mr. Cruise!
The weakest parts of the movie was the two female leads, especially Olgo Kurylenko whose acting was sub par but both the female leads look pretty on-screen, so kudos for that. Except for Jack Harper, no other character could sink their teeth in the story line leaving too much of Jack Harper and too little of everyone else, makes me wonder why the movie was not called Jack Harper, acting is also sub par from the lead but acting is not tom cruise's identity, and almost every close framed shoot of the actors looked like they were forced into their monologues. Morgan Freeman stands out with his monologue delivery as he does a version of a Samuel L Jackson! But all actors did not bring their A-Game, especially the lead did not shine his presence on the screen. Nikolaj Costner- Waldau had a better action hero presence on the screen than Tom Cruise in the movie.
The hardest part of every comic to movie adaptation is there is a sense of surreal predictability to it and only the few movies can hold it together with strong acting, soundtrack, and cast. For action movie junkies it will work fine, but for normal movie watcher they might be disappointed especially if they go in with high expectation.
Rating of the Movie – 6 / 10
+ —- Cinematography, Costume Design, CGI work, Morgan freeman doing a monologue!

—- Acting from all the leads, sound effects.

Will I ever see it again? —— NOPE!