Improves slightly after a slow start, but it's a little too dry and heavy-going for my liking (mild spoliers)

Rating: 5/10 (7 July 2019)

The year is 2077 and Earth as we know has been all but wiped out with large areas being uninhabitable due to high levels of radiation being present as a result of several years of war with the scavengers. The slight upshot is that humans won the war and a pair of technicians Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) and Jack (Tom Cruise) are tasked with general security of the earth & maintaining the drones that are used to sweep the area. However, when drones begin to disappear in mysterious circumstances and when Jack discovers a group of survivors who have crash-landed on Earth he begins to question who he once was and what he has now become....
Slow-burning and occasionally tedious, Oblivion,, nevertheless does have a moderately interesting story; I did want to find out more about who was down there and how they were surviving etc. It's a good job really that the film has this 'hook' in the first half as a lot of what else we see going on away from Earth isn't all that interesting; Cruise and Riseborough are not a good fit together and their on-screen chemistry is simply awful. Riseborough fares worst overall though as we learn practically nothing about her character (although this is no great loss in the grand scheme of things in that she isn't a particularly compelling character in the first place). I could also have done without some of Jack's silly speeches (he spends considerable time rambling on about a ball game that once took place before the war and seems to remember it quite vividly - remarkable for a man who had his memory wiped out 5 years ago. While we're on the subject, how was Jack able to remember where he lived when his memory had been wiped?
Things improve slightly in the second half when Jack begins to learn more about himself and what happened to him 'pre-war' (I won't say anymore than that). However, why it takes around an hour to get to this point is anyone's guess? The second half is better if only due to the pacing and the fact that Cruise shares more screen time with Kurylenko in the second half of the picture and it has to be said that Cruise's chemistry with Kurylenko is arguably better than it is with Riseborough.
Although some parts work and some characters have better chemistry than others (as highlighted above) I was a little disappointed with some of the acting; quite a large number of the actors look as though they're reading lines from an autocue and for me a lot of the cast looked a little bored. I appreciate that Cruise tries to play this straight (he's brought a lot of cocky smugness to his films in the past which has always provided mixed results) but I have to admit that seeing him in Oblivion I would have liked to have seen a bit more dynamism and swagger; the truth is that he isn't great here and despite the backstory I didn't find him all that compelling as a character. Riseborough is dull and does nothing of real interest. Kurylenko is of more interest (particularly when we learn who she is), but again there's little development or depth to her character which then falls back on her chemistry with Cruise which as I've mentioned isn't too bad all things being considered. Freeman is OK here, but he's clearly slumming it and Game Of Thrones Nikolaj Coster-Waldau isn't given enough to do to really make an impression.
For me, Oblivion was far too serious and dry and with a whole host of poorly developed characters it's quite a tough film to endure. This is capped off by a predictable ending which should have been powerful, but due to the fact that I never really grew to know or feel a great deal for the characters I left the film feeling indifferent and unimpressed.