A very average SCI Fi film

Rating: 5/10 (17 April 2013)

Even from the opening monologue of this film, you can tell that there is something just not quite right with the information that is being presented to the audience. The year is 2077. Fifty (50) years prior an alien invasion force known simply as "The Scavengers" or just plain "Scavs" destroyed the Earth's moon causing catastrophic global nature disasters (i.e. – earthquakes, tidal waves, tsunamis, etc.). Cities were toppled, worldwide panic and chaos followed, then the alien invasion commenced. In order to fight off the alien attackers, the world nuclear arsenal was dispatched. The War was won, but the planet was lost due to nuclear contamination leaving most of the planet uninhabitable. What was let of humanity was forced to leave the planet, and colonized on Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is Tech 49, one of the last few humans stationed on the planet. He lives in a tower thousands of feet above the Earth where he and his communications officer and lover Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are part of an operation to extract the planet's remaining resources, especially water. Jack and Victoria maintain contact with civilization via a video link with their commander, Sally (Melissa Leo), and are due to join the rest of humanity on Titan in two weeks. Assisting Jack in his work are weaponized 'drones', airborne machines that scour the landscape to destroy the remaining alien resistance.
Five years prior the government mandated mandatory memory wipes; however, Jack is suffering from recurring dreams and flashbacks of New York before the invasion and an unknown woman. This is quite peculiar given that New York was destroyed some fifty (50) years prior, and in the dreams Jack is an adult. Even more strange is this highly expansive and elaborate drone system that was erected to defend a devastated and abandoned planet. However, things really start to get interesting when 'the scavs' activate a homing beacon and a spaceship containing human bodies in stasis crash lands on the planet.
I have nothing negative to say with regards to "Oblivion". The film was fine. However, is 'fine' what you are looking for when you are going to see a Sci Fi film??? I THINK NOT!!! There is nothing (forgive the pun) "EARTH-SCATTERING" about this film. The story is fine, the plot twist works, the acting and on screen chemistry are okay. But I did not leave this film thinking to myself, "OMG, THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!" It was more like "Oh, okay, yeah that seems to explain everything." I'm sure this weekend this film will do stellar business; however, I believe word-of-mouth will bring sharp declines in the following week's receipts. For those of you planning to see this film regardless of this review, do yourself a favor and see it during the Matinée Bargain showings. I would actually suggest waiting for its release to DVD or On DEMAND. Again, this is not a HORRENDOUS film; but it is a quite AVERAGE film.