A decent popcorn flick not intended for thought-provoking movie buffs.

Rating: 6/10 (5 June 2013)

Oblivion is a pretty flawed film but it does have some nice visuals. It was filmed with 2D digital film cameras, so that saves the audience from having to suffer another poorly done 3D experience. Regardless of the film looking rather nice, the story is a bit cluttered and has a tone of logic problems. There's something regarding Tom Cruise's character and his boss named Sally, and memories/dreams that Cruise keeps having that are explained as the movie progresses. I refuse to spoil the plot because I like as many people as possible reading these reviews to be free of ruining the film for them.
Let me start with the pros of Oblivion; the world of Oblivion is unique somewhat, yet sterile. The war torn land of planet Earth is absolutely dirty, but Cruise's base in the sky is an Apple-level of silky smooth and perfect technology. It's like the Star Wars prequels production designer teamed up with the production designers of The Terminator franchise to make this depressing land have a subtle technological beauty to it.
The action sequences are also pretty good. There are a lot of high-octane scenes, from chase scenes to scenes where Tom Cruise isn't fully prepared for a battle. Morgan Freeman was a good choice for the mysterious "head-of-a-post-apocalyptic-resistance" character, akin to Morpheus.
Now time for the cons; the pacing had the same pacing issues in Tron: Legacy, Joseph Kosinski's first directorial effort. The pacing was slowed down not so much by the editing but the character's pacing of development and their dialogue. The dialogue came out at times as just being awkwardly written or were said in ways that some socially awkward kid would try to start a conversation with. The music wasn't all that memorable but it was okay from what I remember of it.
While Oblivion isn't a reboot or remake or re-imagining of any science fiction movies or books, it borrows a tone of ideas and visuals from classic science fiction. However some of these were intensionally done, like the subtle Planet of the Apes reference (I'm not saying), The Matrix, some references to Star Wars (obviously), and even lesser science fiction properties like the Aeon Flux movie (don't worry; the reference was only a coincidence that I just noticed. Hell, the similarity is done A LOT better here).
The film is recycled from other movies but introduces audience newcomers to science fiction (if there are any real newcomers at all) and reintroduces the themes of the films it payed homage to, so they can be passed on to a new generation of movie buffs.
Not great, simply good, entertaining stuff that you can kill some time with. I give Oblivion 6/10.