Unoriginal, but enjoyable sci-fi

Rating: 6/10 (20 April 2013)

Despite being marketed as both "groundbreaking" and "original", 'Oblivion is neither. Joseph Kosinki's follow-up to 2010's surprisingly likable 'Tron Legacy', contains elements of so many sci-fi movies that we've seen before – there's 'Total Recall', '2001: a Space Odyssey', 'Moon', 'Star Wars', 'Star Trek', 'Planet of the Apes' etc. There's a good chance that you may have seen at least one of those and thus, you will probably recognise something from them in 'Oblivion'. However, that's not to say this is a bad film by any means – it's not – but it isn't anything remotely new.
In an opening voice-over, Tom Cruise's character Jack Harper outlines how a group of aliens called Scavengers (nicknamed 'Scavs') obliterated half of the moon and engaged in a war with the people of Earth, who eventually won the war with the use of nuclear weapons, which consequently damaged the planet's ecosystem. The majority of the Earth's population consequently embarked on a giant spacecraft. Jack Harper, one of only two people left on the planet, is a repairman who fixes drones to help rebuild the Earth's ecosystem. Yes, sort of like a human version of 'WALL-E'. However, when a mysterious woman (Olga Kurylenko) falls from the sky (literally), Harper begins to question all he knew.
Cruise, a perfectly fine screen presence, holds the screen very well and remains a consistently engaging figure throughout. His performance here is nothing to champion his work in 'Magnolia' or 'Born on the Fourth of July', but he makes Harper a likable lead. Olga Kurylenko and Andrea Riseborough try their best with the material, despite being given two arguably underwritten roles. Morgan Freeman unfortunately, is wasted with little more to do than act as Basil Exposition, although to be fair, no one delivers exposition quite like Freeman. Nikolaj Coaster Waldau is similarly wasted, which is a shame, given his ever-great turn as Jaime Lannister in 'Game of Thrones'.
What helps the film greatly are its Claudio Miranda-shot visuals which are truly spectacular, from the pristine white of the sky tower's interior where Harper lives to the sight of the Brooklyn Bridge dangling between two sides of a chasm. The use of Iceland as the film's shooting location makes a nice change from many other sci-fi movies, with the country's natural beauty stunningly captured.
'Oblivion' is on a similar level to 'Tron Legacy'; it contains solid performances and strong visuals that manage to overcome a mediocre script, however its disappointingly ordinary M83 soundtrack doesn't rival Daft Punk's scoring on the latter. Overall, it's nothing you haven't seen before (aside from the beautiful Icelandic vistas), but if you want solidly enjoyable sci-fi action that's never boring, you got it.