Doesn't have an original idea in its entire bloated running time

Rating: 4/10 (6 June 2014)

After a studio bidding war for director Joseph Kosinski's incomplete graphic novel, I can only image the pitch he gave - a mash up of every damn sci-fi film, some Wall-e, visual cues from 2001, Independence Day, Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner and so on. Oblivion is a tedious experience that just makes you want to revisit the much better films it borrows from. Tom Cruise is in his comfort zone here, and he's fine enough playing a typical Tom Cruise character. As evidenced from his previous film, Kosinski can't direct women or write for women, he just takes some generic hotties and projects some immature inner geek onto them either being bad-asses or just eye candy. It's always nice to see babes with perfect hair and lipstick and make-up running around in an apocalyptic setting. Morgan Freeman provides some much needed comedy in this otherwise dour film, though it should be noted that comedy is unintentional and his performance ranks up there with his previous sci-fi film Dreamcatcher. The film is slick looking, but relatively bland and the art direction looks like it took cues from an over sized apple store. There is some nice location work, with some CG elements carefully blended in, but beyond that, there's very little to recommend in Oblivion.