Cast: Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman
Direction: Joseph Kosinski
Genre: Sci-Fi
Duration: 2 hours 5 minutes
STORY: Earth is destroyed while repelling an alien invasion. 60 years later, Jack (Tom Cruise) a drone repairman, is assigned to a nuclear-ravaged earth to save humanity. He patrols the wrecked planet and kills alien scavengers. However, a few recurring dreams make him question his mission and identity.

MOVIE Review: Assisting Jack is Vika ( Andrea Riseborough) who monitors his activities and sends help. The two hope to emigrate the humans left on earth to Titan (Saturn’s moon) for mankind to survive. However, random memory flashes of a woman ( Olga Kurylenko) in pre-war New York leave Jack pondering his past.

Oblivion is not your video game-esque, fast-paced scifi action film which offers cheap thrills. It’s a profound, cerebral drama which focuses on Jack’s inner journey and his relentless search for identity.

In spite of Joseph Kosinski’s unhurried approach towards the film’s buildup, he manages to keep you thoroughly engaged, thanks to brilliant production design and clever imagination. Spectacular images of planetary ruin, ravaged surfaces, barren landscapes, floating houses on the clouds, futuristic aircrafts, powerful drones and the strength of a complex restless mind, Oblivion manages to capture the beauty of it all with astounding reality. In terms of story-telling, the film stays unpredictable, thus convincing us to patiently wait as the mystery unfolds, even when it feels a tad directionless at times.

Like a novel, the film stays unputdownable till the end. After Jack Reacher, ‘I-want-to-be-versatile’ Tom Cruise once again slips into a role which does not require his trademark charm or good looks and succeeds better this time as the role doesn’t require him to be stoic either. Cruise displays the inner turmoil of his character brilliantly, in spite of not having any memorable dialogues at his disposal. Unfortunately, Morgan Freeman is wasted.

Oblivion is primarily a great visual experience. The mystifying sombreness of a post-apocalyptic earth has been captured brilliantly.