Tom Cruise and Olga Kurylenko in a scene from Oblivion Source: Supplied
MOVIE REVIEW: This ambitious slab of event-movie-sized science fiction is being released rather stealthily for a production of its scale.
Not that there's any real need to go into Oblivion armed with maximum early intel. Tom Cruise is the star. The future is the setting. The planet which we know, love and live on is toast.
That should be enough to get your full attention, particularly after a month or so of films seemingly designed to vaguely distract, at best.
First things first: do not be late for the opening act of Oblivion. It is truly stunning, establishing a fascinating premise that provokes intense curiosity and a fair bit of awe as well.
The year is 2077. Some kind of mysterious skirmish with aliens has all but extinguished Earth. Any human survivors now live on a moon out Saturn way.
There are still some resources left that can be extracted from our decrepit planet, and this dangerous job is performed by a team of two.
Jack Harper (Cruise) is an ex-Marine who services the high-tech, ocean-mining equipment still in operation. He lives in a mission-control station located above the clouds with Victoria Olsen (Andrea Riseborough), who acts as strategic liaison with their bosses elsewhere in the solar system.
Jack and Victoria also have a reverse Adam-and-Eve thing going on. Helps pass the time in the absence of any TV or internet, I guess.
It must be added that Jack and Victoria are not alone on Earth. Their every move is tracked by strange ground-based beings known as Scavs.
They want the last vestiges of humankind erased for good.
Whenever Jack ventures into the field, all he has for protection from the Scavs are the Drones: a fleet of airborne robots best likened to flying R2-D2s equipped with death rays.
To this point, Oblivion has made a very strong impression with its chilling vision of a world running on empty. The possibilities ahead look downright exciting.
Unfortunately, it is here some serious scripting and/or editing problems - it is hard to tell which is the main culprit - begin to break the thrilling spell that has been cast.
As a result, the effect can often switch from jaw-dropping to head-scratching (and back again) very quickly.
You may notice from a cursory glance at the cast list accompanying this review that other characters have a role to play in Jack and Victoria's story. How, where and when they enter and leave the picture is not for me to say. Considering the regular bouts of incoherence that blight this tale, Oblivion has a limited number of storytelling twists which work well. Again, too much advance knowledge will ruin the best this erratic film has to offer.
Overall, Oblivion ultimately deserves the benefit of the doubt thanks to a suite of astonishing set-piece sequences, and an anchoring performance of undeniable quality from the much-maligned Cruise.
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Oblivion [M]
Rating: 3/5
Director: Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough (above), Olga Kurylenko, Melissa Leo, Nikolas Coster-Waldau
"For reasons unclear the end could be near"
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