Oblivion: Is this new sci-fi epic as good as everyone says it is?

Today, I look at the new sci-fi film starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman.

Oblivion:
In the year 2077, Earth has been abandoned after nuclear war with aliens 60 years before. Jack Harper and Victoria Olsen are the "clean-up crew", a team of two who are stationed in a base on Earth, who program and repair robotic drones who scavenge the Earth for resources and leftover aliens. They are two weeks away from the end of their long assignment, and then get to join the rest of Earth's survivors on a safe haven they created on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. But towards the end of their mission, Harper makes a grave mistake, and begins to uncover some secrets. Secrets that have been haunting his dreams for a long time, secrets that put his life in danger, things his employers have been trying to hide from him for a very long time. Harper must now evade his own drones and must solve the puzzle of what really happened to Earth 60 years ago...  Tom Cruise gives a surprisingly powerful performance as Harper, and he's what holds the movie together. Tom Cruise, after many successes like Jack Reacher and Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, proves he's come back in a big way, and this film cements him as a big star once more, and he's earned my respect as an actor again, despite all that crazy Scientology stuff. The film itself I very, well, uneven. It starts as a slow, sci-fi drama, and then starts picking up again with some thrilling action sequences, which are brief, then goes back to slow drama, then to some fast-paced action, to slow drama, action, drama. It's very up-and-down, I would've preferred them maintain a consistent, building pace rather than continue to do the up-and-down thing. The trailer for this film reveals a little more than should've been revealed. In fact, after a while in the film, I went over the trailer in my head, and predicted some of the things that were going to happen based on a few things in the trailer that revealed too much. The rest of the cast are great. Morgan Freeman puts his all into a character that's only a supporting role, but this role was a little blandly written, and Freeman was only chosen for his star power, not for his excellent acting skills. He's kind of wasted here. The beautiful Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace, Seven Psychopaths) is pretty damn good, but again, this could have gone to anyone. Andrea Riseborough, another attractive actress, is great in the movie, but again, could've really gone to anyone. The other cast members: Melissa Leo and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) do good jobs. Stuntwoman Zoe Bell makes a cameo as a survivor soldier. The special effects are spectacular. The set design and design of the abandoned Earth are amazing. The design of Harper's home/base is strikingly beautiful, a little slice of futuristic heaven. The images of the desolate wasteland called Earth are incredibly shocking, the iconic locations such as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the Washington Monument are in ruins, it's kind of a disturbing and melancholy sight. The camerawork and the direction of action sequences are fantastic. The sweeping shots of barren landscapes are great. I can't praise the look of this film and cinematography enough. The action scenes are well-directed, and the eerie sequence in which Harper investigates an abandoned underground library is incredibly tense, especially when the aliens appear to be watching from the shadows. The film is directed by Joseph Kosinski, based off his unpublished graphic novel from Radical Comics. Kosinski is well-known for directing Disney's 2012 sci-fi adventure Tron: Legacy, the highly anticipated but slightly mediocre sequel to the 1982 cult hit Tron, as well as directing the "Starry Night" commercial for Halo 3, as well as "Mad World", the award-winning ad for sci-fi shooting game Gears of War. Kosinski intended the film as both an original sci-fi film, and a throwback to the 70's dystopian sci-fi films. The film is almost a mix between the two, as some bits feel like watered-down bits from better films, and others feel like really original, cool concepts. The writing and direction are really good, but the pacing and overall story got me. I was trying really, really hard to like this film, but I never got past it being just good, not really good, not great. Just good. Oblivion has some exhilarating and even provocative moments, but it's overshadowed by the uneven pacing and overall thin plot, despite wonderful special effects, cool production design, and entertaining action sequences. 3/5 stars.


(Images: Wikipedia, collider.com, moviedeskback.com, digitalspy.com)