Oblivion (2013)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 216
Fresh: 116 | Rotten: 100
Visually striking but thinly scripted, Oblivion benefits greatly from its strong production values and an excellent performance from Tom Cruise.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 20
Visually striking but thinly scripted, Oblivion benefits greatly from its strong production values and an excellent performance from Tom Cruise.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 135,605
Movie Info
Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the visionary director of TRON: Legacy and producers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man's confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind. 2077: Jack Harper (Cruise) serves as a security repairmen stationed on an evacuated Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital
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Cast
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Tom Cruise
Jack Harper -
Olga Kurylenko
Julia Rusakova -
Morgan Freeman
Beech -
Andrea Riseborough
Victoria "Vika" Olse... -
Nikolaj Coster-Walda...
Sykes -
Melissa Leo
Sally -
Zoe Bell
Kara
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Oblivion Trailer & Photos
All Critics (216) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (116) | Rotten (100) | DVD (3)
Feels ever more grounded and stuck ...
Top CriticWas Cruise trying to beat out fellow Scientologist John Travolta for the honor of starring in the dumbest sci-fi epic ever?
If nothing else, "Oblivion" will go down in film history as the movie where Tom Cruise pilots a white, sperm-shaped craft into a giant space uterus.
This is the sci-fi movie equivalent of a pretty damn good cover band.
Glossy, derivative, ambitious and fatally underpowered.
The story eventually devolves into a grab bag of sci-fi tropes but, as with so many other Cruise productions, the sheer scale of everything is so mind-numbing that you may not notice.
Kosinski's totality of vision may not look or feel entirely original but is striking and memorable all the same.
Are we really seeing a movie called "Oblivion" at all? Or is it merely a succession of concepts pulled from the likes of "Blade Runner," "Planet of the Apes," "Total Recall" and even the director's own "Tron: Legacy?"
Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion is far from original and instead acts as yet another genre rip-off that looks shiny and expensive, but is hollow and lifeless where it counts
Oblivion is a deliberate and beautifully crafted picture that embraces genre trappings without sacrificing the emotional heft of pure drama.
...beautifully designed but derivative science fiction that suffers more than it benefits from Tom Cruise's turbo-charged energy.
Amazing computer-generated imagery and a few nifty action beats, but suffers from a lack of human connection.
This visually beautiful film falters with a meandering plot.
Paying lip service to sci-fi tropes, this hapless futuristic romp pilfers liberally without adding any depth.
In the third act, motives and loyalties get twisted around so frequently that it becomes difficult to keep track of what anyone is fighting for in the first place.
That it can't match the classics it takes as inspiration shouldn't be used to condemn it too harshly.
A derivative sci-fi drama that blends some nifty plot twists with its mysteriously serene futuristic adventure.
A classic case of concept being better than execution.
An intriguing look lacks a plot to match
Oblivion is too somber to cater in escapist thrills and too vacuous to offer emotional or intellectual engagement.
It's exactly the sort of cheesy, awkward sci-fi junk Cruise's savior L. Ron Hubbard used to crank out before he ventured into the lucrative field of cult religion.
The action sequences are well-constructed, but forced: They're concessions to the marketplace, and they interfere with the movie's true interest in the routine rather than the extremes of postapocalyptic survival.
Large-scale, original sci-fi is a hard thing to come by these days, and despite its familiar story Oblivion does dream up some great ideas
An admirable failure; an overlong, awkwardly paced mishmash of cool but familiar ideas and all-too predictable plot-twists.
really no more derivative a science fiction thriller than most these days, it just has the unfortunate tendency of seeming to be more obvious about it
Unfortunately, when the story seems like an afterthought and the audience can't follow the plot progression, the movie ultimately fails
Audience Reviews for Oblivion
Super Reviewer
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- Jack Harper: How can a man die better?
- Sally: You don't have to die, Jack. She doesn't have to die.
- Jack Harper: Everybody dies, Sally. The thing is, to die well.
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- Jack Harper: What Horatius said was, "How can a man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods."
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- Jack Harper: Yes Sally we are an effective team.
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- Jack Harper: I am Jack Harper. And I am home.
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- Jack Harper: If we have souls, they're made of the love we share. Undimmed by time, unbound by death.
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- Jack Harper: Is it possible to miss a place you've never been, to mourn a time you've never lived?
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Awesome script, but pathetic visuals | 18 days ago | 225 |
| So explain this to me (Spoilers inside) | 6 days ago | 72 |
| I tried to watch it... | 43 days ago | 46 |
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Latest News on Oblivion
August 6, 2013:
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July 23, 2013:
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Foreign Titles
- Oblivion (DE)
- Oblivion (UK)
In the year 2077, Earth has been obliterated by an alien race and the surviving members of humanity have moved on to inhabit Saturnâ??s moon, Titan. Jack (Tom Cruise) and his wife Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) have remained on earth, though, to protect machinery harvesting the planetâ??s resources before Jack begins to suspect that his mission isnâ??t as straightforward as he thought it was.
Director Joseph Kosinski follows up his previous science fiction film â??Tron Legacyâ?? with another venture into the future. He works from his own graphic novel and delivers an intriguing premise that pays homage to classic Sci-Fi movies like â??2001: A Space Odysseyâ?? and â??Planet of the Apesâ??. His setting is suitably bleak (captured beautifully by cinematographer Claudio Miranda), his use of visuals are striking and his tone is perfectly sombre. In fact, Kosinski actually assembles a good addition to the science fiction genre. Unfortunately, his assembly soon falls apart due to a script thatâ??s devoid of any substance or characters that we can invest in. The pace is lethargic, to say the least, which only really registers that a lot of the film is just padding. Nothing happens for a good chunk of the movie and when the plot is finally opened up, it fails to make sense or hold any form of coherence. Even if it did, your likely to have lost interest by that point anyway. Cruise wanders around aimlessly (presumably in search of characterisation) and the likes of Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau neednâ??t have turned up at all. The most frustrating thing overall, though, is that the big reveal is one that weâ??ve seen many times before and all, but completely, rips-off Duncan Jonesâ?? far superior â??Moonâ??. The similarities are almost shocking and I wouldnâ??t have been surprised to have seen Jonesâ?? name on the screenwriting credits.
Kosinski is a director that may yet find his feet. He certainly has an eye for sumptuous visuals and can stage a fine action set-piece. However, he really needs to work on a coherent narrative and one that isnâ??t as dull or desolate as the landscape that his characters roam.
Mark Walker