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Oblivion Play Trailer Get Showtimes

Oblivion (2013)

tomatometer

56

Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 202
Fresh: 113 | Rotten: 89

Visually striking but thinly scripted, Oblivion benefits greatly from its strong production values and an excellent performance from Tom Cruise.

50

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 19

Visually striking but thinly scripted, Oblivion benefits greatly from its strong production values and an excellent performance from Tom Cruise.

audience

66

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 59,645

My Rating

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

$75.8M

Universal Pictures - Official Site External Icon

Cast

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All Critics (202) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (113) | Rotten (89)

Feels ever more grounded and stuck ...

April 29, 2013 Full Review Source: New Yorker
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Was Cruise trying to beat out fellow Scientologist John Travolta for the honor of starring in the dumbest sci-fi epic ever?

April 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Vulture
Vulture
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

April 21, 2013 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is the sci-fi movie equivalent of a pretty damn good cover band.

April 19, 2013 Full Review Source: Richard Roeper.com
Richard Roeper.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Glossy, derivative, ambitious and fatally underpowered.

April 19, 2013 Full Review Source: CNN.com
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

April 19, 2013 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

May 8, 2013 Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

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

May 7, 2013 Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com
CinemaBlend.com

An admirable failure; an overlong, awkwardly paced mishmash of cool but familiar ideas and all-too predictable plot-twists.

May 3, 2013 Full Review Source: Moviedex
Moviedex

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

May 2, 2013 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk
Q Network Film Desk

Unfortunately, when the story seems like an afterthought and the audience can't follow the plot progression, the movie ultimately fails

May 1, 2013 Full Review Source: AspectRatio.us
AspectRatio.us

"The dream is always the same."

April 28, 2013 Full Review Source: Houston Press
Houston Press

People who need anything remotely resembling an emotional anchor in their movies had best look elsewhere.

April 27, 2013 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy
Antagony & Ecstasy

This big budget, epic science fiction film is engaging enough most of the way, although it does wander in the final act until it finally ends up where you thought it would after some plot twists that are mildly annoying.

April 27, 2013 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope
Laramie Movie Scope

A giant IMAX screen makes a bad movie even worse.

April 27, 2013 Full Review Source: East Bay Express
East Bay Express

OBLIVION is a film with the look being a lot more satisfying than the thought.

April 27, 2013 Full Review Source: Mark Leeper's Reviews
Mark Leeper's Reviews

Tom Cruise is CAPTAIN EO!

April 26, 2013 Full Review Source: Reno News and Review
Reno News and Review

Kosinki is no hack. He's made a gorgeous-looking experience, the kind they invented IMAX to accommodate. He's a pastiche artist, cribbing stylishness and building his own beautiful ice sculpture...

April 26, 2013 Full Review Source: Movies.com
Movies.com

The jam-packed storyline piles on themes and sci-fi clichés, pompously wraps them around an obscure Victorian era poem, then throws in an Andrew Wyeth painting for good cultural measure.

April 26, 2013 Full Review Source: American Profile
American Profile

While the visuals in Oblivion are superb, the plot wanders into more than a few "are you kidding me?" moments, in particular the timeline, which doesn't make much sense.

April 26, 2013 Full Review Source: Atlantic City Weekly
Atlantic City Weekly

First and foremost designed as a platform for Cruise's physical skills. Which is not at all bad for us action fans and those of us who are suckers for concepts of advanced technology.

April 26, 2013 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals
Cinema Signals

That I didn't mind seeing it -- apart from finding the opening stretch on the tedious side -- isn't enough in my mind to warrant its reported $120 million price tag.

April 25, 2013 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Tom Cruise entertains in this intriguing sci-fi flick that is full of twists and turns.

April 25, 2013 Full Review Source: jackiekcooper.com
jackiekcooper.com

It's not like Tom Cruise hasn't made a great sci-fi movie in his career; "Minority Report" is a masterpiece. "Oblivion," on the other hand, is just what the title portends.

April 24, 2013 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com
ColeSmithey.com

You know a picture's derivative when a list of titles in the same genre technically constitutes a spoiler. It's not so much that these films provide the picture's DNA as that Kosinski uses them as his personal cinematic ATM.

April 24, 2013 Full Review Source: Film Threat
Film Threat

Audience Reviews for Oblivion

"Oblivion" is a beautiful movie, and it's always good to see an original sci-fi film now and then. Unfortunately, its style only take this post-apocalyptic journey so far. The film is hamstrung by characters that are as gray and barren as the desolate landscapes they traverse, and the science fiction tropes pile up to create a congested second half full of cliches and forced twists seen in other, better sci-fi films. The actors may be talented, but the script gives them very little to work with (especially the exceptionally wasted Morgan Freeman). While you may not find much to care about in the story, its still a fun ride.

The special effects are well-done, especially when it comes to the mechanical elements like the intimidating drones, which move with both a weightiness and agility that combines to form something you would definitely not want to meet in a dark alley, and Tom Cruise's ship is a really imaginative piece of futuristic technology as well. M83's score is a mixed bag. Choosing this band for this movie is the absolute perfect choice, as they have that epic, desolate futuristic-yet-retro feel to them to begin with. Unfortunately, the score they have composed rarely sounds like their 'actual' music as much as it does an imitation of contemporary blockbuster scores. Had they gone their own route (or used some tracks from their discography), they could have came up with something that really made 'Oblivion' stand out from the pack. This is just an example of the larger problem with 'Oblivion': it isn't a bad movie, but in every instance where it has a chance to be a pioneer and do something fresh, it falls back on the crutches of the past, and ends up feeling rather generic as a result.
May 6, 2013
Sam Barnett

Super Reviewer

Even though it looks great, "Oblivion" is dull, predictable and basically "WALL-E" without the heart.
May 5, 2013
Markus Emilio Robinson
Markus Robinson

Super Reviewer

    1. Jack Harper: I am Jack Harper. And I am home.
    – Submitted by Brandon M (13 days ago)
    1. Jack Harper: If we have souls, they're made of the love we share. Undimmed by time, unbound by death.
    – Submitted by Nancy W (18 days ago)
    1. Jack Harper: Is it possible to miss a place you've never been, to mourn a time you've never lived?
    – Submitted by Nancy W (18 days ago)
    1. Jack Harper: I wonder, if I come to you, at night, in dreams, in the day, as memories. Do I haunt your hours the way you haunted mine? And I wonder if you see me, when you look at her.
    – Submitted by Nancy W (18 days ago)
    1. Jack Harper: We won the war.Why do we have to leave?
    – Submitted by Jacklord Alan K (22 days ago)
    1. Jack Harper: Fuck you, Sally.
    – Submitted by sam v (24 days ago)

Discussion Forum

Topic Last Post Replies
Excellent Film 1 hour ago 12
I like it, but... nagging questions. (Sp) 2 hours ago 31
So explain this to me (Spoilers inside) 21 hours ago 45
The other tom cruises? (Spoilers) 4 days ago 8
I Liked this movie, but hated the Sally revelation (spoilers) 7 days ago 12

Latest News on Oblivion

April 21, 2013:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Oblivion Easily Takes Top Spot in Debut
Now in his fourth decade of scoring number one hit movies, Tom Cruise enjoyed one of the best...

April 18, 2013:
Critics Consensus: Oblivion Looks Great, But Its Story Meanders
This week at the movies, we've got only one wide release: the post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure...

April 18, 2013:
Red Carpet Roundup: Oblivion Edition

Foreign Titles

  • Oblivion (DE)
  • Oblivion (UK)
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