Tom Cruise stars in ‘Oblivion.’
By Megan Bianco
It’s the mark of a true movie star when an actor can open a No. 1 film at the box office based simply on his name. Even in 2013, no one is a better example of this than Tom Cruise. At almost 51 years old, Cruise is still at the top of his game physically, in the public eye and as an actor. While he has chosen to play it safe with the action genre the last three years, save for Rock of Ages, there are still times when he can deliver something a little different. Universal Pictures’ Oblivion returns him to science fiction for the first time since 2005.
In 2077, Jack (Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are sent back to a post-apocalyptic Earth to clean up any remaining human resources before relocating with the rest of humanity to Titan. But one day, he discovers a crashed spaceship with unidentified creatures and a woman (Olga Kurylenko) who has been in his dreams lately.
Like Cruise’s Minority Report, Oblivion is visually captivating, but like the film’s director Joseph Kosinski’s previous film, Tron: Legacy, it lacks an intriguing plot. Cruise is fine and comfortable as usual as the lead, and Riseborough adds another impressive performance to her resume, but Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are underused and wasted on screen. Oblivion has the setting and feel of an action film but none of the excitement.