begins with great art direction and sci-fi special effects and ends with you longing for Tom Cruise to return to a romantic comedy. Any romantic comedy.
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Oblivion begins with great art direction and sci-fi special effects and ends with you longing for Tom Cruise to return to a romantic comedy. Any romantic comedy. This story is one we've seen before in the barrage of time travel films, but the look is one we have not seen.

Tom Cruise is his electrifying self except in the love scenes. Here you see the damage of Katie Holmes's suddenly divorcing him in the midst of this film deep in the heart of Iceland. His lack of being in the scene. In the moment. Something he rarely does. He is an actor capable of great focus and concentration, but, here for a moment, he loses it. You almost feel his pain. You get the feeling that his loss and his stoicism are the real driving forces behind his character, not his need to save the Earth.

Joseph Kosinski wrote with others and directed this blown up hodgepodge of je ne sais quoi. Morgan Freeman, in an effective performance, represents the goodness and the return to a safe Earth. Olga Kurylenko moving as Julia and Andrea Riseborough gripping as Victoria are love interests of Jack Hooper (Cruise).

As pilot for one of the Drones left after a nuclear war, which destroys most of the Earth, Jack Hooper discovers a crashed spaceship which causes him to question everything he has been fed by Sally (Melissa Leo) about the war. Melissa Leo practically steals this film in her firm delivery, masking an ominous anger and danger. She is the head of controls of what has been left of Earth in 2077 after war with alien "Scavs." Who cares? You won't.

Cruise, short in height but big in ego, was surrounded by a stellar soundtrack of blasting rock n' roll which did not compensate the film. Too long. Too loud.

Looking at Oblivion is more pleasurable than listening to it. Radio anyone?

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