Oblivion

It has become vogue to say negative things about Mr. Cruise. And it is fashionable to sound erudite while denigrating cinema that is remarkably good. (En passant, I am not a fan of Tom Cruise on a personal level. His beliefs bother me. But his acting is exemplary.) The movie is a fine contribution to modern science fiction. It is futuristic and has a message. Characters develop as we are drawn in to thinking about the ease with which even well-meaning people are manipulated. People are more than the some of their organic parts - the spirit of people is intimated and even shown relevant. Morgan and Tom are not going to win awards for their work in this movie. But I will escape into this though-provoking piece again and again. If there are any complaints from this reviewer they are as follows: 1) In the sequence where we are shown what happened to the original crew it can have been made clearer that we are seeing memories narrated by the flight recorder. 2) In the trip to meet the Tet it could have been further explained why the all-knowing machine was not able to discern that the other occupant was an old black man and not a young russian woman. Roderick

Boring is the first adjective that comes to mind when I go to describe this. It was also a little confusing but not in a fun "Matrix" let's figure this out kind of way. I literally rolled my eyes when they revealed what was going on, very slow build up for a not particularly surprising conclusion. I actually rolled my eyes at most of the "surprises" as they were sooooo easy to guess and/or not that exciting. There was actually only one reveal that made me do a double take, but it didn't lead anywhere interesting. This probably is only popular because of Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise; however, no amount of good acting could make this lame movie worth paying for in my opinion. I truly suggest spending your money on another rental or some munchies.

As a rule I never look at critics ratings to determine whether to watch a movie or not, and I'm glad I didn't because Oblivion is a pretty awesome movie. It's always engaging, never dull, the visuals are gorgeous, the effects are good, the acting is compelling, experienced thespians like Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise give the script everything it can handle and boy does it shine in their light! It's not hyperbolic to say that Tom Cruise pours his heart, blood and sweat into any and every role he inhabits.