Sci-fi thriller Oblivion starring Tom Cruise was released
yesterday, yet had still not screened to critics in time for today’s The Oxford Times going to press so we have this slightly shorter overview for readers...

 

 

Since the release of Top Gun in 1986, Tom Cruise has been a box office heavyweight, headlining blockbusters which have raked in more than seven billion dollars around the world and earned the actor three Oscar nominations for Born On The Fourth Of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia.

Now Cruise blasts into space in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, based on a graphic novel by Joseph Kosinski and Arvid Nelson, which is set on a futuristic metropolis hovering above the devastated planet Earth.

Drone maintenance officer Jack Harper (Cruise) defies the orders of his tech operator Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) to rescue a mysterious woman called Julia (Olga Kurylenko) from a crash site.

This act of gung-ho chivalry brings the former Marine into contact with grizzled resistance leader Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman) and his followers, who possesses startling information about the fate of mankind. “They lied to you, Jack, it’s time to learn the truth,” growls Malcolm, hinting at a conspiracy that provides Cruise with the excuse to perform death-defying stunts and acrobatics amid a blitzkrieg of costly pyrotechnics and digital effects.