I give it thumbs up, a green light, a full popcorn bag . . . whatever. Oblivion is an entertaining and well-put-together movie with a refrigerator-logic story line and a post-apocalypse setting. Visually, it is lovely. Its special effects are top-notch. Its pacing is near-perfect. Best of all: it's not a sequel, a reboot of an over-appreciated franchise, or an extended commercial for a video game.
Cruise offers up a workmanlike performance, which is appropriate considering he plays a futuristic drone-repairman-cum-soldier, Andrea Riseborough is seductive yet eerily unnatural as his nubile companion who, having "taken the red pill," prefers her Reality just as it appears, thank you very much.
You have likely seen elements of this story in numerous other movies, but not as neatly and appealingly prepared, packaged, and presented. The appreciative viewer just needs to be a little more like Victoria ("I don't want to know . . .") than Jack, troubled by intrusive recollections of a history he does not understand. Who really cares if the recipes have been done elsewhere if the meal is delicious nevertheless?
Oblivion (2013)