Movie · 2013 · Action, Science Fiction, Adventure, Mystery · 2h 4m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 2.3/10 (882K ratings)
Earth is a memory worth fighting for.
Overview
Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo, Zoë Bell, Abigail Lowe, Isabelle Lowe, Booch O'Connell
Curator Review
Verdict
A visually polished, high-concept sci-fi mystery with strong production design, atmospheric worldbuilding, and a sleek Cruise-led momentum. It’s often more impressive as concept art than as drama, but if you’re in the mood for glossy post-apocalyptic spectacle and tidy twists, it delivers enough to be worth a look.
Best for
fans of sleek studio sci-fi
viewers who prioritize visuals and sound design
people who enjoy mystery-box plotting
Tom Cruise action fans
post-apocalyptic worldbuilding
Skip if
you want deeply original sci-fi ideas
you need rich character writing
you dislike derivative genre mashups
you prefer grounded or low-key science fiction
Overview
Oblivion is the kind of sci-fi blockbuster that arrives with a pristine surface and a familiar pulse. Its future Earth is beautifully rendered, all white towers, shattered monuments, and lonely skies, and the film knows how to make that emptiness feel seductive. The design, music, and aerial action do a lot of heavy lifting, and for stretches the movie is pure sensory pleasure.
Worth noting
What keeps it from fully taking off is how much it feels assembled from better remembered sci-fi images and ideas. The story is serviceable, then over-explained, then increasingly dependent on reveals that are more functional than surprising. Still, the movie has a clean, watchable momentum, and Cruise sells the physical confidence of a man who can keep moving even when the script starts to wobble.
Bottom line
If you like your science fiction glossy, melancholy, and a little impersonal, this can play like a very expensive dream. If you want emotional depth or a truly fresh premise, it may leave you admiring the packaging more than the contents. But as a piece of studio-scale futurism, it’s hard to deny its polish.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Neil Alcock (3★) · 1142 likes
If you're the kind of person who liked Moon but a) needed every single piece of information explained to you at length and b) didn't think it had enough explosions or Tom Cruise in it, then Oblivion is for you.
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Erik 🎼 (4★) · 1016 likes
must a movie be “good”? is it not enough to simply listen to cool sci fi drone sounds, loud?
matt lynch (3★) · 1013 likes
aka TOM-E. derivative but rarely dull, pretty dumb but frequently clever. a gorgeous video game you never really get to play.
davidehrlich (1.5★) · 728 likes
"dream of us."
OBLIVION (noun): the state of being forgotten, esp. by the public.
derivative to the point of parody, but damn if bland can't be pretty. oh, olga.
ughhhhhh. yet so damn beautiful, but in a way that seems inherently un-filmic... it's like a class="h-100"00,000,000 commercial for what it's like to chew 5 Gum.
honestly, this is like THE CLOCK of sci-fi movies. they're all in here. and hans zimmer, what have you wrought? BRAAAMM! during naked times? awkward.… more
dumbsville (4★) · 698 likes
I feel like I’m crazy. I feel like I’m the only person who likes this movie. It’s not perfect but God damn it, it’s fun. This is like my comfort movie.
This is the first Strand-type movie.
2005 · Action, Thriller, Science Fiction · 2h 16m · PG-13 · Curator 1.6/10 (480.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Shares the clone/reality-reveal energy and the glossy studio sci-fi feel, with a more overt action-thriller structure.