Every once in a while comes a movie that makes me love the format all over again, and suddenly excited to see even more.  Such a movie is Oblivion.  I’ve loved sci-fi films forever, and am always on the lookout for great new adventures.  This movie, co-written and directed by Joseph Kosinski, is the best new sci-fi film I can recall seeing since Minority Report, which also starred Tom Cruise.  While I wouldn’t term Oblivion a masterpiece, it is an amazing movie with all sorts of dramatic, futuristic and philosophical ramifications which will keep viewers’ heads spinning for days.

Cruise portrays a drone repairman on the remnant of Earth, keeping the machines running until the planet is abandoned for good.  But Earth is not yet bereft of life, nor are things exactly what they seem.  What begins as a slowly-paced, nostalgic planetary sign-off gradually ramps up through mystery status to a full-fledged final fight for the right to survive, as the president in Independence Day would say.  And along the way, Cruise’s character and the audience learn things that are simply stunning in their significance.

The visuals are great and the acting is fine; where the film truly succeeds is in the details of its story, which provide a verisimilitude that is completely convincing.  It is personal and epic at the same time, which is very difficult to do, and do well.  It asks huge questions yet doesn’t try to provide easy answers.  It didn’t give its secrets away in the previews.  It is a movie that demands multiple viewings, and I am absolutely looking forward to seeing it again.  For science-fiction fans I cannot rate this film highly enough.  Go see it!  ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.  25 April 2013.