Oblivion

Tom Cruise has been a bit busy lately with films coming out quite frequently. He is once again saving the earth.
I really hated this film. My problems with it stem, largely, from the script. I am a script writer and for me this is one of the most badly written films I have seen for a major blockbuster style film, in a long time. I had trouble with the film right from the beginning. One of the biggest 'don'ts' that we are told in script writing is to not use voice over unless it is absolutely necessary. Film is a visual medium and you should tell your story visually. The film opens with our hero Jack explaining how earth came to be like it is. Instead of showing us we get Jack telling us. I'm not sure if it was done this way because of budget cuts and director Joseph Kosinski was forced to set up the story in this way, but to me it was incredibly bad script writing. It would have been a very spectacular opening to the film is we saw it being attacked by aliens. Then the rest of the film did nothing to try and get me back on side. Not only was the story very clichéd and predictable but it had so many boring and uninteresting characters. I was really bored by the film in this aspect. However I did find one redeeming feature which was the way the film looked. I think the production design and visual effects were wonderful. It is a shame that this great world has been populated by really uninteresting people and have them do things you have seen numerous times before and done in better ways.
I have come to like Tom Cruise a lot more than I used to in recent times. He gives a good performance here with in the limitations of his boring character. Sadly Tom was not able to make his character anymore interesting that what is on the page. His side-kick Adrea Riseborough is very good in a quiet dignified way. She manages to make her character slightly more interesting as she shows some shades of dimension. Olga Kurylenko is decent as the love interest. Morgan Freeman is unable to make his small role anything special. But I think his character's story would have made a more interesting film.
I would say to avoid this film at all costs but I think my overly critical script writing mind has made it worse than it is.