Oblivion
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 19, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
21
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 19, 2013
Granted, "intelligent" might be too generous a word to describe Oblivion, which flirts with big questions, but never answers them. What's left is a story that doesn't quite go where no man has gone before. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlApr 16, 2013
The good news: Here's a lavish, serious science-fiction picture, one that on occasion transcends big-budget hit-making convention to glance against grandeur...Which brings us to Tom Cruise, the not-necessarily-good news. However engaging its end-times mysteries, Oblivion is still a Tom Cruise movie. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsApr 10, 2013
Kosinski has again built a fantasy world that feels real to its core, but once more put most effort into the scenery and too little into the people. Read full review
60
Total FilmKeith HarleyApr 10, 2013
It isn’t a reboot or reimagining, refreshingly, but Oblivion plays like a stylised remix of superior sci-fi ground-breakers. Cruise and Kosinski: they might be an effective team, but pioneers they’re not. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangApr 10, 2013
A moderately clever dystopian mindbender with a gratifying human pulse, despite some questionable narrative developments along the way. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 17, 2013
Oblivion has enough special-effects artistry to keep you distracted for a while. But all the eye candy in the world can’t mask the sensation that you’ve seen this all before…and done better. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 11, 2013
Oblivion is a special effects extravaganza with a lot of blatant symbolism and very little meaning. It starts slow, turns dull and then becomes tedious — which makes it a marginal improvement over the earlier film. It features shiny surfaces, clicky machinery and no recognizable human behavior. It's equally ambitious and gormless. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissApr 22, 2013
In space, Jack hopes, someone may hear you dream. But in a movie theater, no one will see you yawn. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 22, 2013
Yet Oblivion is worth the trip. There are two reasons for this. The first is the cinematography of Claudio Miranda. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithApr 18, 2013
Without an exceptionally skilled director of actors (such as Cameron Crowe), Cruise can’t dial up much emotion, so the two love interests for his character are two more than he can convincingly handle. He may be at home in the cockpit of a killing machine, but when it comes to displaying his humanity, he’s no Wall-E. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 18, 2013
The questions raised by Oblivion aren’t especially deep, but the movie does answer a puzzler that has troubled humankind for generations: Can Tom Cruise build a concept so big that he himself can’t lift it? Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 18, 2013
For its first hour or so, Oblivion is a visually mesmerizing, intriguing picture that doesn’t feel like the same-old: It engages your eyes and piques your curiosity. Then, gradually, the novelty wears off, the clichés start to pile up and we’re back to Post-Apocalyptic Dystopia 101. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanApr 18, 2013
Oscar-winners Morgan Freeman and Melissa Leo turn up in cameo roles anyone could have played. Kosinski was smart to limit their screen time, because it’s awkward to have actors with weight and charisma hanging around those who lack both. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 18, 2013
Oblivion is odder and less conventional than your average forgettable star vehicle; at times it feels like a five-character play taking place in a digital-effects lab. But there's not much energy to it. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 18, 2013
For all the bells and whistles – an electronic score by M83, a screen-busting Imax presentation and Cruise going full throttle – Oblivion feels arid and antiseptic, untouched by human hands. Bummer. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackApr 17, 2013
Admirable in its look and style, the film is not unique or exceptional. Nevertheless, given the state of current science-fiction fare, the film does hold its own. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 22, 2013
Oblivion is like that movie-within-a-movie: Everything in it feels 100 percent inauthentic. That vibe, as it happens, turns out to be intentional. But when the humans arrive, it’s still a narcotic. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 18, 2013
The mystery posed by Oblivion as a whole is why its mysteries are posed so clumsily, and worked out so murkily. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 18, 2013
Kosinski’s ultimately underwhelming film leads nowhere. As its palpable sense of dread — well-sustained in a gently cascading first hour — gives way to dead ends, this Omega Movie shoots itself in the foot. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 10, 2013
Oblivion goes on for a long time, moving slowly and self-consciously, and it looks like a very expensive movie project that has been written and rewritten many times over. It is a shame: Cruise, Riseborough and Kurylenko as the last love triangle left on Planet Earth should have been quite interesting. Read full review
40
Time OutGuy LodgeApr 10, 2013
Kosinski continues to lavish far more thought on how his elaborate fantasy worlds look than how they work, and neither the politics nor the human stakes here coalesce into rational or relatable drama. Read full review
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