With the hope of cementing his comeback, started with "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" (we'll kindly overlook "Rock Of Ages"), and looking to be continued with "Jack Reacher," Tom Cruise is turning to a genre he's generally been a stranger to — science-fiction. Aside from his two films with Steven Spielberg, "Minority Report" and "War Of The Worlds," Cruise has rarely delved into more fantastical territory, but he's currently filming Doug Liman's "All You Need Is Kill," and is circling another script called "Our Name Is Adam." But first up is "Oblivion," and hot on the the heels of a poster, the film's trailer has leaked online overseas.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski ("Tron Legacy"), the film sees Cruise as a lonely drone repairmen on the remains of an Earth devastated by an alien invasion. But when he rescues a beautiful woman (Olga Kurylenko) from a crashed ship, he soon uncovers secrets that call into question everything he knows. The early parts of the trailer are curiously reminiscent of Pixar's "Wall-E," though things seem to get more action-packed once he encounters Morgan Freeman's goggled resistance leader.
There are certainly some impressive visuals, as you might expect from Kosinski — we like the sterile, bright look of the film, a more unusual take on the apocalypse that we've generally seen. But the promo isn't doing a great job of telling the story, which seems to be a muddled mix of "I Am Legend," "Twelve Monkeys," "Solaris" and "Terminator Salvation," with plenty of other sci-fi influences in there too. There's nothing here that immediately demonstrates why it's worth the price of a ticket for anyone that isn't a die-hard Cruise fan or an indiscriminating sci-fi geek.
Still, the cast, which also includes a meaty role for Andrea Riseborough, along with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Melissa Leo, is strong, and with script polishes from Oscar-winners William Monahan ("The Departed") and Michael Arndt ("Toy Story 3," the upcoming "Star Wars Episode VII"), there's hope that this could be something special. And M83 are doing the score, so it should at least sound great. Let us know what you think of the trailer below, and you can catch "Oblivion" on IMAX theaters from April 12, 2013 before it goes wide on April 19, 2013.