OBLIVION | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"OBLIVION"
(2013) (Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough) (PG-13)

QUICK TAKE:: Sci-Fi: A drone repairman must contend with confusing dreams and unexpected discoveries in his last two weeks on a post-apocalyptic Earth.

PLOT:

It's the year 2073 and Earth is a vast wasteland, the result of aliens destroying the moon and then attacking those down below. Humans may have won that war sixty years earlier, but they lost the planet that was ravaged by earthquakes, tsunamis and the nuclear force needed to destroy the invaders known as the Scavengers.

The only people left are those like Jack Harper (TOM CRUISE) and his coworker/lover Vika (ANDREA RISEBOROUGH). They live thousands of feet above the surface working for Sally (MELISSA LEO) with whom they only have contact via video conferencing. Their job -- which has just two weeks left before they join the rest of humanity on Saturn's moon Titan -- is to maintain the last bit of extraction of the planet's resources. Jack flies down to the surface and repairs the heavily armed drone pods that roam Earth and protect the heavy machinery from what few Scavengers still exist, and Vika serves as his eyes in the sky to alert him of any potential danger.

Despite a human-wide memory wipe five years ago, Jack can't shake dreams and apparent flashbacks he has of him and a mysterious woman, Julia (OLGA KURYLENKO), being atop the Empire State Building before the war, despite never experiencing that world. He tries to get a feeling of what Earth was once like by spending time in a small, lakeside cabin that survived the apocalypse and where he stores various artifacts he's recovered.

While there, he spots a spacecraft crash-land nearby and discovers a number of sleep capsules containing humans, one of whom he recognizes as Julia. He manages to rescue her before a drone kills the rest, but the two end up captured by the "Scavs." It's then that Jack learns they're not aliens but humans like himself, led by Malcolm Beach (MORGAN FREEMAN) and his right-hand man, Sykes (NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU), who claim there's something far more nefarious going on than Jack realizes. As he tries to get to the bottom of the truth, he discovers things about himself, his mission and his world that he never could have imagined.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: If they're into big-budget, sci-fi flicks, or are fans of anyone in the cast, they probably will.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13: For sci-fi action violence, brief strong language, and some sensuality/nudity.

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