For me, a post-apocalyptic wasteland is a very rich and interesting setting, so when I heard about Oblivion, a film about a group of individuals in charge of cleaning up Earth after it has been ruined by nuclear war, I was onboard.

After a group of aliens called “Scavengers” came to Earth and destroyed the moon, the resulting tectonic shifts and nuclear bombs made the planet uninhabitable. All of the survivors live in a giant space station called “The Tet,” and those left on Earth are responsible for sapping its resources to provide energy for the survivors. Tom Cruise plays one of those workers and is in charge of drone maintenance. After a series of peculiar events, Cruise begins to question his reality.

To say much more would spoil the film, but Cruise is joined by many other great actors, including the timeless Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (though Game of Thrones fans know him better as Jaime Lannister). None of the actors seem to be really trying too hard, but then again the script doesn’t call for them to either.

That was one issue I had with this film: the shallowness of the characters. This film is more about its plot and the plot’s twists, so character development (or for that matter, depth) is neglected. Another issue with the film is the plot becomes overly convoluted at some points.

Director Joseph Kosinski suffered from a plot that was too basic and dull with his last film Tron Legacy, but this is the opposite: it starts off very simple (not to a fault) but starts introducing plot points that are confusing at times and hard to follow. In addition, the film is set in this great landscape that we see bits and pieces of, but the area is never really explored in depth; even in a world that is ravaged, the crux of it takes place in New York City.

The film does have many good things going for it as well: a fantastic, Dark Knight-esque soundtrack by M83, beautiful imagery and some great action scenes. The film is interesting and beautiful to look at, but it results as a shallow piece of work. It’s enjoyable to watch, but there’s nothing too insightful going on. Like drunk college students.