I admit my hopes weren’t high when I sat down to watch Tom Cruise’s latest sci-fi epic – and that is exactly what Oblivion tries so hard to be, an epic – but I tried to keep my prejudices to a minimum. I have a soft spot for Cruise, ever since he acted the pants off everyone in Interview with a Vampire, a performance I have yet to see him top. Like director Joseph Kosinski’s previous film, Tron: Legacy, this one is a looker. Apart from having the same robot-makers as the people in Wall-E, it looked like they had just said yes to every concept drawing they were presented with. That said, it doesn’t have much in terms of plot or character development. Morgan Freeman and Nicolai Coster-Waldau come in far too late to save it, and the ending is mind-numbingly predictable. Think of it as doing a speed-walk through a renaissance art gallery. It’s pretty, but don’t take the time to discern any meaning.

Oblivion creeps by on looks for a dice roll 3.