Cruise plays Jack Harper, an airborne repairman in a post-apocalyptic future. Years before Jack’s birth, invading aliens destroyed the Moon, and a nuclear war on Earth decimated the extraterrestrial threat but left our planet a ruined husk. With Earth’s surface all-but uninhabitable, humanity’s remnants have built an ark named the Tet, which it plans to use as a means to set off for a new life on a terra-formed moon orbiting Saturn. Director Joseph Kosinski’s debut movie was the slick, visually distinctive Tron: Legacy, which proved to be technically compelling yet sadly empty in terms of characterisation and plot. At first glance, you might be forgiven for thinking that Oblivion might follow suit, with its post-iPad designer apocalypse and Cruise providing his bankable mix of charm and athleticism. But Kosinski brings far more humanity – not to mention urgency – to his second feature than we’d expected. Oblivion unfolds like a graceful enigma, taking time to introduce Jack – a hero with just enough tics and quirks to make him something more than a stock Cruise hero – his colleague Vicca (Andrea Riseborough), and the woman from Jack’s dreams, before gradually introducing a series of unexpected complications. It’s a well-constructed story, even if some of the narrative beats have been seen before. Kosinski keeps the twists coming thick and fast, and just when you think you’ve got a handle on where the narrative’s going, it alters trajectory and forges into new territory. And because the plot emphasises characters over action, the set-pieces, when they do arrive, have far more impact: one aerial chase sequence is particularly exhilarating. Oblivion’s taken a fairly long and circuitous route to the screen, and Kosinski’s shown a certain amount of commitment and self-belief in getting it made. Originally beginning life as a script in 2005, it was turned into an unpublished graphic novel in 2007, before finally finding studio backing courtesy of Universal. Indeed, it’s refreshing to see so much money (a reported $120 million) and talent thrown at a genre movie which isn’t a sequel or a remake; instead, it feels more like something made in the 1970s, with loving nods to Solaris or Silent Running threaded into its thriller template. With a strong performance from Cruise, a great supporting cast, including Morgan Freeman in a brief yet important role, an effective (if occasionally exposition-heavy) script, and some captivating special effects, Oblivion‘s one of this year’s first major multiplex surprises. Oblivion‘s out in UK cinemas now. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.