First 'Oblivion' poster gives us hope

That all is not lost for Tom Cruise

By Corwin Neuse Dec 7, 2012 9:53PM

A lot is riding on this month's "Jack Reacher" and next whenever's "Oblivion." Tom Cruise used to have a good thing going, before he started jumping on couches and upsetting everybody by talking about his religious beliefs. Then he made "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," and all was right with the world. Until he divorced Katie Holmes, that is. So Cruise really needs "Jack Reacher" to be a hit. Unfortunately, the previews make it look like a laughably bad, heinously expensive episode of "NCIS: Los Angeles," and the supposed physical differences between Cruise and the 6'5" character he's supposed to be playing haven't helped.

So what about "Oblivion," the movie Cruise is making with "Tron: Legacy" wünderkind Joseph Kosinski? Besides that it's supposed to put Cruise in a mechanical body suit, fighting aliens, not much is yet known about the project. We do, however, have this recently released poster to go of off. And it looks... Rather artsy, we'd have to say. While the movie supposedly takes place on a "distant planet," that waterfall looks suspiciously like the Empire State Building, doesn't it? "Earth is a memory worth fighting for," reads the tagline. Is Cruise's character seeing his memories of Earth in the alien landscape? Or has he somehow returned to a post-apocalyptic Earth with strange geographical mutations, a la "The Planet of the Apes?" Only time will tell.

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