This review reportedly contains spoilers.
First thing: I don’t know the graphic novel this is based on. So no comparing with that
Second thing: I don’t dislike Tom Cruise per sé, or as JoCo puts it: “Tom Cruise is Tom-Cruise-crazy, just be glad it’s him – not you, if you had Tom Cruise’s troubles, you might go Tom-Cruise-Crazy, too.”
Apart from that: The film is visually pleasing but the story is quite simple and non-surprising. I didn’t see the clone-thing coming but other than that things take way too long to actually happen although you already expect them to. Take e.g. Morgan Freeman: You know he’s not the protagonist yet he’s going to appear as a leader of sorts, it’s pretty clear from the first ten minutes that the guys on earth are discarded people and bang – ergo their leader is MF. And so it turns out to be it’s just that it takes about two thirds of the movie to get there! Same happens with the erased memory, the aliens that are nowhere to be seen, the fake wife, the actual wife etc. You expect it to happen long before it does.
Straight forward isn’t bad per se but it doesn’t work if you want to make it a surprise, then it just feels artificial.
So does Cruises acting. Well actually, everybody’s acting. The setting is the real star here, but as it’s mainly American rubble I found it boring after the first 30 minutes. At least they did not show the aliens. And I am probably just disappointed because I actually thought I’d need no popcorn during this movie…
