The first trailer for Joseph Kosinski‘s Oblivion has arrived and it previews a film that looks a cut above your average sci-fi – if you can get past the idea of Tom Cruise as the last man on Earth.

It’s a post-cataclysmic future. Cruise plays Jack, a drone repairman charged with ensuring Earth’s remaining resources are transported to humanity’s new home after a war with an alien race changes the face of the planet forever. With his mission at an end a ship crash lands, carrying mysterious stranger; throwing everything Jack once knew out the window and placing the fate of humanity in his hands.

Luckily Cruise fights to save humanity alongside an equally heroic cast, including the legendary Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption, and loads of other unforgettable stuff), Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter), the striking Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace), Andrea Riseborough (Made in Dagenham), and our very own Zoe Bell (Death Proof).

Kosinski’s no stranger to sci-fi. He co-created the celebrated graphic novel on which this film is based and his first directorial outing was the Disney sci-fi hit Tron: Legacy.

Enjoy!

I really like the look of this. It’s a thing of beauty and the premise is intriguing too. I just hope they keep us in suspense until the film comes out and not give too much away in subsequent promo. And let’s hope the trailer’s hint of a solid story doesn’t mask another generic action romp – we’ve been burnt too many times now. But all scepticism aside, Oblivion is off to a cracking start.

I, for one, can see Cruise being great in this role. He has his detractors but we know he can handle sci-fi. Minority Report is a testament to that.

What do you think?

Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the director of Tron: Legacy and the producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man’s confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.

Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. Living in and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, his soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the film stars Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Zoe Bell, Andrea Riseborough, Melissa Leo and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

No release date scheduled yet but Australia gets the film on April 11, so I imagine we will too.