Earth gets to play roll-over-and-die–again  in “Oblivion”, the newest big-budget sci-fi on the block.

Oblivion, the new post-alien-Armageddon movie by Joseph Kosinski, stars Tom Cruise as one part of a set of “mop-up crew” on ravaged Earth, whose task is to work maintenance on big, white, orb-like drones that hunt down alien scavengers.

These alien “Scrav’s” are a nasty bunch. They hide in dark bunkers and attack mining operations that burrow out Earth’s remaining natural resources for leftover humans, who have a new home on Saturn’s Titan.

While Saturn is millions of miles away, Mr. Kosinski screenplay (co-written by William Monahan, Karl Gajdusek and Michael Arndt) – which he adapts from his own studio pitch-cum-graphic novel – shifts its crispy-clean perspective to someone closer to home.

Zoom in on Mr. Cruise’s lone-man-on-Earth (he is called Jack, the second time in six months) – who sports a Yankee’s cap, rides cool transformable bikes and as is prerequisite of leading actors in movies of this genre – dreams about bustling New Yorkers, a girl (Olga Kurylenko), and fantasizing playoff’s on wasted-away football fields.

Jack’s Eve is Victoria, a half-cold lover and communications officer played to pin-point graveness and single-minded inescapability by the superb Andrea Riseborough.

Their missions are overseen by Sally (Melissa Leo), a jittery broadcast signal from the orbiting station Tet limited to Victoria’s monitor who routinely asks about the pair’s effectiveness with a slight mechanical tinge.

Mr. Cruise’s Jack, beached in miles of dusty computer generated terrain (and later a few “untouched” mountain-scapes), does what any “last man on Earth” would do: he ponders away on Moonless-nights (our Moon is blasted away we’re told), and builds a hidden sanctuary of lost memorabilia.

These moments, though imperative to setting up Mr. Cruise’s Jack, have the lasting power of an easily dissipated room-freshener.

Oblivion, crashes, tumbles and burns when Ms. Kurylenko’s escape pod enters Earth’s stratosphere. And by the time Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s underground resistance army announces themselves the mess has already metamorphosed into burned cinder; From here-on in, scenes and elements play-out with half-hearted predictability, right up to the Independence Day-esque blow-out climax a few miles near Earth exosphere.

As it often is, it’s hard to slam-down on Mr. Cruise’s dedication – or the film’s general air of acting credibility. Ms. Kurylenko looks gravely beautiful and solemn, as if she’s secreting a dastardly plot from Mr. Cruise and Ms. Riseborough; the big reveal though, isn’t really that eye-opening in the first place.

Oblivion is debilitated by its own design, leaving the bulk of its weight on Ms. Riseborough’s emotional sensitivity, the sterile production design by Darren Gilford and Oscar winner Claudio Miranda’s squeaky-clean cinematographic palette (the film is shot digitally on Sony’s F-65 and Red Epics); These are Oblivion’s life-jackets, but they – and Mr. Cruise’s perseverance – can only paddle the uninspired so far.

Releasing in Pakistan on the 26th of April by Universal Pictures and Footprint Entertainment. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Produced by Mr. Kosinski, Peter Chernin, Ryan Kavanaugh, Dylan Clark and Barry Levine with the Screenplay by Mr. Kosinski, William Monahan, Karl Gajdusek, Michael Arndt (Based on the unpublished graphic novel by Mr. Kosinski and Arvid Nelson). Music by Anthony Gonzalez and Joseph Trapanese. Cinematography by Claudio Miranda. Editing by Richard Francis-Bruce. The film stars: Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Morgan Freeman. “Oblivion” is rated PG-13 for brief poolside romantic sensuality by Mr. Cruise and Ms. Riseborough.