Tom Cruise returns to the screen in “Oblivion” to deal with the aftermath of aliens on Earth, kind of like Scientology.

No, no, I’m just kidding. I couldn’t help myself. Everyone knows Scientology’s aliens weren’t invading.

Anyway, Cruise plays a repairman-soldier named Jack that has a partial memory wipe to prevent enemies from gleaning information should he be captured, which also conveniently keeps him from fully remembering other nagging “problems” with his mission.

You have to love screenwriters that give characters a form of amnesia so that the coming plot holes and flimsy explanations are at least tolerable.

I would be remiss to say there weren’t the same sort of plot challenges in “Oblivion.”

“Oblivion” has some solid effects, but nothing to write home about. You get Cruise being a hero, but without the fun banter and with less full-blown action than you would expect. You get a sci-fi story with some twist to it, but nothing that hasn’t been done before.

Overall, waiting for Netflix or Redbox would be a safe move.

2.5/5 stars