Edge of Tomorrow...

[The Ü™]

A little backstory. I thought this movie, judging by the trailers, looked hopelessly uninteresting...awfully like Battle LA, a movie which I loathed. But I decided to give it a shot.

While getting the ticket was mildly stressful due to a disgusting 400-pound bitch using the handicapped line at the ticket booth (no, you're not handicapped, you're fat; get in line like everyone else) and unable to decide which movie to see -- I could only imagine what she ordered at the concession stands, but I'm pretty sure everything was with a Diet Coke. I almost missed part of the movie because of it.

As it turns out, I thought it was quite engaging and funny. It more than made up for the theater's security department not bringing in a U-HAUL to remove that fatty from the cineplex for line jumping.

I thought the time-jumping idea was a little gimmicky and that the movie may have tried too hard to be confusing, but other than that, I thought the movie was very well-done. One of Tom Cruise's best newer movies. And yes, he yells, sometimes in a very funny manner.

 

[Totenkindly]

I didn't find it very confusing, it seemed pretty clear enough.
And I liked it -- especially how he started out being kind of a coward and completely inept and slowly built up his ability to fight and also worked through his fear... although of course the fact that he wasn't dying kind of sucks away the fear (as, even if death sucks/hurts, if you know you're coming back it's not quite so bad).

Still, the big star to me was Emily Blunt... and Bill Paxton was kind of amusing in an almost-unrecognizable fashion. (Sometimes he can come off clumsy, but he nailed this role.) The monsters were also hell-on-wheels and pretty bad-ass.

My only problem was with the very end, which seemed to be a bit of a cop-out -- I didn't really understand the mechanism that permitted that to happen. Also, there was no follow-up regarding her middle name; I wonder if a scene got cut.

Unlike Groundhog Day, we weren't always in Cage's head -- sometimes we were given Rita's perspective and Cage was ahead of us without us realizing it at first.

Yes, parts of the movie are reminiscent of Groundhog Day and Saving Private Ryan, but that shouldn't be held against it. I thought the pacing of the edits was pretty good as well, they were timed exquisitely.

 

[highlander]

I thought it was excellent. Maybe it wasn't the most creative storyline but it was good entertainment. Overall, I would have to say I liked GroundHog Day more though.

 

[Mal12345]

I decided to go see Edge of Tomorrow today. Up until now, I had only heard it had a plot imitating an old gimmick from the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray. Except being a war movie, I had thought of it as more of a video game in which your character rematerializes after dying. And for sure, one could compare this movie to a video game in which the player starts out as a newbie, with Major Cage as his avatar, being forced back to the beginning after every death but learning a little bit more every go-around, such as which buttons on the controller do what, and also anticipating enemy moves thus making them predictable and enabling your character to live longer.

That's mostly true of this movie, although with an important exception that I won't go into in order to avoid spoiling things.

I see that some people thought the movie was a bit confusing while others found it readily understandable. It's not the jumping back and forth that I found confusing, but some elements of the plot such as the motives of the Omega, and what purpose Alphas serve.

Beyond that, I thought this movie was marvelously well done and well-played by the actors in it. Describing the timing in the movie as "exquisite" per [MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION] in the thread above is right on the money. As far as Hollywood action movies go, it doesn't get any better than this.

***** out of 5.

 

[Mal12345]

I think the neatest thing about this film was it's believability. I can see someone acting exactly as Cage and making the same decisions. Although one critic that I know of bashed the film's ending for being commonplace - which it is - this is entirely forgivable considering how amazing the rest of the movie was.

 

[Totenkindly]

I think the neatest thing about this film was it's believability. I can see someone acting exactly as Cage and making the same decisions. Although one critic that I know of bashed the film's ending for being commonplace - which it is - this is entirely forgivable considering how amazing the rest of the movie was.

yeah -- I had the same reaction to the ending (it felt kinda lopped off), but the whole bulk of the movie was carefully constructed and edited so I'm forgiving.

 

[Mal12345]

yeah -- I had the same reaction to the ending (it felt kinda lopped off), but the whole bulk of the movie was carefully constructed and edited so I'm forgiving.

How many 'hive-mind' alien invasion movies have there been? Avengers (or were they remote control invaders?), Ender's Game... I hate tiresome tropes. When a trope becomes tiresome, it turns into a cliché. Nevertheless, I liked this movie so much I could watch it again already.

 

[Totenkindly]

How many 'hive-mind' alien invasion movies have there been? Avengers (or were they remote control invaders?), Ender's Game... I hate tiresome tropes. When a trope becomes tiresome, it turns into a cliché. Nevertheless, I liked this movie so much I could watch it again already.

I agree, the hive mind thing has been used a great deal but I think the focus on the plot and time blips eased any pain there. They really didn't flesh out much with the aliens (and the "alien blood" thing creating the time loops was kinda sketchy IMO), but the aliens were more of a plot device versus something we needed to understand in detail.

i liked those moments when I realized the movie hadn't shown us ALL of Cage's repeated days. It left me wondering what else I didn't know that he did.

The graphic novel the movie was based on is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_You_Need_Is_Kill

 

[Mal12345]

I agree, the hive mind thing has been used a great deal but I think the focus on the plot and time blips eased any pain there. They really didn't flesh out much with the aliens (and the "alien blood" thing creating the time loops was kinda sketchy IMO), but the aliens were more of a plot device versus something we needed to understand in detail.

i liked those moments when I realized the movie hadn't shown us ALL of Cage's repeated days. It left me wondering what else I didn't know that he did.

The graphic novel the movie was based on is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_You_Need_Is_Kill

I was considering reading that book. Maybe.

We'll never find out how blood can create time loops, or how a biological substance can affect time and space. But it's a very convenient plot-device considering that it's a war and war is bloody. And thinking about it is likely to diminish the movie's positive effect.

I liked General Brigham for being a backstabbing ESTJ leader; and although he appears for only a short time, relatively speaking, his stubborn character drives the plot in surprising directions.

Cage, on the other hand, is the ultimate pragmatist: he is adaptable and tenacious. And although the Wikipedia article on this movie claims that Cage actually gave up at one point (and how did he manage to sneak away from such an impossible predicament?), perhaps he was just taking a break from the constant looping. Seems like it would be a very tiring and tiresome process - luckily, not tiresome for the viewers whose interest is kept up by the constant, riveting excitement and by being saved the dull repetition that Cage would, in reality, have experienced. The parts that were repeated in the movie were thankfully made humorous in a believable way,

as when Cage's mouth was duct-taped shut in one of the early loops

.