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Edge of Tomorrow
Jun. 17th, 2014 07:30 pm"Live. Die. Repeat," (which would've made a much better title) say the posters, and the film pretty much does what it says on the tin.
An alien menace has conquered Europe. William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a military PR man who has never fought a battle in his life. He finds himself press-ganged into the front line of the Normandy landing and strapped into a battlemech suit which he has no idea how to operate. Unsurprisingly, he dies fairly quickly. More surprisingly, he then wakes up at the start of the day he died, with a perfect memory of the events about to unfold.
Cage lives the day again, and he dies again. Repeat. Each time he figures out a little bit more. Can he use his increasingly godlike knoweldge of what's about to happen to save himself, those he cares about, and the world? Along the way he meets Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), aka "the Angel of Verdun" aka "Full Metal Bitch", heroine to millions, who seems to know what is happening to him. Together they set out to achieve what Cage cannot do on his own and end the war.
We're essentially talking a cross between Groundhog Day and Starsdhip Troopers. It claims to be "a blockbuster with brains", but basically it's like watching Tom Cruise play the same level of a video game over and over, trying to get it right. The explanation for why this is all happening to him isn't particularly complex. There's enjoyment to be had from his frustration and his gradually figuring things out, but no real sense of danger since he can always respawn and start over. (At least, he can until near the end when he suddenly loses his extra lives so that the filmmakers can up the tension.)
On the other hand, the main duo of Cage and Vrataski are likeable enough, have good chemistry, and kick some serious ass. The battles and the aliens are pretty spectacular. There's also a fun undercurrent of dark humour running all the way through. It's definitely more "blockbuster" than "brains". That's not necessarily a problem, but maybe the film doesn't quite do what it says on the tin after all.
Oh, and the ending is annoyingly twee and makes no sense, but I'm trying to forget about that.
An alien menace has conquered Europe. William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a military PR man who has never fought a battle in his life. He finds himself press-ganged into the front line of the Normandy landing and strapped into a battlemech suit which he has no idea how to operate. Unsurprisingly, he dies fairly quickly. More surprisingly, he then wakes up at the start of the day he died, with a perfect memory of the events about to unfold.
Cage lives the day again, and he dies again. Repeat. Each time he figures out a little bit more. Can he use his increasingly godlike knoweldge of what's about to happen to save himself, those he cares about, and the world? Along the way he meets Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), aka "the Angel of Verdun" aka "Full Metal Bitch", heroine to millions, who seems to know what is happening to him. Together they set out to achieve what Cage cannot do on his own and end the war.
We're essentially talking a cross between Groundhog Day and Starsdhip Troopers. It claims to be "a blockbuster with brains", but basically it's like watching Tom Cruise play the same level of a video game over and over, trying to get it right. The explanation for why this is all happening to him isn't particularly complex. There's enjoyment to be had from his frustration and his gradually figuring things out, but no real sense of danger since he can always respawn and start over. (At least, he can until near the end when he suddenly loses his extra lives so that the filmmakers can up the tension.)
On the other hand, the main duo of Cage and Vrataski are likeable enough, have good chemistry, and kick some serious ass. The battles and the aliens are pretty spectacular. There's also a fun undercurrent of dark humour running all the way through. It's definitely more "blockbuster" than "brains". That's not necessarily a problem, but maybe the film doesn't quite do what it says on the tin after all.
Oh, and the ending is annoyingly twee and makes no sense, but I'm trying to forget about that.
