Edge of Tomorrow

[Nepenthe]

Image courtesy of GAF 

 

Synopsis
 

The epic action of "Edge of Tomorrow" unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world.
 
Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop- forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again...and again.

 
Trailer
 

 
Cast
 
Tom Cruise as Major William Cage
Emily Blunt as Sergeant Rita Vrataski
Bill Paxton as Master Sergeant Farell
Brendan Gleeson as General Brigham
 
Source Material
 
All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
 
Reception
 

 

-~-

 

So has Tom Cruise done some wacky Scientology shit in recent weeks that are making people just say "no" to this film? Are people still reeling over the twist in Oblivion? Even if you are, like I am, you need to let go of such inhibitions and take the plunge into what is arguably one of the best Hollywood sci-fi movies in recent history and the best to adapt a Japanese property in God knows how long (sorry Godzilla). It has everything-- highly visible and suspenseful robotic action, really bad-ass aliens, time travel that is actually consistent and makes sense, and character acting that is more subtle than it should be and thus all the more charming for it. It refuses the low-hanging cheese factor of something like Pacific Rim in favor of lightheartedness that naturally emanates from the characters and their development on-screen. However, it still knows how to get down to business and raise the stakes in a way that will prey a little on the squeamish during the climax without breaking its own rules. This film is just really fucking good, and if you like robots, aliens, explosions, time travel, good characters, and summer fun, there is literally no reason you should not see this before it leaves theaters. For the love of God nerds, please support this so we can get more adaptations like this one.

[Voyant]

This movie was fucking fantastic! Literally the best adaptation in Hollywood to Japanese media ever.

[SuperLink]

I've also heard amazing things about this and I've been hoping to watch it soon.

 

I think the reason it's bombing is that it doesn't really stand out and hasn't been getting much in the way of efficient marketing. Like, I'd never heard of this before my friend said "it's really good", I'd actually never heard of it. Looking at the pictures.. it looks like a generic-ass space marine movie, then the reviews.. what? I honestly didn't expect a movie with an appearance like this to be getting rave reviews, and it proves once again that you can't judge a book by its cover.

 

Unfortunately that's exactly what people seem to be doing as it's not doing so hot at the box office. So perhaps the movie planners should have done more to do the directors, actors and writers justice rather than give it such a bare bones and generic public presence. That's what I think is probably the reason.

 

Anyway I hope to see it soon! It'd really suck if this just totally failed.

[pppp]

It would have been an awesome movie, but it has 2 problems, one of them huge that brings it down considerably:

 

Why exactly are they forcing him into the army? What the hell does the army/government gain in sending an untrained man into war? Couldn't you find a more sensical reason to get the plot going?

 

The ending felt incredibly rushed, and makes no sense. Did the Omega sent him to the future? No, the other soldiers are still doing their routine and Blunt is still doing her exercises. Did it send him into the past? Then how come the Omega is still dead? They had a perfectly fine ending of him dying as a hero, but they wanted to pull a thought-provoking ending, and failed. The ending is full of contradictions and ends before we can even realise what's actually happening.

 

As for the reason why it's bombing well 2 reasons: The marketing is incredibly shitty and people are probably sick of Cruise action movies, since they've been crap in recent years.

[KrazyBean]

Yeah this film was pretty damn good. One of the most enjoyable films this year, also probably the best live action manga/anime film adaptation made in God knows how long.

[SuperStingray]

I really love it when action movies play with some kind of metaphysical ruleset. The Matrix, Inception and Source Code are among my favorite action films and I can add this to that list. It's not the first time that time loops have been used but it had some damn creative uses of it, even some really humorous ones. Also, I can't hear the title of this movie without thinking of Live & Learn.

[Gabz Girl]

Wait...I saw this film on Graham Norton ages ago. They showed a clip of it where Tom Cruise was in some kind of time death loop and it looked cool but is this really the film everyone's been raving about? And it's based on an animu? *looks up* Oh no wait, light novel. But still! A great Japanese adaptation?? I might go and check this out then! =O

 

Still, I'm not surprised it's not doing well. It's like Scott Pilgrim and Pacific Rim; the marketing is shite, not many people are into films like this (Scott Pilgrim is "too indie", Pacific Rim is "too niche") and as mentioned before Tom Cruise's films in recent years haven't been very good. So naturally everyone thinks this one sucks too! It's a shame.

[Nepenthe]

Why exactly are they forcing him into the army? What the hell does the army/government gain in sending an untrained man into war? Couldn't you find a more sensical reason to get the plot going?

 

The ending felt incredibly rushed, and makes no sense. Did the Omega sent him to the future? No, the other soldiers are still doing their routine and Blunt is still doing her exercises. Did it send him into the past? Then how come the Omega is still dead? They had a perfectly fine ending of him dying as a hero, but they wanted to pull a thought-provoking ending, and failed. The ending is full of contradictions and ends before we can even realise what's actually happening.

 

Remember, Cage said that the war will fail "no matter how many men you throw at it." This is presumably what happened in his case as we start the movie at a point where the Mimics have forced humanity on the brink, and the battle we constantly see is a key one towards either human or Mimic victory. They're basically drafting people at this point and throwing them onto the front lines just to strengthen numbers. It's also a good starting point to develop Cage; a lot of what makes the story interesting is that he's an untrained, sniveling coward and has always been afraid to get his hands dirty, hence why he's a marketing guy in the first place. By forcing him into combat and the time situation, we get to actively see him grow into a brave hero. He's the underdog. It would've been less interesting and far more straightforward had he just always been an army dude.

 

And the ending makes sense. Every time a special Mimic bleeds on someone, it sends them to the past as a biological reflex. Because the aliens had been defeated, the timeline had effectively changed just like it had, little by little, the last few hundred times Cage and Rita had gone back and performed better. He was essentially living in a new timeline at that point. The army still being there isn't a contradiction either; they're not going to completely dismantle it in a few days. Operations still have to be done to move people back out anyway. Cruise simply visits the base and decides to see Rita and revel in victory. It's not all that thought-provoking per se so much as the filmmakers sought to continue the happy ending via their mechanics.

Also, aside from Oblivion, I'm not entirely sure that Tom Cruise has become a box office detriment, especially since Jack Reacher and Mission Impossible 4 were awesome in their own ways. He's a bit like Will Smith; even his worst shit will draw an audience because it's Will Smith. So this may be a marketing thing (although I've been bombarded with tv spots for awhile), but now you fuckers have no excuse! D8<

[Chaos Warp]

Yeah just got back from this movie, awesome film! Ending didn't make much sense to me until I read Nepenthe's above spoiler, but even then I feel it could have been explained/conveyed better in the actual film. Either way, awesome movie! Very interesting time travel premise, honestly this is up there with some of the best time travel fiction I've seen in terms of how well it handles said time travel. 

 

"Wait a second! I've been thinking, I mean this thing's in my blood, so maybe there's some way I can transfer it to you?"

 

"I've tried everything it doesn't work!" 

 

"Have you tried, you know, have you tried *pelvic thrusting motions* all, ALL of the options?

 

"Oh you mean sex? Yeah, tried it." 

 

 "How many times?!"

 

LOL

 

[Killtank]

My friends and I saw the movie last week, and I was very happy that I made the case for our group to see it. I heard about all the good buzz the movie was receiving from various sources [i.e. IMDb, TGWTG and Rotten Tomatoes]. In my mind it wasn't a risky proposal given the fact that the film still holds a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I don't think the commercials we saw beforehand did the movie any justice. Before we saw it I only knew the premise and nothing else. I am glad that this moving is making bank overseas. I want film executives to see that a movie of this caliber can be profitable even if it the response at home is underwhelming. 

 

I wish to add my voice to the chorus of people praising Edge of Tomorrow. The movie is well written and surprisingly funny. I thought they were going to run the time loop premise into the ground, but that just doesn't happen. The script goes out of its way to play with cliches and conventional tropes, and the results are astounding. I had no idea where this movie was going during the middle of the second act. It's just an unpredictable film that knows when to juggle humor and drama.

 

Although, the happy ending was far from unexpected, but I didn't care by that point. I was fine with it. In fact, the movie's tone would have precluded anything 

but a happy ending. I will admit that the ending could have been stronger, but it's still a very satisfying conclusion.

 

See this Edge of Tomorrow before it leaves theaters. See this movie now. Believe the hype. 

[kboyrulez12345]

 

Remember, Cage said that the war will fail "no matter how many men you throw at it." This is presumably what happened in his case as we start the movie at a point where the Mimics have forced humanity on the brink, and the battle we constantly see is a key one towards either human or Mimic victory. They're basically drafting people at this point and throwing them onto the front lines just to strengthen numbers. It's also a good starting point to develop Cage; a lot of what makes the story interesting is that he's an untrained, sniveling coward and has always been afraid to get his hands dirty, hence why he's a marketing guy in the first place. By forcing him into combat and the time situation, we get to actively see him grow into a brave hero. He's the underdog. It would've been less interesting and far more straightforward had he just always been an army dude.

 

And the ending makes sense. Every time a special Mimic bleeds on someone, it sends them to the past as a biological reflex. Because the aliens had been defeated, the timeline had effectively changed just like it had, little by little, the last few hundred times Cage and Rita had gone back and performed better. He was essentially living in a new timeline at that point. The army still being there isn't a contradiction either; they're not going to completely dismantle it in a few days. Operations still have to be done to move people back out anyway. Cruise simply visits the base and decides to see Rita and revel in victory. It's not all that thought-provoking per se so much as the filmmakers sought to continue the happy ending via their mechanics.

Also, aside from Oblivion, I'm not entirely sure that Tom Cruise has become a box office detriment, especially since Jack Reacher and Mission Impossible 4 were awesome in their own ways. He's a bit like Will Smith; even his worst shit will draw an audience because it's Will Smith. So this may be a marketing thing (although I've been bombarded with tv spots for awhile), but now you fuckers have no excuse! D8<

Say, the General that made Cruise go into the field, wasn't it because he didn't want him to report to the world that, in reality, the humans were losing against the aliens. In other words, he was trying to cover it up by making the reporter go on the field. I could have sworn that was the reason

 

Anyway, I actually saw this film on opening day due to the reviews, and I have to say, this is a really good film. I was so sad though to see my movie theater practically empty, ON OPENING DAY. I agree that this movie deserves to be seen. 

 

You know, some people complain that the vast majority of movies these days are unoriginal, based off of existing franchises, or remakes. And here comes a movie with an original concept...and it's doing pretty badly. Kinda sad really. :/

[Voyant]

Anyway I hope to see it soon! It'd really suck if this just totally failed.

 

Its still doing pretty decent to be honest. The movie has been broke even and I'm sure this will end in the 400$ mark at the end of its lifespan. Movies don't have to be Inception or Frozen big for them to make it worth while.

 

This movie has already passed oblivion in long term sales numbers.

[Mollfie]

I have seen and heard nothing about this film aside from one post on tumblr and this post. I only know about it because Jez works at a cinema and I saw a poster there.

 

 

It does look super good, but I find Tom Cruise so hard to watch for some reason. Maybe this film will change that? I do love Emily Blunt and if she's a main character, and I get to see lots of her doing cool stuff, then I'm in.

[...]

I saw quite a bit of trailers in theaters and on TV before the film came out, and I was rather unimpressed. It just looked like a generic as hell style-over-substance blockbuster, and nothing was really enticing me to go see it. But as soon as the reviews came in and most critics and others who got to see it ended up acclaiming the film, it threw me off. With that, I decided to go check it out for myself on opening day...

 

And damn, did I love it. Seriously, I loved it. A lot. This was definitely the most pleasant surprise of all the films I've seen this year so far. The visual effects and action scenes are great, it's unexpectedly funny and makes great use of the time travel premise and perfectly balances the humorous and dramatic elements to make for a satisfying and just overall fun as hell experience. The only thing I disliked was the ending, which I found rather abrupt. Tom Cruise also did a great job, and it was refreshing to see him get out of his comfort zone and play more of a cowardly character, and Emily Blunt was also just as equally enjoyable.

 

Just like anyone else here, I strongly urge you to go see this before it leaves theaters. It's a damn shame it's not doing so hot in the box office here in America, but I am in fact glad it's making big piles of money overseas, and I at least hope word-of-mouth will help carry along this film in the long run here in the US. We need more summer blockbusters like this, ones that are just hella fun, hilarious, know how to make good use of the premise it faces, and know how to make its dramatic elements believable to the audience. 

 

Another thing, anyone else here think the film should've stayed being called "All You Need Is Kill" akin to its source material? Edge of Tomorrow is a pretty lame title, if you ask me.

[SuperStingray]

Another thing, anyone else here think the film should've stayed being called "All You Need Is Kill" akin to its source material? Edge of Tomorrow is a pretty lame title, if you ask me.

It's kinda generic, but at least it's coherent.

[Nepenthe]

Say, the General that made Cruise go into the field, wasn't it because he didn't want him to report to the world that, in reality, the humans were losing against the aliens. In other words, he was trying to cover it up by making the reporter go on the field. I could have sworn that was the reason

 

Anyway, I actually saw this film on opening day due to the reviews, and I have to say, this is a really good film. I was so sad though to see my movie theater practically empty, ON OPENING DAY. I agree that this movie deserves to be seen. 

 

You know, some people complain that the vast majority of movies these days are unoriginal, based off of existing franchises, or remakes. And here comes a movie with an original concept...and it's doing pretty badly. Kinda sad really. :/

 

I don't remember much about such a conversation having taken place. Perhaps it was in the beginning of the film when Cage was talking to the General. I'll have to watch it again to see. I simply figured they were just throwing people out at that point; Cage couldn't have been the only military marketer.

 

Also, I hope you know this is technically based off of a Japanese light novel, ne? =P It's not original much, but then again originality doesn't necessarily proceed quality. It's still an awesome film in its own right regardless.

 

As for the title, while the original isn't coherent it's certainly more interesting. If anything, such a title might've helped some with the marketing.

[kboyrulez12345]

Oh yeah, I knew it was based off a light novel. I realized that original was the wrong word to use. But like you said, it's still an awesome movie in it's own right. I'll definitely be buying this on DVD.