The "time loop" scenario may be over-familiar to anyone with a passing interest in sci-fi, but it is almost the ultimate "What if?" plot line, offering up a multitude of approaches to entertain and explore interesting themes. And here, Liman goes for broke and offers pretty much everything he can throw at it, with Cruise revelling in the role and they have created an entertaining and thrilling film that feels fresh despite borrowing from a multitude of others, not least because it commits to telling a standalone story that does not rely on previous entries nor tries to set up future sequels. Action and humour are prevalent to hook the audience into an intriguing set-up, but rather than simply rely on repeating the formula, Liman takes it beyond the initial hook as Cruise initially, and later Blunt, explore a multitude of approaches to solving the puzzle they find themselves in, which ensures the film does not become stale. Both Cruise and Liman are intent on showing the inherent gruelling nature of repeating the same day over and over, learning a little each time, even keen to emphasise the frustration when avenues explored reach dead-ends and have to be abandoned. Cruise is great here, getting to play a little with his own action hero persona, that helps to make his development from coward to determined soldier that much more believable. It is a shame that the final coda to the film drops this down a notch as the resolution doesn't quite ring true in the context of the story the audience has experienced but that doesn't prevent this from being great summer film.
Year after year, our cynicism towards Hollywood blockbusters only grows stronger; with mediocre mainstream cinema now undeniably at its most prevalent, masses of media buffs have resorted to cheaper and stronger in-home entertainment. In 2014, a temporary beacon of hope arrived...in the form of Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow, which completely flabbergasted the standard by combining visceral summer popcorn fun with the following rarities: an emotional narrative with tangible stakes, a humanly flawed protagonist, but most of all: powerful thematic coherence. The kind of things that stimulate our minds, stir our souls, and spend years echoing in our subconscious.
On the surface, the film chronicles the attempt to fend off an invincible alien attack, but is first and foremost a tale of human experience, placing us in the eyes of a cowardly major thrust into active combat, forced to learn from his mistakes through various time loops, and gain the limitless courage expected of a soldier. The film’s seamlessly intricate weaving of character and theme helps not only sustain the world’s stakes, but equally that of Major Cage’s, maintaining a palpable tension from his every attempted resistance and enlightening character interaction. Liman’s focus on facial reaction shots and surreal sound editing within his battle sequences helps key us into his frantic mindset, helping his audience emotionally share and recount similar incidents of immature apprehension and faintheartedness. Its Groundhog Day-esque structure proves equally beneficial, creating an involving atmosphere of growth
Our needs and expectations for this protagonist are established with minimal effort, with the comic Sergeant Farrell working as film’s thematic mouthpiece, declaring that fate can be controlled through readiness and discipline, despite Cage’s initial physical & mental incapacity to believe so. However, his encounters with Sergeant Vrataski say otherwise, whose battle-hardened self has defied the artificial fate established by the aliens, becoming a renowned “angel” figure not just for the military landscape, but for Cage’s own mindscape, honing him into the common humanity and inevitable human sacrifices of the battlefield. In the latter half, Liman makes surprising reversals of audience expectation to further underscore Cage’s new synthesis of growth: facing death on the London bridge rather than running, avoiding Rita’s orders not for his own life but rather her’s, and exposing the moral flaws of his stubborn superior rather the latter’s initial exposure of his.
Simple, powerful storytelling techniques that confirm Edge of Tomorrow as a perfectly cathartic encapsulation of the hero’s journey that establishes humans, not inferior pressures and processes, as the Alpha and Omega of their own fates. If future filmmakers can prove to exhibit this level of care for their blockbuster narratives, then maybe we can love them again.
A typical blockbuster is what I expected. I got even less than that. You'll feel like you're watching a video game. For a computer effect heavy movie it's one of the better ones. It's fast to get going, but why is Cruise's character even fighting? Because we needed a fish out of water scenario for a few minutes? Some additional background information about the plot would have helped me give a damn about the first 20 minutes. The character development was very obvious at every stage. The dialogue was either to edge simple plot along or as a set up for some action or punchline. No brain required. There's not much going on interesting with the characters, and as a result I don't care for them. Least their was a relationship going on. Yeah that was predictable shlock too. I didn't feel any atmosphere. Nothing on screen impacted on me and the acting didn't help. I did feel the action work initially. But it's like watching a magician with the same old tricks. The whole idea itseld is based on being very repetitive, and it felt like it.
Are shaky cameras the new thing with action movies? The aliens never felt threatening. I've already forgetten what they look like. Some bland alien squid? Who cares. Er... how did they invade earth? Doesn't matter because we have explosions. The fighters had no camaraderie. Bad casting. Bad writing.
I just don't see the point in this movie. I thought Hollywood would have perfected the blockbuster by now. Maybe they have in terms of making money and getting praise from something completely mediocre.
8/10? His movie won't age well and nobody will remember it. I recommend this for people that play Call Of Duty all day.
The world is at war with aliens and Tom Cruise keeps repeating the same day until he sorts it out. Groundhog Day meets War of the Worlds, you might say. Doesn’t sound all that appealing.
However, Edge of Tomorrow is witty, clever, sort-of makes sense and has some fantastic action sequences. Turns out this idea wasn’t done to death, and I’m glad I finally caught up with it. It’s a triumph of originality that flies in the face of endless franchises and remakes.
The real hook is that our protagonist finds someone (Emily Blunt) who experienced the same temporal hiccup and knows how to get out of it. I breathed a sigh of relief when the tedium of trying to persuade people he isn’t insane is quickly cut short with one quick line: “find me when you wake up”. The other clever touch is that our major is trying to stay in the loop rather than break out of it.
Things only get better from there. Cruise and Blunt are at the top of their game and their relationship feels genuine, somehow evolving despite their meeting for the first time over and over again. The script is sharp and keeps the plot simple. With time travel you are always trying to sell a shaky idea but Edge of Tomorrow never has you rolling your eyes.
The action is engrossing and well-paced. I tend to nod-off during extended loud sequences but Liman is an old hand at this now and keeps us hooked.
This is a brilliant, no-bullshit sci-fi action film that came out of nowhere. In a way, Edge of Tomorrow is what broke summer blockbusters out of their super-hero based time-loop. More like this please, Hollywood!
http://benoliver999.com/film/2016/03/11/edgeoftomorrow/
Year after year, our cynicism towards Hollywood blockbusters only grows stronger; with mediocre mainstream cinema now undeniably at its most prevalent, masses of media buffs have resorted to cheaper and stronger in-home entertainment. In 2014, a temporary beacon of hope arrived...in the form of Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow, which completely flabbergasted the standard by combining visceral summer popcorn fun with the following rarities: an emotional narrative with tangible stakes, a humanly flawed protagonist, but most of all: powerful thematic coherence. The kind of things that stimulate our minds, stir our souls, and spend years echoing in our subconscious.
On the surface, the film chronicles the attempt to fend off an invincible alien attack, but is first and foremost a tale of human experience, placing us in the eyes of a cowardly major thrust into active combat, forced to learn from his mistakes through various time loops, and gain the limitless courage expected of a soldier. The film’s seamlessly intricate weaving of character and theme helps not only sustain the world’s stakes, but equally that of Major Cage’s, maintaining a palpable tension from his every attempted resistance and enlightening character interaction. Liman’s focus on facial reaction shots and surreal sound editing within his battle sequences helps key us into his frantic mindset, helping his audience emotionally share and recount similar incidents of immature apprehension and faintheartedness. Its Groundhog Day-esque structure proves equally beneficial, creating an involving atmosphere of growth and making prime utilization of set-ups and payoffs for greater thematic advantage.
Our needs and expectations for this protagonist are established with minimal effort, with the comic Sergeant Farrell working as film’s moral mouthpiece, declaring that fate can be controlled through readiness and discipline, despite Cage’s initial physical & mental incapacity to believe so. However, his encounters with Sergeant Vrataski say otherwise, whose battle-hardened self has defied the artificial fate established by the aliens, becoming a renowned “angel” figure not just for the military landscape, but for Cage’s own mindscape, honing him into the common humanity and inevitable human sacrifices of the battlefield. In the latter half, Liman makes surprising reversals of audience expectation to further underscore Cage’s new synthesis of growth: facing death on the London bridge rather than running, avoiding Rita’s orders not for his own life but rather her’s, and exposing the moral flaws of his stubborn superior rather the latter’s initial exposure of his.
Simple, powerful storytelling techniques that confirm Edge of Tomorrow as a perfectly cathartic encapsulation of the hero’s journey that establishes humans, not inferior pressures and processes, as the Alpha and Omega of their own fates. If future filmmakers can prove to exhibit this level of care for their blockbuster narratives, then maybe we can love them again.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2014-06-08T22:27:01Z
Thrilling, creative and well acted. There was a lot of doubts about Edge of Tomorrow, but for me it seemed very cool and since I first saw the trailer that I was excited to see it. Today I finally had the chance to catch it and I really enjoyed!
The concept of the story is so cool! Something between Source Code and a mix of many war films. The action sequences of war are absolutely amazing and the special effects so well done! With a fantastic and super original Sci-Fi story you will be intrigued until the very last minute and you can't even predict what is coming next.
What I wasn't expecting was the amount of humour the film has. Those comical parts go very well with the story and are very well delivered. I let go an amount of spontaneous laughs throughout the story and that was great.
Tom Cruise was really great that his role! We already know that through the last few years he is a guy that likes to do this kind of physically difficult roles full of action and he certainly is in shape for that. I confess that I prefer the 80's and 90's Tom Cruise but he was pretty good in this and that is the Tom Cruise that I wanna continue to see! (although last year I also liked to see him in Oblivion which I think is not as bad as many say). Emily Blunt is a good actress, seeing her in this badass role was awesome! The chemistry between Cruise and Blunt was fantastic! I really liked Bill Paxton's character too.
I heard somewhere that this film was "the best video game film that was not based in a video game" and while I was watching it I really felt that! It was so cool to almost feel that I was actually playing a video game something like "Oh sh*t GAME OVER, start all over again!" haha
First was X-Men: Days of Future Past and now Edge of Tomorrow. Two great Blockbusters! Will this Summer continue to be great? I hope so!