Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)

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Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 06-06-2014, 06:41 PM:

Dying at the same time as an alien with time-traveling abilities causes a rookie soldier to relive the same day over and over again, which makes him a good candidate for a covert mission to locate the supreme alien commander. In 2D at the AMC Garden State Plaza 16, Paramus, NJ.

*****

Anytime the plot of a movie centers around going back in time, even if it’s just a day, you wind up running into the inevitable paradoxes, the kind of things that make observant movie watchers say “Hold it a minute, how come . . ." , things like that. This movie has some beauts of that kind, but if you can swallow hard it’s a pretty good time. Cruise goes against his usual type and plays a feckless wuss for a change (at least at first), and Blunt is good as a fellow soldier who has gone through the same live-the-day-over experience and recruits Cruise to her operation. Bill Paxton makes a great Master Sargent as well. The movie is mostly all action after it gets going, the pace is a little frantic at times but you never lose track of what’s going on. Looks fine too, at least in 2D.

All in all good movie fun, but it’s probably best not to think too hard about this one.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-07-2014, 03:21 PM:

Cinema: Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16, downtown Oklahoma City
Screen: Cine Capri
Format: 2D, Dolby Atmos
Presentation Problems: None
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 4

My girlfriend and I had a really good time watching Edge of Tomorrow. I was a little surprised to see Tom Cruise playing against type as an "in the rear with the gear" bureaucrat who wears a uniform only as if was a three piece suit. After a couple of not so nice turns in the plot the cream-puff finds himself at "the pointy end of the spear" for a major amphibious invasion. The Groundhog Day style angle takes off from that first battle.

The movie is often clever and humorous how it handles the "live, die, repeat" story-line. Thankfully the movie-makers were creative enough with the editing process so certain things were repeated only when necessary. The movie also moves fast enough to prevent viewers from thinking about any plot issues too much.

Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
I thought they pulled their punches a bit with the ending. The reset to where Major William Cage wakes up in the helicopter with his gold oak leaves back on his shoulders didn't make much logical sense. At first I thought boss alien did that so it could relocate out of its den below The Louvre to somewhere else and get all that business started all over again, but somehow it was still dead even though time had been reset? But this is a modern day Hollywood movie and big media corporations can't stand 2 hour movies to have any sort of downbeat ending -particularly one where the lead characters get killed. They'll do it on cable TV shows like Game of Thrones, but not often for movies in theaters.

One thing I think they should have explored more or at least embellished a bit: the psychological toll it would take on someone dying over and over again. All those deaths that Bill Cage had to experience were probably horribly painful, if at least for a split second. Wouldn't knowing how it feels to be devoured by some lightning quick alien predator or getting shot in the head have some kind of mental impact? What would that do to someone? Make him curl up in a fetal position crying for Mommy or turn him into some masochistic bad-ass not afraid to hack off his own arm? Then again, this is a PG-13 movie. Getting too much in that territory might be worthy of an R-rating.

Was it either coincidence or intentional that Warner Bros. chose to release Edge of Tomorrow on the 70th anniversary of D-Day?

I was more impressed with this movie from the technical end. It had some great visuals. The aliens reminded my girlfriend of the Sentinels in The Matrix. I thought they were interesting in how fast they moved and how it looked like they had red or blue blow torches in their throats.

If you plan to see this movie please see it in Dolby Atmos if possible. This was the best Atmos mix I've heard since Gravity. The sound designers made great use of the surround field. I heard a lot of creative panning and point source effects all over walls and ceiling. This movie has some impressive bass too. This is a mix that rises out of conventional 5.1/7.1 territory and sounds like a whole lot more. This movie might sound pretty good in regular 5.1/7.1 as well (there are plenty of good sound effects -particularly some of the machine gun effects). Still, you're missing out if you don't see it in Atmos.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 06-08-2014, 07:49 PM:

^ Heh, Atmos. I wish! [Smile]

Baulking at the prospect of being sent to the front line, a military public relations guy, Major Bill Cage (Tom Cruise), is arrested for desertion and sent to a training facility as a Private. After being slain with his entire platoon at the following days battle, Cage finds himself mysteriously resurrected, Groundhog Day-style, to replay the battle scenario again and again and again. Teaming up with military mega star, Rita (Emily Blunt), Cage learns the reason for the continual recession of time and the means to win the war against an alien invasion force.

Edge of Tomorrow owes much to much else and not just Groundhog Day. It borrows very heavily also from Aliens (it even stars Bill Paxton) and Starship Troopers in terms of it mech design, battle mechanics and alien creature concepts. But it's blatant derivations are easily overlooked due to the movie's sense of fun: Paxton doing his best R. Lee Ermey; action-packed battle sequences; the heroine killing the hero every time he missteps etc. It's all presented in a sweet, easily digestible serving with humorous condiments.

Most of the film's underlying premise is crammed into one exposition heavy sequence and it's difficult to catch all the details but apparently being infused with the blood of a high ranking alien allows you to reset time - or something. It's also apparently possible to lose the ability to reset time but it's never quite explained how you survive the knowledge of losing it when death is the trigger. Anyhow, it's all by-the-by as the film presents itself as more action than sci-fi thinkfest (indeed there's very little sci-fi in it) so you just run with it and have fun.

Performances are average on the whole though it's kind of cool to see Paxton again, doing what he does best. Cruise and Blunt could do this stuff with their hands tied and blindfold, and they pretty much do. Noah Taylor continues to rock up in the oddest of places and is a nice surprise.

Despite it's derivative nature and stock performances, Edge of Tomorrow remains a well-presented piece of action entertainment right up to it's bullshit Hollywood ending.

7 out of 10

P.S. (Mild spoiler) Regarding the ending, Bobby, I think the deal there was that he became infused with the Omega blood and so effectively became the Omega....or something. Whatever, it's still a cop out with the clear intention of a forced happy ending.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-09-2014, 05:35 AM:

No, I'm not the first one to point this out, but it DID feel a lot like Groundhog Day meets Aliens, meets Star Ship Troopers meets The Matrix meets Saving Private Ryan. Sprinkle with a bit of Scientology (Sorry, couldn't help it, but for me it is hard to take this guy serious anymore), bake for 20 minutes and out comes your Edge of Tomorrow.

On a whole, this thing is quite enjoyable, as long as you don't ask yourself too many questions...

The movie lacked in the back-story department for my liking. It wasn't clear what those Mimics wanted here, on earth, but it was probably all about the resources and stuff, and why bother anyway?

This alien race looked quite capable of destroying humanity in the blink of an eye, why haven't they done so yet? We humans always play hard to get it seems...

Also, it's rather coincidental that this Omega's blood is fully compatible with humans, that evolved on another planet for millions of years and they have the same conception about days as we do. But they're on planet earth right now, so maybe they quickly adapted...

quote: Bobby Henderson
Was it either coincidence or intentional that Warner Bros. chose to release Edge of Tomorrow on the 70th anniversary of D-Day?

Maybe the year was a coincidence, but I doubt the release window was coincidental.

quote: Stu Jamieson
P.S. (Mild spoiler) Regarding the ending, Bobby, I think the deal there was that he became infused with the Omega blood and so effectively became the Omega....or something. Whatever, it's still a cop out with the clear intention of a forced happy ending.

Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
The Omega pulled a Twilight on us and imprinted on Cage. He effectively became the Omega and after the movie ended, he resets the day another time and the aliens will still get extraterrestrial on our human asses. We will see this story unfold in the Edge of the Day after Tomorrow in a year or two.

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 06-11-2014, 11:54 PM:

Edge of Tomorrow was too good a movie to be released in the middle of popcorn season IMO. A fall release might of been better for the box office performance. I also thought the marketing sucked, I only went to see it because of the good reviews it was getting.

Tom Cruise was better than he has been in a really long time and Emily Blunt was cool. I liked the story and the visuals were great.

The sound for Edge of Tomorrow was very good. Not overly loud and some good surround effects.

I don't think the movie will hold up in weekend two, but worldwide it is doing well.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 06-24-2014, 03:03 AM:

CINEMA: Megaplex at Jordan Commons, Sandy, UT
AUDITORIUM: 12
PRESENTATION: Mystery Meat Digital (2D, 2K)
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Three stars (out of four)

I made the increasingly rare move of getting popcorn and a soda. I added my usual absurd amount of "buttery topping" at the self-serve machine and headed for the auditorium.

Ticket Taker: "They haven't finished cleaning yet."

I glare at him in annoyance and sit at a table. I eat about a quarter of the popcorn in the tub, then go back to the self serve buttery topping machine and get completely ridiculous. Upon return to Ticket Taker, he gives me a thumbs-up sign. I have my ticket held between the tips of two fingers in the hand holding my soda. Pointing the ticket towards him, I shout commandingly "PULL MY FINGER!" Which cracks him up.

THE PLOT: An invasion of Spider Island. Wackiness ensues.

Okay. First off, who came up with this title? "Edge of Tomorrow". It sounds like a soap opera. On the readerboard by the auditorium door, they'd shortened it to "EDGE OF TOMO". That's a WAY better title. It sounds Japanese. If I ever started a theatre chain, I'd call it TOMO CINEMA. And my staff would all dress like black ninjas. "YOU WANT REFUND? PULL MY FINGER!"

Anyway, while "Groundhog Day" is the obvious comparison, I kept comparing it to combat video games, where when you fail a level, you just keep doing that level over until you get it right. Yes, in most of these types of games you advance whereas this movie constantly resets at the same place, but I still think it's a valid comparison.

The important thing in a movie like this is pace, and it's about perfect there.

Great watch.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-19-2015, 07:09 AM:

Just saw this movie (finally). I liked it for what it was. I concur that it is a mix of Groundhog Day and Starship Troopers. Those two sufficiently describe what is going on here.

As for ratings...for its genre it is a solid 4 out of 5. For movies of all time...maybe a 2 out of 5 but not all movies need to be masterpieces. This movie is fun and strikes a pretty good balance.

As for the ending...I suspect they shot several and "spliced" in the one that tested best since the ending has zero effect on the story.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 06-19-2015, 11:41 PM:

I actually thought the Atmos mix was just as good as 'Oblivion' (which was shockingly good!)

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-30-2015, 12:58 AM:

LIVE DIE REPEAT -- didn't it play with this title nationally?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-30-2015, 08:38 AM:

No. The "Live, Die, Repeat" thing was a big tagline featured on the poster and trailer. The Blu-ray and DVD cover art had that tagline printed huge with the actual movie name listed as a subtle sub-headline.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-30-2015, 08:59 AM:

Smart of the marketing team -- I am with Sam on this one -- Edge of Tomorrow sounds like a movie my lady would drag me to see....kicking and screaming.

Posted by William Kucharski (Member # 7246) on 07-02-2015, 05:56 AM:

Humorously enough, I recall when one national radio talk show host was describing the movie and talking about how much she enjoyed it but couldn't figure out the title to tell listeners about it, saying it was "Live Die" something. When her producer helpfully stated it was Edge of Tomorrow, she stated "No, that's not it." [Big Grin]

(She later recanted after realizing that was the actual title.)