Edge of Tomorrow Review
Groundhog Day just got real.
SPOILERS INCOMING I’m going to have a hard time doing this review without spoilers so feel free to skip ahead to the last paragraph where I highly recommend this movie. This film managed to meet almost all of my hopes and expectations. It had a solid script, the hardest core science fiction you can possible get, excellent acting, edge of the seat action, and literally the latest and greatest in CGI and special effects. I would say this film is 95% of an awesome movie, and that the bad 5% comes in at the last 5 minutes.
The ending, while very (very, very, very) Hollywood caught me so off guard that I had to look at the source material, All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sikurazaka to see how much they changed the ending. However the original story is that very special Japanese sci fi that is to sci fi what Forbidden Planet is to regular movies. Uber sci fi and somehow always seems to involve monsters with tentacles. No help from there really.
As I have said before time travel as a plot device is a tricky beast, always waiting to jump up and bite you on the nuts. It can be done badly easily and using it correctly is the sign of a talented writer and director. The problem is time travel by its very nature has massive plot holes built in and if not treated right these holes can swallow your script. The time travel device here (resetting your day like in the movie Groundhog Day, or in every other sci fi series ever including Stargate SG1 and Supernatural) manages to avoid a lot of that pesky “conservation of mass and energy” business. Of course since human memory is theoretically chemical how memories can survive traveling back is still an issue, but this film managed to avoid that problem and the rest of the time paradox issues by more or less ignoring them.
However those problems were still present like a zit that is just under the skin and has yet to blossom into a whitehead. BIG SPOILER ALERT In the interest of a stupid Hollywood ending the story opted in the last 5 minutes to bring all those zits to full blown massive pimple status and them pop them, getting plot hole pus all over the screen. They pretty much showed the audience exactly why everything that happened in the first two hours of the film made no sense at all. I understand the need to give the audience a happy ending but in the last 5 minutes they turned what could have made my top 25 (well, maybe 50) all time sci fi films into yet another decent sci fi film to lie on the heap with Oblivion, Looper, and Plan 9 from Outer Space.
The other problem with this dopey ending is it automatically caused me to focus on other lame parts of the movie I was happy to ignore until then. For example, the plot device that forced our protagonist to get involved in the first place was literally the dumbest, most motivationless thing I have ever seen. Is the general so desperate for soldiers that he is going to shanghai an officer from another military organization and bust him down to private? The discipline dispensed by the military guys was at best half assed, not at all what you would expect from an army where each soldier uses a couple million dollars worth of extremely hi tech equipment. Also how quickly can one man (even a man as awesome as Tom Cruise) recover from being shot, car wrecked, and had a blood transfusion?
Also let’s talk about the high tech equipment for a bit. The soldiers have these really cool exoskeleton suits that allow them to carry a ton of weapons and makes them super strong. Um, why not hang some armor plates over the exoskeleton in an attempt to keep the tentacle aliens from removing their spines? If you are going to build power armor don’t forget the armor. If it’s a weight issue I’m sure losing a couple of weapons in exchange for living more than five minutes would be worth it. For that matter, why even put the soldiers inside the suits? I’m pretty sure 5 years into an alien invasion we would not have forgotten how to build drones.
Those items aside this movie was pretty amazing, and like I said truly hard core sci fi. Hive mind aliens out to conquer the Earth, high tech battle suits, and time travel. Add a few robots and you would actually out sci fi Doctor Who. The aliens are bad ass, the suits super cool, and the acting and characters off the hook. In fact a lot of the appeal of this movie is in that while definitely an action movie there is a subtle character study that adds a nice subtext.
I’d also like to take a moment to endorse the Church of Scientology. I am not myself terribly religious (unless the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster counts) but I have noticed that Tom Cruise, a reportedly hard core Scientologist, has been throwing himself into cool sci fi projects like this one left and right. As a nerd who loves sci fi films I have to support anything that encourages their production and have noted a steady increase in sci fi movies and TV shows as the church gains in popularity among Hollywood celebrities. Maybe I’m just imagining it all but if the church is a factor in more cool movies being done then let’s all get our Electropsychometer test done today!
On the other hand there was a strong Scientology message in the movie After Earth, and since that film to a true sci fi fan is the equivalent of a multiple trepanning with a rusty hand crank drill maybe giving them a clean thumbs up is not such a good idea. Once again I am stuck on the fence.
The story. Cage (Tom Cruise-Minority Report, Mission Impossible, Top Gun) is a major in the US army who specializes in public relations and recruiting soldiers into the United Defense Force, an international team fighting the Mimics, an alien invader who wants to conquer our world. He flies to London to meet with General Brigham (Brandan Gleeson-Troy, Gangs of New York, In Bruges). The general tells Cage that he is going to drop in with the massive invasion of France the next day in spite of the fact that he has no training or combat experience. When Cage refuses Brigham has him tazered out and arrested.
When Cage wakes up he finds himself in the hands of Master Sergent Farell (Bill Paxton-Aliens, 2 Guns, Million Dollar Arm. Weyland-Yutani image one of the many sci fi t shirts in my personal collection), who has been told that Cage is a private and a deserter (this was the lame plot device). Cage is forced into his squad (who all hate him) and the next day dropped into combat without even knowing how to turn off the safety for his weapons.
The battle is a massive failure as the Mimics seem to have known they were coming. Most of his squad gets killed but in the last minute Cage manages to kill a blue Mimic (most of them are red) just before dying horribly.
He wakes up just at the moment where he met Farell and has to do the whole thing over. At that point the movie is Groundhog Day with aliens. Each reset he does slightly better and notices a hot soldier Rita (Emily Blunt-Looper, the Five-Year Engagement, The Devil Wears Prada). She was the hero of the last battle, killing literally hundreds of Mimics in one day. He helps her and she figures out that he keeps resetting.
It turns out that she had the same thing and it was the blue blood from the Mimic he killed that gave him his power. She takes him to meet a scientist (Noah Taylor-Anne, Lawless, Red Dog) who tells him that the Mimics have the power to reset time and by getting the blue blood on him he has stolen the power (again, not a point that bears up to close scrutiny by anyone with a scientific mind. How does chemistry and casual contact with alien DNA relate to quantum mechanics? Thank god for suspension of disbelief.). There is something called an Omega that controls all the Mimics that they need to find and kill.
At that point he starts training every day with Rita and then dying horribly the next day. Each day he makes it a little farther but cannot keep her alive. Stuff gets blown up, guys get killed over and over again, and a happy ending is pulled from the deepest recesses of the three man writing committees collective ass.
The stars:
Ending aside great story. Two stars. Tom Cruise was awesome, and 100 years from now when they look back on early 21st century science fiction movies he will be the icon of it. One star. All the rest of the crew was great, especially the amazing Bill Paxton. One star. Excellent CGI and effects. Two stars. Very exciting action. One star. The reset effect meant you got to see the main characters get killed over and over again but in time overcome whatever killed them. One star. The story actually managed to get you to connect with Cage and Rita. By the end of the film you really care. One star. Solid sci fi principals in most of this movie (time travel paradoxes aside). One star. The exoskeletons, while not armored as they should be, were super cool. One star. In general a great exciting film. Two stars. Total: thirteen stars.
The black holes:
The lame happy ending, robbing most of the film of gravitas. One black hole. The time travel plot holes, while for the most part lurking in the shadow, were encouraged to pounce on the film with that ending. One black hole. Power armor sans armor is an insult to anyone who has ever played Warhammer 40K. One black hole. The lame “force Cage to fight” plot device felt like a 3rd grader had written that part. One black hole. The action, while cool, groaned under the crushing weight of the PG-13 rating. One black hole. Total: five black holes.
So a grand total of eight stars. Great, but not super great if you know what I mean. I find that annoying. We almost had a classic here ruined by some studio executive demanding the story pay homage to the bottom line. In other words, we the potential fans were sold out. However, very much worth your time, and when I get to Comic Con in six weeks I expect to see at least one guy in a complete exoskeleton suit from this movie. It’s pretty much obligatory. Should you see it? Yes. Date movie? No. This is sci fi for sci fi fans, not something that she can feel good about while you manage to avoid being bored completely. If she likes sci fi sure but please tell me what dimension you imported her from as I cannot find a female sci fi fan to save my life. Bathroom break? Hold it in brother. It’s worth risking damage to your bladder. If you really can’t control yourself the scene where Cage and Rita are drinking coffee in a garage can be missed but you will regret it.
Thanks for reading. More to see this weekend and this list of movies is coming along nicely. Look for that later this weekend. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu and email off topic questions and suggestions to [email protected]. Feel free to post comments on this review or movie here. Talk to you soon.
the Infamous Dave Inman
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