Edge of Tomorrow

[Pheldagriff]

I've seen the "Edge of Tomorrow" last friday and I have to say: fantastic movie. Better than expected, far better indeed. It had everything, a compelling story, superb action, funny comedy which didn't break the mood of the film and even suspense (and that even considering that the main hero can't really die). the ending might not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it. great film. go see it in cinema.

[Pie Guy]

I read the book (mostly because of it's horrible Engrish title, "All you need is kill") and I enjoyed it.

[Pheldagriff]

come on, guys. now even the slow US has had its release. let's hear some opinions from you.

[Kitten Champion]

I'm not seeing it 'til Monday night, I've got to collect movie reward points first and I may or may not have a funeral to attend. I'm certainly looking forward to it since I was reading along with the manga quite happily.

All You Need Is Kill is best title.

[Dragonus45]

I loved it, but I can't really think of much to talk about about it other than talking about differences between the book and movie and it seems like very few people are familiar with the book. As a side note though any movie that can lead to a 45 minute argument conversation about how the time travel works is a movie worth recommending.

[thorgrim29]

I just saw it and it was pretty awesome. Cruise is as usual awesome, and Emily Blunt really sells her role as the badass action girl who is functional despite truckloads of PTSD and survivor's guilt. I was expecting it to be good, but not be as funny as it was. BTW, Emily Blunt would play the crap out of Commander Shepard

[Kislath]

I'll be checking this one out this week. It sounds pretty good from what you guys are saying.

[Muz]

I loved it, but I can't really think of much to talk about about it other than talking about differences between the book and movie and it seems like very few people are familiar with the book. As a side note though any movie that can lead to a 45 minute argument conversation about how the time travel works is a movie worth recommending.

I didn't know it was based on a book. I'll have to pick that up...

I saw it last night. I was surprised at how great it was. (I mean, it looked interesting, but they really pulled it off well.) It's like Groundhog Day meets Starcraft.

It occurred to me that Cage is essentially trapped in a Nintendo-hard video game with unlimited lives but no save point. Like Super Mario Brothers with high-tech weaponry and aliens. Loved it.

And if you'll permit me to quote a paragraph from my own review on my blog (http://michaelgmunz.com/movie-review-edge-of-tomorrow/):

Edge of Tomorrow is, hands down, THE best video game movie ever. And just to be clear that I don’t mean to damn it with faint praise, it’s also one of the best movies I’ve seen all year. Possibly even this decade. It’s excellent science fiction.

Fantastic movie. I didn't even mind Tom Cruise!

[Pie Guy]

After seeing the movie, I can't really recommend the book. The book had a really weird ending that is completely different from the movie. The movie was just a lot better in my opinion.

[Muz]

After seeing the movie, I can't really recommend the book. The book had a really weird ending that is completely different from the movie. The movie was just a lot better in my opinion.

Good to know. What happened in the book's ending?

I really wish Cage had just died. I don't even quite understand what happened there. I think it would've been better if they all really had died in order to kill the Omega*. There's nothing wrong with a hero's death. I got the feeling they added that in order to give it a happier ending that it didn't need.

*Hey. *blinks* Omega. Omega-13. Coincidence? :smallwink:

[Dragonus45]

After seeing the movie, I can't really recommend the book. The book had a really weird ending that is completely different from the movie. The movie was just a lot better in my opinion.

I like what the book does.

Essentially the book has a third kind of mimic called the antenna and the betas in the movie were called servers int eh book, when the server was killed it was the antenna that actually sends the signal for the reset, so if you were to kill the several antenna first in the proper order then kill the server they wouldn't be able to reset. At the end of the book Rita realizes that while she is no longer a server she has become an antenna and commits suicide by attacking Keiji and forcing him to kill her. Also the book describes the mimics more and reveals that they were a created microbe sent to terraform earth for an alien race.

[Gamerlord]

Just saw it a bit ago. Pretty great, maybe even my favorite movie of this summer so far, although I felt things started to weaken a bit by the end, particularly the ending, which I considered to be rather cheap.
They really should have just had a montage of alien forces dying out after Cage sacrifices himself to destroy the Omega and the worldwide celebration afterwards. The actual ending felt really corny and introduced some weird questions on how exactly that worked.

[BWR]

Just got back from watching it and enjoyed it. Not the best movie this summer, but quite good. I think in terms of sheer fun it ranks about 4th, tying with X-man: Days of future past.
The ending really detracted from what was otherwise a good movie.

[Kalmageddon]

Really good movie, one of the fews I've seen in recent memory where I didn't exit the theater wondering about plotholes and inconsistencies.
Well, actually, there is one thing... Rita says that after they had to replace her blood because of a wound, she lost her power to reset time after her death. So uh... How did she find out without, you know, dying? After Cage loses his power in a similar way he says something along the lines of "I can feel it's gone", which I guess counts as at least handwaving it, but still... made me wonder.

[KerfuffleMach2]

I haven't seen it yet, but from the trailer and commercials, what pops into my head is a cross between Gears of War and Groundhog Day.

[shadow_archmagi]

Good to know. What happened in the book's ending?

I really wish Cage had just died. I don't even quite understand what happened there. I think it would've been better if they all really had died in order to kill the Omega*. There's nothing wrong with a hero's death. I got the feeling they added that in order to give it a happier ending that it didn't need.

*Hey. *blinks* Omega. Omega-13. Coincidence? :smallwink:

100% agreed. Movie should've ended with everyone dead.


Really good movie, one of the fews I've seen in recent memory where I didn't exit the theater wondering about plotholes and inconsistencies.
Well, actually, there is one thing... Rita says that after they had to replace her blood because of a wound, she lost her power to reset time after her death. So uh... How did she find out without, you know, dying? After Cage loses his power in a similar way he says something along the lines of "I can feel it's gone", which I guess counts as at least handwaving it, but still... made me wonder.

None of the events of the movie really make *sense* (What's with the false visions?) from a making-sense standpoint, but the movie doesn't *try* too hard to explain them and it makes sense on the sort of wizard-magic level (Of course time travel powers are transferred through blood!)


I went with a friend who really dislikes Tom Cruise and she got a huge kick out of how the first hour or so of the movie is just people being really mean to Tom. (I wish they'd cast Nathan Fillion instead though.)

[Olinser]

Just saw it a bit ago. Pretty great, maybe even my favorite movie of this summer so far, although I felt things started to weaken a bit by the end, particularly the ending, which I considered to be rather cheap.
They really should have just had a montage of alien forces dying out after Cage sacrifices himself to destroy the Omega and the worldwide celebration afterwards. The actual ending felt really corny and introduced some weird questions on how exactly that worked.

They had to have it end that way or fans would have torn the ending apart - they kind of wrote themselves into a corner.

Think about it for a second. The Alphas are the time reset buttons. When Cage accidentally stole the power, the Alphas couldn't reset anymore.

When they came to the Omega, Cage had lost the power to reset time - the Alphas had it back. The Omega is the source of that power. Obviously if the Omega dies, it's going to reset the same as the Alphas (or when the Alpha dies as a result of the Omega dying, the Alpha will just reset time).

So having Cage hijack the Omega's power is literally the only way that could go down without fans crying 'FOUL!!!! THE OMEGA WOULD JUST RESET TIME!'

Unless they suddenly had Doctor McSideCharacter pull an 'anti-time' device out of his butt that he didn't have in any other of the hundreds of time iterations.

[Olinser]

100% agreed. Movie should've ended with everyone dead.



None of the events of the movie really make *sense* (What's with the false visions?) from a making-sense standpoint, but the movie doesn't *try* too hard to explain them and it makes sense on the sort of wizard-magic level (Of course time travel powers are transferred through blood!)


I went with a friend who really dislikes Tom Cruise and she got a huge kick out of how the first hour or so of the movie is just people being really mean to Tom. (I wish they'd cast Nathan Fillion instead though.)

It makes plenty of sense, as long as you are willing to accept the time-travel aspect.

The time travel power is susceptible to being transferred/hijacked by accident, as has already been proven at least once by Rita (that we know about).

Given that, it is entirely reasonable that the Omega keeps an Alpha parked off in the middle of nowhere 24/7/365 as his 'time trap', if you will, in case the power is stolen. Whoever stole his power is compelled to follow to the location of the visions, and the Alpha there already knows that anybody that shows up has to be bled out, not killed - no time reset required for the Alpha to know this, it would literally be his only job to bleed out anybody that showed up.

[shadow_archmagi]

The time travel power is susceptible to being transferred/hijacked by accident, as has already been proven at least once by Rita (that we know about).


Right, but there's no real sense to why that is. We're just told that it's blood-borne time travel.

[Olinser]

Right, but there's no real sense to why that is. We're just told that it's blood-borne time travel.

Because bizarre alien biology. Some kind of marker/substance in the blood that got transferred to Cage when it bled into his shattered body.

[Math_Mage]

I loved it, but I can't really think of much to talk about about it other than talking about differences between the book and movie and it seems like very few people are familiar with the book. As a side note though any movie that can lead to a 45 minute argument conversation about how the time travel works is a movie worth recommending.
I've read the book and haven't watched the movie. I'm expecting another Magnificent Seven.

[comicshorse]

They had to have it end that way or fans would have torn the ending apart - they kind of wrote themselves into a corner.

Think about it for a second. The Alphas are the time reset buttons. When Cage accidentally stole the power, the Alphas couldn't reset anymore.

When they came to the Omega, Cage had lost the power to reset time - the Alphas had it back. The Omega is the source of that power. Obviously if the Omega dies, it's going to reset the same as the Alphas (or when the Alpha dies as a result of the Omega dying, the Alpha will just reset time).

So having Cage hijack the Omega's power is literally the only way that could go down without fans crying 'FOUL!!!! THE OMEGA WOULD JUST RESET TIME!'

Unless they suddenly had Doctor McSideCharacter pull an 'anti-time' device out of his butt that he didn't have in any other of the hundreds of time iterations.

That now seems so obvious I'm amazed I didn't see it that way myself but yes without him hijacking the Omega's power it would obviously re-set the day

[Dragonus45]

I've read the book and haven't watched the movie. I'm expecting another Magnificent Seven.

In a good way or a bad way?

[huttj509]

That now seems so obvious I'm amazed I didn't see it that way myself but yes without him hijacking the Omega's power it would obviously re-set the day

Um, my understanding from the movie is the Omega resets the day. The Alphas send a signal on death so the Omega automatically triggers "ok, reload." If the alphas die after the omega (or due to the omega), it can't reset, because it's dead. Like if your arm's cut off after you're dead, it doesn't hurt, because you're already dead.

If the Omega is dead, it can't reload, because it's dead.

Cruise had hijacked the power of an Alpha. He died, it sent the signal and triggered a reset.

Although with that understanding, the ending makes even less sense...since the Omega was dead it shouldn't have been able to reset.

[Olinser]

Um, my understanding from the movie is the Omega resets the day. The Alphas send a signal on death so the Omega automatically triggers "ok, reload." If the alphas die after the omega (or due to the omega), it can't reset, because it's dead. Like if your arm's cut off after you're dead, it doesn't hurt, because you're already dead.

If the Omega is dead, it can't reload, because it's dead.

Cruise had hijacked the power of an Alpha. He died, it sent the signal and triggered a reset.

Although with that understanding, the ending makes even less sense...since the Omega was dead it shouldn't have been able to reset.

My understanding is that it was TRYING - but Cage got in the way, and instead of the Omega resetting itself, it reset Cage.

[Math_Mage]

In a good way or a bad way?
Yes. :smalltongue:

[MLai]

Just saw this movie and Maleficent on the same day. This movie is the movie that made my trip to the cinema today worthwhile. It's good. Better than Oblivion. But yeah, same Hollywood ending though.

Hate Tom Cruise IRL if you wish, but he really knows how to wield his stage presence. He seems effortlessly capable of keeping your attention glued onto him, and believing whatever the heck he's selling you. You don't even have to like him, or think he's handsome, for him to work this stage magic. I take my hat off to the guy.

+1 to Emily Blunt as femshep.

[Kislath]

I just got home from seeing this, and it was pretty great! :)
As for the ending.. I think that since it was fullblown Omega Goo that got all over him in the end instead of just Alphablood, it must work differently, having more control.
The Alphas send the signal to the Omega to reset time, but it's the Omega which has the power to really do it. Now infused with Omegablood, Tom gets the power to actually reset it instead of just send in the order to reset it.
To me, this explains the ending well enough to satisfy, and explains why he went back a little bit earlier than normal. He might have just been wishing that none of this had ever happened, and so, Bam!; that's how he got back to just before it all happened.

Anyway, yeah.. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but what we got was really good. Groundhog Day meets Starcraft, indeed!

Funny, too! Not many war movies are this hilarious without losing their gritty edge, but this movie pulled it off perfectly.

[Dragonus45]

Well, he went back earlier because he got the power earlier.

[Olinser]

Well, he went back earlier because he got the power earlier.

I don't think so.

He seemed to go back right about 24 hours from an Alpha reset (from the morning assault on the beach to the previous morning when he woke up).

He killed the Omega in the middle of the night and seemed to go back around 36 hours - to arrive mid-day the day previous.

[KillianHawkeye]

Saw this movie tonight. It was a lot better than I expected it to be (but to be fair, I went in with low expectations).

Regarding the ending...

I really wish Cage had just died. I don't even quite understand what happened there. I think it would've been better if they all really had died in order to kill the Omega*. There's nothing wrong with a hero's death. I got the feeling they added that in order to give it a happier ending that it didn't need.


They really should have just had a montage of alien forces dying out after Cage sacrifices himself to destroy the Omega and the worldwide celebration afterwards. The actual ending felt really corny and introduced some weird questions on how exactly that worked.


Um, my understanding from the movie is the Omega resets the day. The Alphas send a signal on death so the Omega automatically triggers "ok, reload." If the alphas die after the omega (or due to the omega), it can't reset, because it's dead. Like if your arm's cut off after you're dead, it doesn't hurt, because you're already dead.

If the Omega is dead, it can't reload, because it's dead.

Cruise had hijacked the power of an Alpha. He died, it sent the signal and triggered a reset.

Although with that understanding, the ending makes even less sense...since the Omega was dead it shouldn't have been able to reset.

I pretty much agree with huttj509. The omega was the source of the the power for time traveling, while the alphas only told it when to do it (by dying). By killing the omega, it ends the cycle.

That being said, the mimics are a complicated 4th-dimensional life form with the ability to rewind time. It makes perfect sense to me that they would die backwards through time, causing Tom Cruise to wake up back before everything started. I mean, the omega clearly has that kind of time rewind energy stored within it, and whenever things die they gradually release whatever energy they still have (many bodily processes continue after the official acknowledgement of death IRL). So that energy rewinds time, but the thing is still dead, and Tom Cruise got rewound just because he got mixed up with the dead omega.


I don't think so.

He seemed to go back right about 24 hours from an Alpha reset (from the morning assault on the beach to the previous morning when he woke up).

He killed the Omega in the middle of the night and seemed to go back around 36 hours - to arrive mid-day the day previous.

You have your timeline slightly wrong. He wasn't waking up in the morning. The wake-up point at the military base was explicitly on the same day as the opening scene with the general, as noted by the general himself when they make it back to him later in the movie. So wake-up point is like in the afternoon, leaving the evening for training or interacting with the soldiers on the base or whatever, and then the next day for the invasion. It is likely Tom Cruise was unconscious for several hours before waking up at the camp the first time, so no matter when he died on the following day it was late enough that 24 hours earlier he was already in that spot.

But when that last rewind occurs when the omega is killed, it is probably earlier than any of his other deaths. That alone could explain why he went back further than before. It was just enough time to make a difference. Or else the death of the omega released more time energy than it usually spent to turn back a day. I could accept either explanation.

The only thing I really didn't understand about this movie was why the aliens were called mimics? They seemed to be just your ordinary bio-organic hive-minded extraterrestrial tentacle monster. They were neither shapeshifters that posed as humans nor did they show any ability to copy our skills or technology. Nothing about them at all explained the name they were given.




Emily Blunt would play the crap out of Commander Shepard

I would see the crap outta that movie! :smallamused:

[thethird]

After watching the movie and reading the book, and manga :P I guess I can make a couple of comments.

First of all the mimics name was given in the source, and never truly explained, so using Mimic isn't really a fault of the movie.

Second of all

I would say that he got the Omega's blood as he got the Alpha's earlier, the Omega's capability to turn the time backwards is more potent than that of the Alphas and that's why he goes earlier.

Also, since I'm at it, I liked that ending better than the one from the book.

[Kislath]

+1 to the Omega blood being more potent than the Alpha blood, resulting in a stronger time jump.

But what about this:

Maybe the Omega figured out that Cage was able to work his way past everything that the mimics did in their effort to stop him, and as it found itself finally face to face with him, decided to reset the time marker back a bit further in an attempt to keep that Alpha from ever encountering Cage in the first place?
That works, right? If the Omega's last act was to try to keep Cage from ever becoming a problem, then Cage wound up going back to new setpoint the Omega set right before it died.

On the other hand, that doesn't solve the problem of the Omega still being alive in the past, which means that the mimics should still be just as dangerous.

I guess the Omega must have some weird power to be in multiple times at once, but if it dies at any of those times, it's dead in all of them.

[MLai]

I guess the Omega must have some weird power to be in multiple times at once, but if it dies at any of those times, it's dead in all of them.
It's not just the Omega, it's the Alphas too. None of them ever come back from being dead, despite time being rewound. You never see the same Alpha twice no matter how many times Cage loops.
So for all Mimics with time powers, when they die it's permanent. Time is rewound without them in it. Maybe you can look at it as "the same 4D being can't inhabit 2 timelines at the same time."

[Brewdude]

My only problem with the mimics were that they seemed to move cartoonally (is that a word?) too fast. Breaking immersion fast. Decent film, otherwise.

[Connington]

It's not just the Omega, it's the Alphas too. None of them ever come back from being dead, despite time being rewound. You never see the same Alpha twice no matter how many times Cage loops.
So for all Mimics with time powers, when they die it's permanent. Time is rewound without them in it. Maybe you can look at it as "the same 4D being can't inhabit 2 timelines at the same time."

There are what, 3 alphas in the whole film? Normandy Beach, German Dam, the Louvre. Cage doesn't visit the second two locations more than once. Presumably the Alpha(s) on the beach are now avoiding Cage. After all, any time they put an Alpha in front of him, it either ends in a stalemate (because if either dies, time resets) or the creation of a new Human Alpha via alien blood bath.

That also explains why Cage was never able to get Rita her powers back. Presumably they tried it plenty of times, but couldn't find an Alpha to play ball.

[Madfellow]

So I just got back from seeing this movie. I was expecting an okay action flick. Instead, I spent the entire drive home explaining to my brother why Edge of Tomorrow is THE BEST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!

You can talk about the video game mechanics, the time travel, the aliens, the action, the comedy, the actors, but here's what sold it for me:
1) The invasion started in Germany. This is a metaphor for something you heard about in history class.
2) Tom Cruise is playing an everyman living in a video game for a reason.
3) When Sgt Farrell says, "You might find that notion ironic, but in time you'll come to see things my way," he's not talking to Tom Cruise.

[Math_Mage]

The real answer to the Omega death question is that a happy ending was required. It doesn't actually make sense for the Omega to reset further in the past when it dies than when it normally resets. Anything we can say about it is ex post facto rationalization.

Not that I mind. The ending scene was worth it. (Also, it's not nearly so big a plot hole as how they got the heliplane off the base in the first place.)

[Olinser]

The real answer to the Omega death question is that a happy ending was required. It doesn't actually make sense for the Omega to reset further in the past when it dies than when it normally resets. Anything we can say about it is ex post facto rationalization.

Not that I mind. The ending scene was worth it. (Also, it's not nearly so big a plot hole as how they got the heliplane off the base in the first place.)

I assume Vrataski walked up to whoever the flight boss was and said, "I'm taking this plane".

While the General sent local forces after them, I seriously doubt that he informed the entire army on the eve of a major engagement that their 'hero' had gone rogue.

[Muz]

Wild goofy theory: The Omega is actually an improved-upon Omega-13 device that the Thermians from Galaxy Quest created as vengeance for Earth's false "historical documents."

[Math_Mage]

I assume Vrataski walked up to whoever the flight boss was and said, "I'm taking this plane".

While the General sent local forces after them, I seriously doubt that he informed the entire army on the eve of a major engagement that their 'hero' had gone rogue.
How do they know where the flight boss is at this time of night? Where'd they get the pilot? What about the assorted personnel associated with getting any large plane off the ground? Etc.

[Olinser]

How do they know where the flight boss is at this time of night? Where'd they get the pilot? What about the assorted personnel associated with getting any large plane off the ground? Etc.

Because they're generally in a centrally established location to make finding him easier (either that or they just started to take off and radioed to the tower 'this is Vrataski I'm taking this ship to X'. Literally the only way to stop them at that point would be shoot the ship down - something I seriously doubt they were going to do.

Vrataski was piloting the ship, as we saw later. The ship was already flight ready given that a major assault was taking place in less than 12 hours with that ship one small part of it.

[Lamech]

There are what, 3 alphas in the whole film? Normandy Beach, German Dam, the Louvre. Cage doesn't visit the second two locations more than once. Presumably the Alpha(s) on the beach are now avoiding Cage. After all, any time they put an Alpha in front of him, it either ends in a stalemate (because if either dies, time resets) or the creation of a new Human Alpha via alien blood bath.

That also explains why Cage was never able to get Rita her powers back. Presumably they tried it plenty of times, but couldn't find an Alpha to play ball.
The mimics didn't seem to realize that the timeline was getting reset, or that Tom had jacked the time travel power. If the mimics DID know that the power got stolen, they wouldn't have needed to mess with the visions trap. Instead they just could have grabbed Cruise one of the many, many, times they killed him. The visions were presumably a pre-set trap.

I think its just that when a time travelling mimic get's its powers stolen its just dead. Which makes the everyone live ending the only possible ending: otherwise killing the Omega would have done jack. Basically
1) If a Time Traveling mimic bleeds to death on a human, the human steals the power. And the mimic is dead in the new timeline.
2) The Omega can time travel for obvious reasons; if it didn't then killing it would end the race.
3) The Omega bled out on Tom, killing it for real, and saving everyone's life.

[Kyberwulf]

On the whole ending issue. I just assumed as a Omega, you have more control on where you jump in time. Kind of like just thinking of a place in time to restart. Tom didn't know how to control that power, and just sort of used it accidentally. As he was dying and the blood connected with him. He could have been thinking, "Man, if only I knew what I know now, before I got demoted and sent to that stupid beach." Then SHAZAM!.. the power sent him to the first part of the day he remembered before he went to that meeting.

On the movie, I thought it was just Groundhogs Day.. With GUNS and SPLOSIONS!
Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Scowling Dragon]

The ending was just a guy feeling pissed he didn't get the 100% complete ending and so they reset one last time and collected all the missing power orbs.

Im just joshing. This film was a fun groundhog day thing and was simple yet sweet.

[Forrestfire]

I'm torn about the ending. On one hand, I think that an ending closer to the books would have been better, but it would have also felt like a punch to the gut to watch. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Really enjoyed the movie, in any case.

I'm also torn between being moderately annoyed that they didn't have badass axes to fight with and realizing that that would probably be juuuust a bit too silly for American audiences.


My only problem with the mimics were that they seemed to move cartoonally (is that a word?) too fast. Breaking immersion fast. Decent film, otherwise.

Really? I had the opposite opinion. I thought their quick movements really flowed well, without seeming especially cartoonish. Especially the movements they made when they launched their "missiles." Just seemed right, I guess. Like... how a horrible glowing tentacle-abomination is supposed to move.

("cartoonishly", btw)

[Dragonus45]

I'm torn about the ending. On one hand, I think that an ending closer to the books would have been better, but it would have also felt like a punch to the gut to watch. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Really enjoyed the movie, in any case.

I'm also torn between being moderately annoyed that they didn't have badass axes to fight with and realizing that that would probably be juuuust a bit too silly for American audiences.


Eh, I think we could have handles just a bit more of it. She already had a big sword all they had to do was give him one too. [/SPOILER]

[Kislath]

Did you notice that her big sword was made from the tail rotor of a helicopter? I thought that was pretty cool.

[Kitten Champion]

So, I saw it yesterday, finally, after contending with various scheduling issues. I really enjoyed it, maybe more than Pacific Rim.

The genius of it was the way it paced itself and utilized the central conceit of infinite respawns. That in a film inherently about repetition never actually feels repetitive. Every moment in the movie makes sense for it be there. They used the nature of the medium to effectively portray the way Cruise was actually using the infinite loops so that more exposition wasn't necessary. Particularly clever, especially in certain scenes, was that the movie often left the audience in the dark as to whether we were witness the first time he was experiencing the current events or the hundredth plus time, we were put in the position of those outside the loop who could only guess at what he knew unless he told us.

So much of this is on Cruise, his ability to sell the gradual growth of his character with evermore self-assured movements, piercing looks, and confident bits of dialogue. Once they moved passed the initial point where him becoming this zen-like super-effective soldier was significant or interesting in any way they introduced a whole new dynamic - of Cruise becoming more obsessed in getting everything right after watching Blunt die over and over again while Blunt was in the fatalistic mindset of a soldier who'd already went through that hell - which was really well handled and kept me invested until the third act where they changed the scenario yet again.

It could have been so remorselessly dark and played for horror and while that would work with this material it wouldn't have endeared me to the characters who are ultimately the core to my enjoyment of this film. It also doesn't feel stupid, with the generic Starship Troopers meets Cameron's Aliens overtones and the whole video game-esque gimmick it could have easily been.

I'd really like to see it on Bluray and appreciate the skill that went into the screenplay and direction of this movie. All and all, it's kind of shame it's not earning what WB was hoping for it. Expected, perhaps, Cruise has lost a lot of his marketability and a somewhat novel SF movie not built on stupid nostalgia is shaky to begin with in this market, but still a shame.


I'm torn about the ending. On one hand, I think that an ending closer to the books would have been better, but it would have also felt like a punch to the gut to watch. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Really enjoyed the movie, in any case.

I'm also torn between being moderately annoyed that they didn't have badass axes to fight with and realizing that that would probably be juuuust a bit too silly for American audiences.


I don't know about the axe being silly, anymore so than a sword, but it probably wouldn't have been practical for Emily Blunt and her stunt-people once they got into the fight choreography. I think the deliberate choice to make the powered suits look and feel clunky and claustrophobic was a big part of their ultimate decision.


Did you notice that her big sword was made from the tail rotor of a helicopter? I thought that was pretty cool.


I didn't, that's cool. I could totally see how'd the whole sword-master thing started now.

[Lorsa]

I saw this movie the other week as well and I have to join the crowd that says it's great. It was undenieably the most enjoying movie I've seen in quite a while.

There has been far too many movies with really intriguing and potentially story ideas with rather poor execution (such as In Time for example). This was the exact opposite, a rather simple story with perfect execution. It also managed to be somewhat unpredictable which is another bonus.

So, great pacing, perfect acting, quality humour, good characterization... what more do you need from a movie? I especially liked how they never walked into the trap of making Rita a damsel in distress. While Cage might have tried to save her from dying she really wouldn't stand for it. I certainly didn't expect such a good treatment of a female character from a movie like this.

Seriously, go watch it if you haven't already.