REVIEW: EDGE OF TOMORROW
Tom Cruise knows how to keep them guessing. Last year he starred in Oblivion, the fairly entertaining sci-fi action flick starring Cruise as someone who's not exactly positive about the situation he's in, and has a kick-butt female counterpart partner. And in here he's....well you know where the joke's going.
As reviews have noted, perhaps why this film has garnered the acclaim not because the premise is 100% original, but it works on its premise, has plenty of great special effects, and to be blunt (ba dum tss) the female action hero kicks the pants off of Oblivion's. Emily Blunt, who has really emerged as the Sigourney Weaver of the present. Turns in films like Looper have cemented her as the biggest female action star out now, and the critics are unanimous in her elevating the movie to something more than just typical summer science fiction fare.
The premise is basically this, and I'm giving a condensed version because it's better not to know the plot too well so you'll be wrapped up in it. Tom Cruise plays a general in this futuristic war against alien life. He's assigned to be in the very front of a D-Day like invasion against these aliens. When he's killed by one of them, he awakes to find himself trapped in a repeating timeline, where he can't just die and let that be it. He rewinds to the beginning over and over again. The only one who knows what he's talking about is the Angel of Verdun...Emily Blunt.
The effects, especially the aliens in the film (called Mimics) and the suits Cruise and his vagabond team members wear are outstanding. The performances are also solid for this type of movie, Bill Paxton as a southern sergeant redeems his completely over the top role in TV's Agents of SHIELD. Cruise himself is...well, Tom Cruise in a sci-fi movie. I do like the choice that they went with to make his character a little more cowardly, not your typical action hero. He's shown constantly dying, and, in a humorous sequence, shows Blunt killing Cruise herself because he keeps screwing up and she wants him to perfect his battle moves in order to defeat the Mimics. It's less nerdy than it sounds.
But besides seeing that they're both dedicated to saving mankind, you don't feel anything too much for these characters. Blunt is great, yes, but only because there's not a surplus of female action stars, hold for a Ms. Katniss Everdeen. She's fresh air in a staler idea of a movie. There are holes in this movie I found myself catching, and I facepalmed when the movie finally bowed to cliches near the end, which disappointed me. This movie had some great potential, and if the crew behind it had just invested a little more into the story than the effects and seeing Cruise get toasted for 20 minutes, maybe it could have even surpassed the average bar Oblivion set for a Cruise action movie. I love Cruise when he's not being pursuited in a movie where everyone wants to kill him...Jerry Maguire, Rain Man,...hey, even funnier roles like in Rock of Ages and Tropic Thunder he still had a chance to prove his chops.
Oh well. Guess we'll have to settle for seeing him in the fifth Mission: Impossible movie...though I'm not complaining.
Rating: 2.5/4 stars
As reviews have noted, perhaps why this film has garnered the acclaim not because the premise is 100% original, but it works on its premise, has plenty of great special effects, and to be blunt (ba dum tss) the female action hero kicks the pants off of Oblivion's. Emily Blunt, who has really emerged as the Sigourney Weaver of the present. Turns in films like Looper have cemented her as the biggest female action star out now, and the critics are unanimous in her elevating the movie to something more than just typical summer science fiction fare.
The premise is basically this, and I'm giving a condensed version because it's better not to know the plot too well so you'll be wrapped up in it. Tom Cruise plays a general in this futuristic war against alien life. He's assigned to be in the very front of a D-Day like invasion against these aliens. When he's killed by one of them, he awakes to find himself trapped in a repeating timeline, where he can't just die and let that be it. He rewinds to the beginning over and over again. The only one who knows what he's talking about is the Angel of Verdun...Emily Blunt.
The effects, especially the aliens in the film (called Mimics) and the suits Cruise and his vagabond team members wear are outstanding. The performances are also solid for this type of movie, Bill Paxton as a southern sergeant redeems his completely over the top role in TV's Agents of SHIELD. Cruise himself is...well, Tom Cruise in a sci-fi movie. I do like the choice that they went with to make his character a little more cowardly, not your typical action hero. He's shown constantly dying, and, in a humorous sequence, shows Blunt killing Cruise herself because he keeps screwing up and she wants him to perfect his battle moves in order to defeat the Mimics. It's less nerdy than it sounds.
But besides seeing that they're both dedicated to saving mankind, you don't feel anything too much for these characters. Blunt is great, yes, but only because there's not a surplus of female action stars, hold for a Ms. Katniss Everdeen. She's fresh air in a staler idea of a movie. There are holes in this movie I found myself catching, and I facepalmed when the movie finally bowed to cliches near the end, which disappointed me. This movie had some great potential, and if the crew behind it had just invested a little more into the story than the effects and seeing Cruise get toasted for 20 minutes, maybe it could have even surpassed the average bar Oblivion set for a Cruise action movie. I love Cruise when he's not being pursuited in a movie where everyone wants to kill him...Jerry Maguire, Rain Man,...hey, even funnier roles like in Rock of Ages and Tropic Thunder he still had a chance to prove his chops.
Oh well. Guess we'll have to settle for seeing him in the fifth Mission: Impossible movie...though I'm not complaining.
Rating: 2.5/4 stars
Comments
Post a Comment