This movie hasn't made nearly as much money at the box office as it should have. I know some people don't care for Tom Cruise, but that's all the more reason to see the movie. They can watch him getting killed over and over. Besides, he gives a good performance here, and so do Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton. I wouldn't have thought of casting Blunt in an action movie, but she's right at home.The deal is that an alien race called, for reasons that are never explained, the Mimics are just about to conquer the world. There doesn't appear to be much hope, except for a big last-ditch attack which will supposedly be like D-Day -- totally unexpected. Cruise is shanghaied into participating and he's killed very quickly, but not before he realizes that the attack wasn't just anticipated but planned for. It's a trap.
Here's the gimmick. Before Cruise dies, he's touched by the blood of an Alpha Mimic. The blood gives Cruise the ability to "reset time" by one day. (Don't ask me to explain how this could possibly work.) Anyway, Cruise he wakes up, alive again, the morning of the previous day. Now that he knows what's going to happen, he tries to warn people. They think he's nuts, and off he goes into battle again, only to die again. Soon he and Blunt meet on the battlefield, and she tells him to find her the next time he wakes up, which he does.
Things get a little complicated after that, so I'll just say that Blunt has to kill Cruise a lot of times so he can "reset time." And I'll add that what happens in the battle is a lot like the old text-based computer games I played long ago. Maybe it's like the modern ones, too. You get killed, you start over, and you try to remember each step you took so that you can repeat them all, right up until the last one, which you want to do differently.
Do the Mimics win, or do Cruise and Blunt save the world? I'm not going to spoiler-alert you or anything. I suspect you know the answer. But who's going to live and who's going to die for real? Go and see for yourself.
19 comments:
Yeah, sure, I'll run right out and watch the smirking dwarf's latest triumph. This whole plot idea of coming back to life sounds suspiciously like his mentor's stolen idea of reincarnation.
Sorry, I'll pass.
I had a feeling that would be your reaction, but where else can you see Tommy getting shot, crushed, and so on over and over again?
I have zero interest in this movie (even without all the Scientology baggage, Cruise leaves me cold), but how I miss those old text-based games! I used to keep sheets by the computer with the lists if exactly what steps I'd need to take. There was no way to save and come back later. After a while, it really was like Groundhog Day. Then suddenly Myst came along and it was a very abrupt goodbye to text-based games.
/But I'm still not going to see this movie.
I wish I'd thought to keep lists. Leather Goddesses of Phobos was one that kept me at it for a long time. And Zork, of course.
I'll have to give this one a look now.
Saw it. Decent way to kill two hours. Instantly forgettable upon leaving the theater. But I didn't want my two hours back. In the right role, Cruise can be good. Sorry, Cap'n.
Also, Bill Paxton, not Tom.
SAS
It's the old folkie coming out. I'll have to make that correction. And you're right about Cruise. In the right role (not Jack Reacher) he can be very good.
I don't have a problem with Tom Cruise. And I thought the movie was really good.
I deleted my previous comment because it isn't fair that I should turn Bill's excellent blog into a debate about a certain evil organization.
I liked EDGE OF TOMORROW. In this lackluster Summer Movie Season, it's my favorite movie. But I am looking forward to LUCY.
Oddly, the basic dumbth at the heart of EDGE (that the blood exposure seems to impart time-shifting abilities, but only--mostly...--passively, and that this is somehow deprived from the aliens through this blood exposure)(or so I gathered) doesn't bother me (the Wells one miracle? Stretched to one point 3 or 5 miracles by conclusion) nearly as much as the blather about HUMANS DON'T USE MORE THAN 10% OF THEIR BRAINS in LUCY, and that annoys me beyond tolerance in just the length of the tv ad, much less the trailer (rather like the notion that gorillas and chimps don't need warmth in the new POTA film...well, perhaps the mutants don't, but there is a reason that our cousins hang out in the tropics). SJ is looking sharp in the clips, but that ain't enough. It won't hurt when I look at the thing on Epix or HBO.
Oh. Yes, my favorite lesbian did note the Best part of the movie was the toned Blunt in yoga attire, doing exercises. She was looking fine, as well, and utterly unglammed.
It will perhaps happify anti-Engrammers that Cruise has no production role in this one, simply a hired hand here (for however much cash that is in turn tithed). That it is indeed an explosion movie with a badass woman as co-lead, which is probably part of the reason it isn't doing so well...10yo fanboys of all ages don't want girls in that club, even if this is indeed a whole lot like modern videogaming.
The yoga scenes are great. Can't see why even the 10-year-old fanboy would object to Blunt. I like to think I'd have appreciated her even when I was 10.
But then the 10yo you would be looking upon more maturely than the 10yo fanboys of all ages.
I've been avoiding Tom Cruise movies for a while, but I couldn't resist seeing him get killed a few dozen times, so saw this in the theaters. To give him his due, he was very good in this, and the movie was a lot of fun, even though they had to tack on a happy ending that didn't fit the logic of the rest of the movie.
I wondered at the time if they had a different ending and found out it didn't test well.
One of the best movies of the summer so far -- somewhat faint praise perhaps, but a really terrific movie. Ending didn't bother me. And as for Cruise, he was fine. All an artist owes the audience is the work.
I thought Cruise was very good. I haven't seen the apes movie, which is supposed to be even better than this one.
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