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Cruise dies and keeps coming back to die again by the tentacles of massive, whirling weed-eater creatures that have taken over most of Western Europe. We don't know why they are here but they sure make the killing of mankind look so easy. Those boogers are fast and smart.There are a lot of twists and turns in the script but the central thread is that Cruise and Emily Blunt are figuring out how to kill the creatures by destroying their command center.
The device of Cruise being killed only to return to his training platoon finally shows a lot of "funny" and Blunt unleashes enormous amounts of droll Brit tone and humor. Besides this being a gigantic CGI flick I would say that Blunt saves the film.
Yeah, it's the same old aliens-conqueror-the-world crap but it does have a few merits in its favor including Bill Paxton who does a good turn as a training NCO.
Turn off your brain and go get some popcorn.
Edits: 06/06/14Follow Ups:
I did not perk up the first time I head this but my ears shot up like a dawgs:
Twice Cruise, when discussing the causes for the invasion, said in a loud, pointed tone: "What difference does it make?" Hmm. Where have I heard that before?
I feel desensitized and ready to go vote. 8^)
I just saw it. Matinee. 2D.
I did enjoy it. On the negative, some of the CGI I found a little irksome. The action was really fast in this film. At times it seemed like there was too much happening in just a few frames. And this repeated in several scenes. I would think it possible to describe the same events while allowing the action to 'breathe' just enough for the viewer to get a solid fix on what just transpired.Although, by the end of the film, it seemed as though everything was explained to my satisfaction. A simple story told well enough. Even if the key element of the plot line seemed just a bit too far-fetched, if you think about it. So.....don't. I guess.
The Bill Paxton character, Master Sgt. Farrel, seemed very convincing, especially in the first few 'resets'. Only in one short sentence did Paxton drop his 'accent' long enough to remind us that it was Bill acting a part.
Emily Blunt's character, Rita was captivating. Perhaps she could just as easily play a wall flower. Maybe she's got some depth. Here she plays a battle toughened war hero. And convincingly so. Rita is not so easily won over. But perhaps worth the effort. And she was so disturbingly willing to continue pulling the trigger on Cage. ;-) And there is some really good humor when Cage suggests sex and then gets knocked senseless by the battle simulator in that training room. Ouch! Definitely a mistake.
Cruise: Major Cage. He's getting better in his maturity. Or perhaps he has found the right balance in his past several films. In this film his character displays some real humility. So very refreshing. ;^)
I'd rather watch Tom showing humility than watch his cocky-asshole portrayals from the mid 1980s. You know, of an over-confident F-14 jocky, a bartender that juggles liquor bottles, and a pool hustler in desperate need of a solid beating....Like the beating Newman took in "The Hustler". Remember the broken fingers? Cruises characters have/had been in need of come-uppance for several years. The way it happens in real life. Now, maybe we can forget that and enjoy some good sci-fi that just happens to star an experienced Cruise.
-Steve
Edits: 06/11/14
I started chuckling out loud when it would happen. She did a sublime job of mixing humor and drama for her character.
.
reelsmith's axiom: Its going to be used equipment when I sell it, so it may as well be used equipment when I buy it.
Paxton's Sargeant Farrell is from Science Hill, Kentucky. That was a "southern" accent, not British. :-)
Entertaining flick. I'm not a Cruise fan but enjoyed him in this. Blunt is way WAY cool.
right you are. Kentucky.
Even so there was one sentence uttered that was identifiable in tone with other characters Paxton has played. Himself, likely. Apart from that, imho, he just about disappeared into that character.
-Steve
...enjoyed it too.Reviewers have been praising it.
There is enough humor to make up for all the CGI and Emily Blunt is very good.
Cruise even shows a little acting.
I'd give it a B-.
Edits: 06/08/14
Who woulda thunk Cruise would turn into a big Science Fiction star. Let's see...War of the Worlds, Minority Report, Oblivion, now Edge of Tomorrow. Did I miss any?
In my head...I always think who would have been better in those roles???
Same goes for edge of tomorrow...I am always recasting Cruise...
Pitt, Norton, Bale, Leo, Depp, Gosling, Hardy, Bloom, Phoenix, Law, Damon, Franco, Farrell...just off the top of my head...all of them IMHO have better chops than Cruise...yes this is very SUBJECTIVE...
Cruise supposedly talked Spielberg out of the very dark ending in Minority Report to a happy ending...he gets the wife back, has a kid and well you know the rest...instead of the original short story he ends up an addict living on the street...
I don't need the "happy ending", but that is just me...
thanks
Mark
...one of my all time faves - great story.
Tom brung us the future and we didn't believe it.
...and what with the spate of mass shootings in recent years.....Yep. I can just about see the formation of the new "pre-crime" department at all large city police departments.
But they don't yet have any "pre-cogs". You gotta have pre-cogs or it won't work.
Sad.
-Steve
Edits: 06/09/14
...computers with artificial intelligence will be the precogs.
Hooked up to the NSA computers watching and listening to everyone.
The Artificial Intelligence computers. Why do we need them? Folks at the highest levels of government should really consider the prospects (assets versus liabilities) of artificial intelligence programs.
fwiw I've just been re-reading the early Gibson novels, Neuromancer,Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive. These novels describe artifical intelligence programs that in addition to being a benefit to mankind, tend to manipulate mankind. Isn't it weird how science emulates fiction... or does fiction predict science. Whatever.See link below. It looks like there is an AI that is approaching some sort of reality.
2nd reference; TV series : Person of Interest. This past season finale introduces a new 'super AI' that has just taken over....everything. And its intent seems to be focused on revolutionizing the way humans govern themselves. Could be interesting next season...
re: Minority Report. Scary stuff. And it seems that PKD really did predict an unpleasant future for us with his novel. But 'his' pre-cogs were human beings with over-developed / under-developed brains. but your idea that we can use an AI as precog seems plausible. At least it would in a sci-fi story.
-Steve
Edits: 06/11/14
were most decidedly ahead of their times. I still remember reading "Man in a High Castle" by PKD when I was a teenager from the Doubleday science fiction book club. Obviously left a long lasting impression. "Neuromancer" is another classic as far as I'm concerned. Both are scary, both endlessly entertaining.
Joe
Steven Hawkings has recently cautioned AGAINST actually constructing a machine intelligence.
Too much is never enough
...my favorite is Virtual Light, maybe because it ends up in the Bay area.
His later stuff had some interesting ideas but the stories sucked.
He should keep it up.
Perfect tag for any Cruise vehicle.
Pretty much always despised him, but he's actually aged well
and his films are SOLID entertainment the past dozen or so years.
He's an actor that has accepted the wise "Man's GOT to know his limitations" line.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing 'Edge of Tomorrow' and have NEVER said that about a Cruise film!
(Paxton remains great and was VERY effective in the otherwise stooooooopid 2 Guns)
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" - Michael McClure
...middle-aged than young and 'pretty'. (I thought he was VERY good in 'Jack Reacher', based on Lee Child's 'One Shot', the only Jack Reacher novel [of 18] that made it to movie.) Blunt was wonderful, as she has been in the two of her films--'The Adjustment Bureau' and 'Looper'--I've seen. The rest of the cast did well, altho the members of 'J Squad' were more 'colorful' than I thought necessary. Both of us laughed at the very quick die-and-be-back-in-the-morning sequences.
WELL worth your time.
----------
Tin-eared audiofool, large-scale-Classical music lover, and damned-amateur fotografer.
William Bruce Cameron: "...not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
Particularly when Blunt pulled the trigger so cold-heartedly. Great script device. Death as funny.
Older. Like Pitt, he's getting a little patina on that toothy grin. More subtlety and nuance. Both of those guys started so shiny and good looking that viewers couldn't get past that aspect. Now we're seeing beneath the surface. It took awhile.
I liked it very much, too. The older Cruise is better, for my tastes. Cruise seems to project a real decency, and that's rare in Hollywood movies. I liked the Reacher movie enough to listen (on Audible) to all the Reacher novels, which were highly entertaining junk. But it was the Cruise charm that led me there.
> ...which were highly entertaining junk.>Bite your tongue - he's my favorite writer.
My daughter and I look forward to his new book every fall.
Perhaps if you'd read them instead of taking the lazy route, you would have gotten more out of them.
Edits: 06/08/14
I thought One Shot was really good and high time they've finally translated one of his novels into film. Anyway, near the beginning of the film there's a scene in a police station and the cop seated at the desk is Lee Child. Thought that was kinda cool.
Joe
...is Never Go back.
New novel is Personal, available 9/2.
Can hardly had wait for the film or the novel. It may be "for the common masses" but I must say I love both. Thank you for the heads up.
Joe
...I was careless with my description of my reading experience, and meant no offense. I split my reading and listening to suit my available time, and found both formats valuable to my kind of reading. FYI...No disagreement with you...I too thought the audio books were the "lazy" way to ingest novels, until I got hooked during the Reacher experience. Part of the problem was their cheap paperback bindings made it difficult to easily manage the page turning. Every page through the mid-sections were set in a way that forced me to have to spread the book open with my thumbs; 600 page books, generally. The hardback versions would have been better, but oh so costly. Now getting back to the audio books, I discovered that a well narrated novel was tremendous fun. I'd get that same immersive experience when Lee Child would lay out the nuts and bolts of Reacher's operational maneuvers, as if I were sitting in my reading chair, but instead I'd be walking on the running track at our local high school, without the sore hands from wrestling with the binding. I even enjoyed my way through "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and found it to be a valuable read. I am also anxiously awaiting the next Reacher novel. Lee Child might be in the LA area around the Fall arrival, and I'd like to see him speak sometime. He's my favorite, along with Ian Rankin-who I highly recommend. Regards
...just giving you a hard time.Glad you enjoy them.
Hardback $14 at Costco when they come out or Amazon pre-order.
Edits: 06/08/14
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