Edge of Tomorrow

MV5BMTQwODI0NDM5NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzkwNTY3MTE@._V1__SX1859_SY893_Man. I am so slow at watching / reading / playing anything at all, this year. So slow. It’s driving me a little bit crazy, although I have read really a lot of comics from the overly dense mid 1970s. I’m looking rather forward to a lot of titles starting to collapse by 1977 or so. However, this is not about that.

This is about Edge of Tomorrow, in which Tom Cruise plays the main character in a video game, stuck on an endless escort mission to get Emily Blunt (who used to be the main character in the previous video game to which this is the sequel) into close proximity with the boss fight, so that she can save humanity. Despite what a misery that would be as a player or to live through, it actually works pretty well on the big screen. Which you presumably knew it would, since you already know what an excellent movie Groundhog Day is.

If it feels like, between my thumbnail sketch and my acknowledgement of the very clear forebear, I’ve given away too much? Well, a) I like to think there’s enough depth in the movie (character studies, sfnal exploration of the possibilities, new and improved explosions, etc.) that it’s not actually as simplistic as that thumbnail, but then also b) it’s still a summer action movie. So maybe it is that simple, and all you’re going for are the broad sketches and explosions. If that’s the case, I offer up as my defense that I gave you one half of a detail beyond what the previews did. Either way: it’s more good than bad, as most Tom Cruise sci-fi vehicles are. So that’s cool.

2 thoughts on “Edge of Tomorrow

  1. Terence Tao

    To quote a friend of mine: “I don’t ordinarily watch Tom Cruise movies, but his new one is based around the idea of getting to watch him die horribly again and again, so I made an exception. And indeed, the first hour is sort of amazingly full of not-a-fan service; I think everyone knew what the market was for this movie.”

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  2. Chris Post author

    You know, I have a lot of respect for Cruise’s acting ability and script choices alike. Also, I’m pretty good at not caring what people do in their non-professional lives, as long as they’re not actually evil.

    That said: man, this really would have been a spectacularly cathartic movie, wouldn’t it?

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