"Edge of Tomorrow"warren oates wrote:Really didn't like Edge of Tomorrow, which I've seen on a few best-of lists around here. I wonder if it's because none of those fans of the film had read the much earlier better drafts of the script or the novel it was based on? Perhaps in spite of all the bad changes the director Doug Liman (in his best film since Bourne, but that's not saying much) and star Tom Cruise wrought it was still good enough for you, as it was for the audience I saw it with -- at least for the first 45 minutes. After which the whole suffers from lame attempts to "open up" the story, a few weird second act dead ends (signaling rewrites/reshoots?) and a bloated overlong and unimaginative climax with the oddest location of all time --All the mumbo jumbo about what's happening and why seems even more torturous in this incarnation of the story. And the basic commitment to military scif-fi as a subgenre is lost in a palimpsest of hacky rewrites that try to shoehorn Cruise into the role of a "zero to hero" type who's supposed to start out a coward and end up a badass fighting machine. The best parts of the film are the early moments that have some lighter video-gamey fun with the reset premise. After that the narrative starts to feel as needlessly dingy and grim as the whole production palette.SpoilerShowour call sheet tomorrow says Louvre, parking garage... Paris, woo-hoo!
I really enjoyed this testosterone packed version of "Groundhog Day". I thought both Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt did a good job in portraying their characters (Tom Cruise has much more of an arc - he went from being an abject coward to a confident battle-hardened veteran by the end); and the direction by Doug Liman was kinetic when required and calm when the script called for it (not very often).
With a nice little turn by Bill Paxton as the hard-ass C.O.
I would recommend that you seek out "Edge of Tomorrow" if you are looking for a smart; action-packed; with a dark sense of humor summer thriller.
