[…] For those of you who have seen the movie, I have some initial thoughts on it below. If you have …read more […]

>>Give them what they expect, then give them what they want I agree with David Chen that the ending doesn't make sense. And that it cheats on the stakes. The highest stakes are that Cage cannot reset time anymore: ergo, he has one last chance to do it right. I WANTED and EXPECTED the film to deliver on that statement. I wanted and expected the film to show how he and Rita had finally developed not just the courage but also the skill to defeat the aliens -- and survive. The film failed to give me either what I wanted or what I expected. >>he says the story is primarily Rita’s I wish the the story had been Rita's. I think it might have worked better on an emotional level if she had been the protagonist. But in assembling the package deal to get the movie made, Cruise obviously had more clout, so...

The movie was ok - felt the same about the script when I read it in that it didn't blow me away and quickly evaporated from my mind as soon as I finished both. It missed opportunities to hit something profound on an existential level in a Dark City way, imo (meaning, I didn't come away with any greater understanding of what it means to be human, something great sci-fi movies explore). The conceit/concept just didn't completely work for me and here's why: without death, there's no consequences and everything is meaningless. For two thirds of the movie, that's what it feels like save one little story beat which could have played out more and provided some thematic relevance where there's a sense of... wait for it... meaningless in doing the same thing over and over. When we do get to the point where everything suddenly becomes "this is for real", it feels too contrived and merely a plot point for the story to push forward and up the stakes. Here's what I would have loved to have seen: when Tom's character dies each time, he goes back to the same point, but those who perished in battle are no longer present. That gives immediate stakes and consequences to his actions and need for learning, forcing him into gut-wrenching decisions as to whom to save that can help him accomplish getting further. It would have had an interesting ripple effect on how events changed and played out rather than merely Tom's character "knowing" the answer to everything in advance because let's face it, that's not really growth because there's no consequences. Imagine building a camaraderie with fellow soldiers, only to find yourself on that ship waiting to be dropped - knowing the person you're next to is going to die and they don't, but more importantly it's ultimately your decision. That's pretty profound. This also would have made the aliens' gimmick all-the-more-cool in what they were trying to accomplish. Last but not least, I was bored by the action scenes. Earth has once again been invaded by "things" straight out of 150 other movies over the last ten years. Whether it's The Avengers or Thor or whatever-popcorn-flick, they have no personality and just come in waves which is so psychologically un-involving. It's like the writers/filmmakers don't know what to do and just create sheer numbers for the protagonists to overcome. That being said, I liked the film - but more so for the moments without the action. The humor was ok, but it seemed to actually dilute the film's tone at times.

I agree, Scott. I really enjoyed this movie. And while I didn't fully understand the logic of the ending, I didn't mind it at all. Just like the ending of Groundhog Day. Why does the day stop repeating? Because he becomes a good person. That's it. It only makes sense internally, psychologically, but most people accept that ending. I wonder if this movie just wasn't marketed well? The trailers I saw didn't capture the humor and fun of the movie. Hopefully Hollywood will continue to make the occasional smart blockbuster despite this movie's poor box office.

>>>>It missed opportunities to hit something profound on an existential level Yep. Unlike in "Groundhog Day", the time reset in "Edge of Tomorrow" seemed like little more than a plot gimmick empty of any particular theme or issue relating to the necessary moral development of the protagonist.

pgronk: What I hear you saying is the storytellers made a pact with you, the viewer: When Cage lost the power to reset his life back to the Endless Day, a necessary plot development to give Act Three any dramatic tension whatsoever, you took them at their word, as voiced by Cage. But in their defense, both Rita and Cage are speaking from their own LIMITED EXPERIENCE. Neither of them has been in the circumstance in which Cage ends up, obliterating Omega, then getting enveloped in Omega ooze. The Alpha ooze is one thing. Perhaps, and the evidence of what transpires in the Denouement suggests, is that there is a special level of power to the Omega ooze that was NOT in the Alpha ooze, and that is to go back 2 days in time. After all, it is part of the premise associated with the aliens that they have the power to manipulate time and perception. So I think you have to grant that it is within the realm of possibility that imbued with Alpha ooze, Cage could go back 2 days in time. There's also this: Characters have rights. And in this case, Cage has the right to be WRONG. He ASSUMED once he lost the power to be looped back in time, that was it. Clearly given the ending, he was WRONG because he went back TWO DAYS. He acted on a belief -- and that's ALL it was. The facts, as evidenced by the ending, suggest he only had a partial understanding of the power of time manipulation by the aliens, not knowing the special depth of power from the Omega ooze. So it would seem the issue is LESS with the filmmakers and MORE with Cage being wrong about what is factually true and what he BELIEVES to be true. But as I say, characters have the right to be wrong (see Malcolm Crowe in The Sixth Sense who only realizes he's dead at the very end). Re taking the story from Rita's perspective: I haven't read the original Japanese light novel upon which the movie is based ("All You Need is Kill"), but per Wikipedia, the story does shift in Chapter 3 to focus on her character and her backstory. I, too, would be interested to see the story told from her perspective, however that would have made for a much trickier narrative challenge, forced to go through HER ENTIRE LOOPING EXPERIENCE, unless you told that through flashbacks, then do the SAME THING with Cage, unless you decide to dump Cage, but then what do you have? Besides with Cage, you have the strength of what I described in the OP, why there is an almost immediate sense of connection to his plight (i.e., FOOW, underdog, etc). Bottom line: Given that this is a major studio production (Warner Bros.), compared to the plethora of other big science fiction / superhero / comic book / graphic novel franchise movies, at least for me, this movie stands head and shoulders above most of the other projects that have been released in the last several years (except Looper which is fantastic, but that was an indie film). And the fact it features such a strong female character, equivalent to the male counterpart, is a very good thing, hopefully a sign of things to come. BTW the ending of the novel, whereby Cage HAS to kill Rita because she FORCES him to in order to accomplish their shared goal reads like a compelling one. Fact of Hollywood life: Not going to happen in a $150M mainstream major studio film. They will ALWAYS default to an upbeat ending in these type of stories. More downbeat, nuanced endings may resonate with critics and pure fans of the genre, but not with wider audiences. And the only way WB and co-pro partners would justify the type of budget on EOT they did was to try to reach the widest audience possible... which means, 'Give 'em what they expect... then give 'em what they want.'

It's so interesting how different people react differently to movies. And TBBB, I totally respect where you're coming from. Look, I find so many of the superhero / mondo-destruction movies we are force fed every summer to be little more than exercises in mastubatory VFX. I went into EOT with a pretty typical level of cynicism, elevated slightly by some reviews I read by critics I trust. So I was pleasantly surprised that I actually ENJOYED the action sequences. And the reason why I stated in the OP: I cared about the characters. The stakes? The same as any other of these movies: Saving the world. The aliens? As you say, been there, done that in a dozen other movies. But because the filmmakers spent time and effort developing the two leads characters, working on their evolving relationship, that completely transformed all of the sturm und drang into something I cared about... because I cared about Cage and Rita. I'm guessing you didn't have that level or any connection to them. And that, I would suggest, is where they lost you. As to your idea about each time Cage went back, "those who perished in battle are no longer present," that's an interesting choice. It would largely create a disconnect the filmmakers were going for with gamers, who would recognize the reset dynamic. It would pretty much undo any chance to have the fun they did with the reset dynamic, one I like, but you didn't. But there's a third thing: By knowing that each time the reset happened, like gamers, Cage and Rita would try to get one step further toward Omega this time around... and this time around... and this time around... the fact there weren't the immediate stakes precisely because of the reset mechanism, that allowed us room to watch (A) Cage grow through the levels of psychological change he does, and (B) he and Rita's relationship to evolve over time. There are still stakes, ultimately the fate of the world, but during Act II, that is sort of set off to the side to focus on the relationship between Cage and Rita, which - again - helped me to care about them because I actually had time to KNOW them and UNDERSTAND them. The fact Cage lost the reset ability, which sets into motion the BIG STAKES in Act III, I thought was a smart choice. It builds the narrative to an appropriate whizz bang Final Struggle, but YET AGAIN, I cared about the world because I cared about Cage and Rita. But as I say, I can relate to your experience, if only because I have experienced it myself in numerous of these type of movies.

mgren, good point. As suggested above, we don't know the full extent of the Omega ooze powers. Besides, as noted in the OP, sometimes with movies, emotional logic trumps rational logic. Spielberg and J.J. Abrams have made a killing with that approach to filmmaking. Re marketing: There was an interesting article in the NYT today comparing TFIOS and EOT, completely different movies, completely different target audiences... and completely different marketing campaigns. I've got some thoughts on why EOT may have had a soft opening domestically (it did very well internationally), which I'll hope to pull together into a blog post sometime this week.

Scott, >>The fact Cage lost the reset ability, which sets into motion the BIG STAKES in Act III, I thought was a smart choice I totally agree. >>Cage has the right to be WRONG Of course. But when the main character is wrong on a crucial point on which the outcome of the plot turns, then the m.o. in scriptwriting is to plant clues and dialogue from other characters with sufficient clarity, emphasis and repetition that the audience can immediately flashback, link the clues together and buy the denouement. As we so well done in "The Sixth Sense". But, imho, not in "Edge of Tomorrow". In your discussion of "Gravity", you wrote at length about the distinction between the Big Story and the "small story" for Sandra Bullock's character. What is your take on the "small story" for Tom Cruise's character?

I agree the characters are what made the film - I believe that's why I enjoyed the scenes that weren't all action because that's where the emotions were fostered. The reason I didn't buy into it completely, particularly the action scenes, goes back to the film's conceit: knowing the characters aren't going to die and have the ability to "start over", I found it hard to care. Only when the meaninglessness of it was brought into focus did it actually evoke some sort of emotion from me - unfortunately it felt like it took a while to get there. I'm sure I'll give it a repeat viewing and there's more to engage my mind with - I know i enjoyed Pacific Rim on second viewing more than the first as well.

Re 'small' story: It's all about Cage's metamorphosis infused with this pivotal question: Does he 'deserve' Rita? This transcends 'boyfriend / girlfriend,' it's more an existential question as Rita is a True Hero and represents All Good, so her embrace of Cage is a marker of him achieving a similar level of growth as a character. Consider his starting point: * He lives a cushy life, transported around from one public media event to another, selected for the gig presumably because of his good looks and affable charm. What he goes through the rest of the story is anything but cushy, and his affable appearance and demeanor mean NOTHING to the warriors he interacts with once he gets relocated (that's pretty much the initial function of Master Sergeant Farell played wonderfully by Bill Paxton to demonstrate Cage's schtick won't play on the front line). * His PR gig has Cage dealing with platitudes and talking points. As a starting point for his metamorphosis, this suggests a character who is living on the 'surface' of life, more about appearance than substance. * When confronted with the turn of events where General Brigham has ordered him to the front, Cage first tries to wheedle his way out through crafty logic, and when that fails, he actually attempts to extort the General. It's really a smarmy move demonstrating how 'low' Cage is willing to go to save his own skin. It suggests here is a guy who is used to getting pretty much what he wants and gaming the system, and sets a touchstone in his transformation from 'selfish' to 'selfless'. * Finally if not an actual coward, Cage certainly does not begin the story as a hero. In this respect, he is in the mold of what Joseph Campbell called the Reluctant Hero. The rest of what transpires in the story, stripped of his power base as a Major and media star, compels Cage to access his Inner Hero, his Inner Goodness, to go below the surface of his existence and plumb the depths of who he is. He becomes a Hero. He becomes a Warrior. He becomes the One. All of that is there inside him from the very beginning, lying dormant and untapped due to his cushy existence. One of the strengths of the reset device is, as I've suggested in the OP, it creates a compressed form of Reincarnation (the same as Groundhog Day), where Cage's character takes what he learns in a previous existence and uses that 'enlightenment' to advance. That works not only in terms of the Plotline, literally honing his skills as a fighter and learning the pattern of who does what when and where to defeat the 'game,' but also to grow as a human being. And THAT, it seems to me, is the essence of the 'small' story. The fundamental question of almost every movie is this: "Who are you?" Cage answers that questions by his actions, evolving into the Good Selfless Hero. Through that, he exhibits his metamorphosis. Rita witnesses that change. That combined with the fact that of all the people in the world, only Cage KNOWS existence like she does, as they are apparently the only two people to have gone through this reset experience. They both know the meaning of life in a totally unique way, having died hundreds of times, and witnessed people dying hundreds of times as well. When she says goodbye to him before running off to create a diversion to the Alpha, planting that kiss on Cage, that is her imprimatur about who he has become, the acme of the 'small' story. The later Denouement is not only a case of the Hero obtaining the elixir, the Golden Fleece, etc, it is the final beat in the 'small' story, and as I have argued, at least from my own experience, something we WANT to see and these two characters DESERVE: to be together. Again to me, the handling of the Cage-Rita relationship is perhaps the best aspect of the movie, deftly done by the filmmakers, and one big reason why it sets this movie apart from the typical summer blockbuster fare.

SPOILERS - - - - - The ending works from a time line perspective, just remember, when he dies, it resets that day. Throughout the movie he dies on invasion day, resetting to the beginning of that day. In the ultimate scene, he gains the power back on the day before the invasion scene, so now if he were to die over and over again it would loop back that day which is the one where he arrives to meet the general via helicopter... the only odd thing is, if it was to loop back to that day, why the omega was also destroyed, that doesn't fit the timeline, logically, he should've looped to that day before the invasion, and then figured out a way to get the general to change focus and attack paris... that's sort of a major plot hole, but it's hollywood and as far as plot holes go, it's not that bad.

Scott, I like your analysis. A little on my thoughts going in and on the ending. I too had seen the headline (but had skipped the article) from /Film on the blown ending. I was worried that they were right and that a great movie would be spoiled by a bad ending. But I was pleasantly surprised. I felt the ending was totally (and tonally) appropriate to this time travel/action movie with strong characters. To me, you can’t go into a time travel/time loop movie and not expect some kind of big wrap-up loop. Looper did it too, and I think that it is very appropriate for both movies. A couple of thoughts: 1. There is a time where Cage attempts suicide - the first time he tries to kill the Omega in Germany but the Alpha stops him. Yeah, it's not as involved as the Groundhog Day musings on death/suicide, but it's there. 2. The Final loop. I read a commenter on another site who posited that the reset mechanism goes back to the last time the character was asleep. I like this thought and it fits well with the on-screen information. We don’t have to come up with an awkward explanation of how Omega blood and Alpha blood may differ (2 days versus 1 day, etc.), the reset just goes back to the last “brain reset” which is when the character last slept. Their REM sleep resets their brain. Furthermore, it made perfect sense to me that killing the Omega would trigger a bigger time reset (bigger as in more important). The Omega is killed via explosive and due to its temporal nature, that doesn’t just kill it in the present, but has the ability to kill it back into the past. Cage touches its blood and – being a viable Alpha-equivalent – when he dies, he resets the day to his last “reset” point, which given the changes in the timeline is no-longer when he wakes up from the taser but now when he wakes up in the helicopter. The question remaining for me is, can Cage reset any more since he has the Omega blood at the end of the movie? I really enjoyed this movie. I think it is my favorite of the year so far (beating The Winter Soldier and Days of Future Past). I saw it last night, and I have been thinking about it ever since; the mark of a good movie to me. Oh, other small bits I liked: how they covered exploring other options until they hit dead ends, and then tried something new; how there were limits on what they could achieve given army structure/human bureaucracy even with foreknowledge and the Angel of Verdun and that they had to work within those; how they approached infiltrating Whitehall as if it were an enemy-held beach. Great stuff to add real stakes.

That ending is compelling, but regardless of Hollywood's expectations, I think it would be tricky to pull off for another reason: in the original novel, Rita and Keiji (the equivalent of Cage) are teenagers (a classic Japanese mecha trope). The tone of their "love story" plays out very differently. The moment when they realize they can both loop comes almost as a revelation of hormones, like a first love. In this respect, it's actually even more similar to TFIOS—tragic teenaged lovers trapped by the mechanics of death. That moment also triggers the shift to Rita's extended flashback, allowing us to see the trauma of looping from her point of view, which is crucial in advancing their relationship. It sets the tone for the melodrama of the Keiji-kills-Rita ending. It's a sort of Obi-Wan vs. Anakin duel of the fates—the master and apprentice at the height of their powers in a crazy intense duel that only one can emerge from. The film hits different emotional notes, emphasizing that they're at peak of their vulnerability and working together. Harper's original script is extremely faithful to the novel in its characters and structure, including Rita's extended flashback, which always made for an unconventional and risky pacing for a film. But as soon as they signed Cruise, all that had to go out the window—the teenaged coming of age, the melodramatic ending, and the shift to Rita's POV. I think perhaps the smartest aspect of the EOT script is the way the writers solved the Rita POV issue to deepen their relationship. Instead of showing Rita's loops in flashback, they kept the plot moving through Cage's loops but effectively put the audience in Rita's POV without us noticing by skipping loops. So in the key loop where they drive inland to the farmhouse, it dawns on us that Cage knows more than we do, and we are left struggling to piece together their history together in previous loops at the same time as Rita. That quick shift in perspective deepens our emotional connection to both of them with much more cinematic language than the novel. EOT is all about dramatic irony and processing perceptions of one another, and sucks in the audience by implicating them in the process.

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you said Private Cage didn't even once kill himself, maybe it's because the fear, which the movie is about. I saw the Omega as the ultimate fear, and he can only face it when he's conscious that there is no more 'reset', he is living the real life. And i remember one scene when he is acknowledged that the Omega is sending false traces of its location, as if the creature(fear) is subconsciously preventing Cage to free himself, but in matter of fact, he really knows where it is, in some deep place in the water, (it reminded me of pacific rim) and in this moment he has to actually kill himself in order to kill the creature. The first scenes when he acts like a coward gave all the paths the movie would take, especially when he refuses to jump the ship. i'm not sure of anything i said, but the name is a great tip too (private cage), he is his own cage, as he is not able to perceive life beyond his own individuality. The alpha is also shown as a minor fear, however it's the one that connects Cage (the transponder and the beginning of the cycle) to the perception of this great fear, the Omega, he finds that courage can be attained.(Rita personifies the force to keep him going, as he finds that true masculinity could and should carry with it true sensibility, it's not a heartless conquer)

Ugh, why is everyone so dumb when it comes to the ending? Alphas that get killed aren't reborn, so why's everyone expecting the Omega to reappear? It's only fitting that it stays dead.