Edge of Tomorrow

[Aikouka]

Best for us to overthink it than the writer / director. We end up with concepts that are cool, but completely ruined as they are never fully explore or simply terrible; see The Purge or In Time for examples.

The Purge could have been a movie exploring the disproportionate effects on economic status that government decisions often have (the poor suffering far more than the rich in the purging). But, instead, they hired Ethan Hawk and made a terrible movie.

Thing is... I didn't think either of those movies were bad. Were they great? Nope, but they were certainly enjoyable for a single viewing. I even bought In Time when it was on sale on Blu-ray, because I thought it was worth the $3-5 that I paid for it. What was amusing about The Purge, and I'm going to put this in spoiler tags given it occurs near the end,

Spoiler

is how I said to myself, "I wish the movie was actually about the rather apparent neighborhood jealousy", ...and then the neighbors come busting in.

Ultimately, the movies didn't really try and push their social commentary much, but they were decent thriller movies. There were plenty of facepalms during the movies, but they were okay.

 

[smackababy]

Thing is... I didn't think either of those movies were bad. Were they great? Nope, but they were certainly enjoyable for a single viewing. I even bought In Time when it was on sale on Blu-ray, because I thought it was worth the $3-5 that I paid for it. What was amusing about The Purge, and I'm going to put this in spoiler tags given it occurs near the end,

Spoiler

is how I said to myself, "I wish the movie was actually about the rather apparent neighborhood jealousy", ...and then the neighbors come busting in.

Ultimately, the movies didn't really try and push their social commentary much, but they were decent thriller movies. There were plenty of facepalms during the movies, but they were okay.

That was my point though. They over thought what should have been a simple concept. "How can we make a generic 'killers trying to get into a house' movie different?" "I know! Let's come up with a completely unrealistic scenario as a plot device and then cast Ethan Hawke in it!" "Oh! I like that plot device that has nothing to do with the movie! Let's add in the fact that, despite designing security stuff, he doesn't have some shotgun that blasts people knocking on the door!"

In Time suffered from the same thing. It was a decent thriller about a guy who comes into 'money' and finds that even with what separates him from the 'rich', he still isn't the same. He (and the token, rebellious rich girl) enact social justice by being criminals. That isn't an awful concept, except they then decided to come up with a "what if it wasn't money, but time! And it magically started at 25 and you could trade it and some people can live forever!" "Let's also ignore the fact that releasing billions of currency into the market of rabid consumers is only going to cause hyper inflation and they will be even worse off! Especially, with only a very small (even less valuable) amount continuously being added to the market place!"

 

[JEDI]

didn't like the beginning.
he's a US soldier. he got blinded side by being told by a European general that he's going to the combat front of the European army. and that it's been cleared by Cruise's superiors.

wtf? why didn't the US army give cruise a heads up?

and if the Alpha gave cruise it's power, why didn't it still have the power when cruise jumped back in time when the alpha was alive?

and when cruise loses his powers, why not kill another alpha?

 

[Pulsar]

didn't like the beginning.
he's a US soldier. he got blinded side by being told by a European general that he's going to the combat front of the European army. and that it's been cleared by Cruise's superiors.

wtf? why didn't the US army give cruise a heads up?

and if the Alpha gave cruise it's power, why didn't it still have the power when cruise jumped back in time when the alpha was alive?

and when cruise loses his powers, why not kill another alpha?

Spoiler

1. He tried to blackmail the British General of the entire western front.General called the US, told them what's up, and then dealt with it (i.e. - deserter because Cruise refused to fight).

2. You're making the mistake of thinking in a single continuous timeline. Cruise wasn't 'resetting', the omega was creating a new timeline each time Cruise was killed. According to string theory, the other time lines where he died continued as well.

3. The alphas were 1 in 6,000,000 and they didn't show themselves readily. He got lucky on the first alpha kill. Engineering an alpha kill where you end up covered in its blood would be pretty damn tough when you don't know where they even are.

 

[TheVrolok]

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[JEDI]

Spoiler

1. He tried to blackmail the British General of the entire western front.General called the US, told them what's up, and then dealt with it (i.e. - deserter because Cruise refused to fight).

Spoiler

no. the british general said he was going to the front to cover the assault. cruise balked at this idea and said he's a US soldier and the general cant make him go.

the general said he already cleared it w/the US army.

wtf? the US Army should have been the one to tell him he's going to the front.

and then he tried to blackmail the general...

when they saw an alpha after cruise lost his powers, they had grenades. why not just blow himself up w/it like

Spoiler

the first time when he got the power.

 

[clamum]

The problem is that it's really just lazy writing. This is much like all the nerd-debate over The Matrix movies. Or Lost. Stuff like that.

Best case scenario, the writers and directors wanted things to be open, and let the audiences reach their own conclusions. Inception is a good cinematic example of that...I'm pretty sure when asked 'did the top stop spinning' or 'was Leo still dreaming,' Christopher Nolan has said something to the extent of 'I don't know. Pick whichever option you prefer.'

And that shit is a lazy cop-out.

I don't really agree that it's "a lazy cop-out." The writers and/or directors are lazy for doing all of that work except leaving the end open to interpretation? I don't think so. And I doubt it would matter anyway; people would find a way to bitch and complain no matter how a movie or story is ended, it seems.

 

[Ruptga]

Yeah people are going to bitch, but that's no reason to make it easy for them. They should have done better, and we know they could have because they did so for the other nine tenths of the movie.

 

[Sonikku]

Wow after reading all those spoiler tag theories, my head hurts.

 

[BladeVenom]

I liked the movie. The ending was adequate.

The only problem is it's like every other movie; once they say it's their last chance, you know they are going to succeed. I guess they do that to heighten suspense, but it actually takes the suspense out of it.

 

[slag]

Spoiler

My understanding is the neither the Alpha or the Omega can selectively reset. When the Alpha gets killed that triggers the omega to reset it, and they mentioned somewhere in the movie the time frame it had been restting to, 36 hours or something like that.

And that explains why the there was the "Do Not Kill" order on the alpha after "Cage" lost it. They need to kill the omega to reset back to the time before the omega hit earth. And started the cycle. Killing the Alpha before the Omega means they are letting the aliens win, because it would have reset without a human being the alpha and resetting on their death.

Why are you guys trying to figure out a reason for what happened? This isn't a literary masterpiece with deeper meanings. This is a typical summer action flick. Buy the ticket, get your popcorn, watch the movie, talk about it on the way out to your car, and go on with your lives for crying out loud. Why the hell do people feel the need to analyze everything in every movie and then judge it based on why or if it could happen or what the deeper meaning is? Just enjoy the eye candy and explosions, suspend disbelief for a couple hours, and then move on.

 

[Pulsar]

Why are you guys trying to figure out a reason for what happened? This isn't a literary masterpiece with deeper meanings. This is a typical summer action flick. Buy the ticket, get your popcorn, watch the movie, talk about it on the way out to your car, and go on with your lives for crying out loud. Why the hell do people feel the need to analyze everything in every movie and then judge it based on why or if it could happen or what the deeper meaning is? Just enjoy the eye candy and explosions, suspend disbelief for a couple hours, and then move on.

You have no imagination.

 

[Phanuel]

Thing is... I didn't think either of those movies were bad. Were they great? Nope, but they were certainly enjoyable for a single viewing. I even bought In Time when it was on sale on Blu-ray, because I thought it was worth the $3-5 that I paid for it. What was amusing about The Purge, and I'm going to put this in spoiler tags given it occurs near the end,

Spoiler

is how I said to myself, "I wish the movie was actually about the rather apparent neighborhood jealousy", ...and then the neighbors come busting in.

Ultimately, the movies didn't really try and push their social commentary much, but they were decent thriller movies. There were plenty of facepalms during the movies, but they were okay.

Well, they are making a sequel http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975578 so maybe they'll have some commentary on that situation (but I doubts it).

 

[JEDI]

Well, they are making a sequel http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975578 so maybe they'll have some commentary on that situation (but I doubts it).

wha? is there a book sequel as well?

 

[Sonikku]

If there was going to be a sequel they should have wrapped up the first film like the book.

 

[slag]

You have no imagination.

I have a bit of imagination but discussing a fictional movie and how it does or doesn't fit together...


SMH

 

[Meghan54]

Hmmm.....domestic gross for it over the 3 weeks it's been out is $56.6M. Not too good.

Int'l. gross is approx. $111M, so it'll break even probably next week, but it's certainly not a blockbuster.

The current X-Men movie is doing vastly better....5 weeks of release and its domestic gross is $205.9M with int'l. gross at approx. $700M, much better and numbers Edge of Tomorrow wishes it had.

 

[JEDI]

Hmmm.....domestic gross for it over the 3 weeks it's been out is $56.6M. Not too good.

Int'l. gross is approx. $111M, so it'll break even probably next week, but it's certainly not a blockbuster.

The current X-Men movie is doing vastly better....5 weeks of release and its domestic gross is $205.9M with int'l. gross at approx. $700M, much better and numbers Edge of Tomorrow wishes it had.

guess Groundhog day with bullets didn't appeal to people. Plus the ending...

hm.. How much did Wolverrine gross at the end of 3 weeks? (it's ending was even worse than this movie's)

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Spoiler

1. He tried to blackmail the British General of the entire western front.General called the US, told them what's up, and then dealt with it (i.e. - deserter because Cruise refused to fight).

2. You're making the mistake of thinking in a single continuous timeline. Cruise wasn't 'resetting', the omega was creating a new timeline each time Cruise was killed. According to string theory, the other time lines where he died continued as well.

3. The alphas were 1 in 6,000,000 and they didn't show themselves readily. He got lucky on the first alpha kill. Engineering an alpha kill where you end up covered in its blood would be pretty damn tough when you don't know where they even are.

Spoiler

He was told that he is going to the front before he tried to blackmail his way out of it.

Spoiler

Ya, as for two. It's a time travel movie. It's a plot device. Don't ponder it to much.

Spoiler

At the end of the movie, he was being stalked by one near the "core" or whatever it was called. The issue was that I don't think he had the weaponry or position to get the blood on him. But most importantly, it was a movie and they couldn't spend more time on a triple ending. It was already a double ending once the visions basically took him to a trap.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

If there was going to be a sequel they should have wrapped up the first film like the book.

Not having read the book ....

The way the ending occurred

Spoiler

They could easily say that when Cruise woke up at the end of the movie (in an earlier time than all the othertimes), that the attack is still imminent just delayed. Kinda like the terminator franchise in that judgment day is going to happen but it can be delayed.

 

[Tweak155]

Saw this last night... great movie!

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Should add, I saw this in 3D because I had no choice at the time. If you have a choice, don't.

I am realizing what makes good 3D. When the depth is into the screen. When they try making things look like they are coming out of the screen it looks like crap.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Reading everyone's theories on a movie with time travel makes my brain hurt.

Everyone read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_device

 

[SlitheryDee]

Reading everyone's theories on a movie with time travel makes my brain hurt.

Everyone read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_device

Yes, it's a plot device. The thing is that the creators seem to have given it certain rules that it must operate by within the universe it is depicted in. They tell you some of those rules explicitly, but others they leave for you to work out for yourself by observing the events of the movie. It's the discovery of this underlying framework that in some way dictates what can and can't happen that is fascinating to me. When you can actually work out what the rules are and discover that they explain other things that were not immediately evident at first glance, it indicates a depth that goes beyond regular action movie fare. It's just an attempt to fully appreciate the movie should it turn out to be more than it appears to be at first glance.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Yes, it's a plot device. The thing is that the creators seem to have given it certain rules that it must operate by within the universe it is depicted in. They tell you some of those rules explicitly, but others they leave for you to work out for yourself by observing the events of the movie. It's the discovery of this underlying framework that in some way dictates what can and can't happen that is fascinating to me. When you can actually work out what the rules are and discover that they explain other things that were not immediately evident at first glance, it indicates a depth that goes beyond regular action movie fare. It's just an attempt to fully appreciate the movie should it turn out to be more than it appears to be at first glance.

Yes, but even the writers don't have it all figured out. They make it good enough that it's not riddled with holes and move on. The writers don't have a huge framework. If you are trying to figure that out, you won't.