Edge of Tomorrow
Released 06/06/14
Directed by Doug Liman
Written by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth
Based on the book by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
I’m not usually one to watch action films, with superhero movies being the exception, but there was one big reason to finally get around to watching Edge of Tomorrow.
Emily Blunt.
She’s great. She’s just, great. Like, seriously. Ugh. Guys. Come on.
Next on my ‘to watch’ list is The Devil Wears Prada. For now, let’s get back to Edge of Tomorrow.
Earth has been attacked by aliens. Octopus mechanical aliens who can manipulate time. How can you defeat an enemy who can manipulate time?
Obviously, you can’t.
Except you can! By killing one of the alpha aliens (which are not, however, the main aliens despite the misleading name) and absorbing their time controlling ability, even though this ability is located in a different part of the overall alien unit. Because that makes sense. For humans to use the time control ability, they have to die, and the day starts over.
Emily Blunt plays a super soldier badass called Rita who used to have the time control ability, but lost if after a blood transfusion. How she figured out she lost it is beyond me, because wouldn’t she have to die to know for sure? But anyway.
Tom Cruise plays Cage, the ex ad-man turned army public relations/idiot soldier who knows diddly squat about combat and yet somehow manages to kill one of the alphas and start resetting the day. He and Rita team up to try and end the war.
That’s more or less the plot of Edge of Tomorrow. It’s a funny, well crafted movie with an abundance of plot holes. If you overlook these, it’s quite decent.
But where is the fun in that?
WHY does the army insist on sending a soldier who knows shit all about combat onto the frontline of a warzone equipped with weapons he can’t use where he will almost definitely kill more humans than aliens? There is literally no reason to do this. He is a major liability and will definitely do more harm than good. There is no reason they would want to get rid of him, after all, he’s on their side. Except, you know, the plot.
WHY doesn’t Rita just kill another Alpha and take back her time control ability that way?
WHY doesn’t anyone believe in time control in a time when aliens exist and there is overwhelming evidence to support that they’re telling the truth?
WHY haven’t the aliens crushed humanity already if they can CONTROL FREAKING TIME?
And WHY has no one else noticed that the aliens are basically just giant bluebottle jellyfish (a.k.a the Portuguese man o’ war), which you may be interested to know are not actually jellyfish at all, but are actually siphonophorae- a colonial organism made up of hundreds of tiny jellyfish all working together to kill you as painfully as possible?
Also can we talk about how irritatingly convenient it is for alien species to all be linked up to one ‘brain’ that if destroyed will wipe out all the little aliens simultaneously, which happens in both Edge of Tomorrow and in the first Avengers movie? What is this, some kind of metaphor for working together whilst also appreciating the value of independence and individual thought? That mindlessly following a leader will be your downfall? That humanities soul saving grace again alien invasion is that although we are strongest when we band together, we should never forget our singularly complex mind and self as being a vital part of an overall system that is as complex in it’s individual pieces as it is as a whole? And that it’s ones ability to think and be a free, independent, autonomous being that ultimately benefits the greater good more so than one system that rules everyone as a set of mindless pawns?
Nah, I doubt it.
Anyway, back to Emily Blunt being a badass! Very cool. Would watch again.
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