Difference between revisions of "EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)"
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'''EDGE OF TOMORROW.''' Doug Liman, dir. Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, script, from the novel ''All You Need Is Kill'' by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Oliver Scholl, prod. design. USA/Australia: Warner Bros., Village Roadshow, et al. (prod.) / Warner Bros. (primary dist.), 2014. | '''EDGE OF TOMORROW.''' Doug Liman, dir. Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, script, from the novel ''All You Need Is Kill'' by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Oliver Scholl, prod. design. USA/Australia: Warner Bros., Village Roadshow, et al. (prod.) / Warner Bros. (primary dist.), 2014. | ||
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| + | Recombinant cinema with elements familiar from such works as the novel and film ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' and Joe Haldeman's ''[[The Forever War|Forever War]]'', the classic creature-feature THEM! (1954), the war/Horror film [[ALIENS (film)|ALIENS]], ''[[War of the Worlds (novel)|War of the Worlds]]'', plus the time-loop motif from GROUNDHOG DAY (1993) and other works[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_featuring_time_loops] — and, for for some viewers if not the makers, THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY[http://tinyurl.com/ontxkg2](1964)[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057840/]: combined with wit, style, and a video-game esthetic — the tagline is "Live, Die, Repeat" — into a highly respectable movie. Significant here for a kind of absence. In Robert A. Heinlein's ''Starship Troopers'' and Haldeman's ''Forever War'' novels, powered armor and military drop-ships transporting infantry are of science-fictional significance. Such elements are visually impressive in EDGE but of no more significance than a helicopter and what may be an SUV. Similarly, Ellen Ripley's putting on, and then later taking off, an exoskeleton in ALIENS to fight the Alien Queen is a powerful symbol; the exoskeleton powered armor suits in EDGE are just highly lethal First-Person-Shooter weapons; and nothing is made of the H. R. Gigeresque nature of the alien-invader "Mimics"[http://tinyurl.com/pcs6wbx] and their combining the mechanical and organic, with suggestions of nonvertebrate hydras and squids. That the high-tech war toys are just sort of there, like powerful weaponry in a "mundane" war film, may be a good sign or a bad one; but it is probably a sign of something. | ||
| − | 5. DRAMA, RDE, 07-09/VI/14 | + | Note, though, the training scenes and the representation of the alien menace as what look like randomly-moving, but very flexibly and quickly moving, Cuisinart blades, which can chop up the human trainee or at least send him — it's Tom Cruise as the male lead we see knocked around — into a bone-breaking crash against wall or floor. Note also the early scenes of Cruise's untrained, inexperienced Private Cage encumbered by his fighting suit: encumbered by it far more than empowered. |
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| + | 5. DRAMA, RDE, 07-09/VI/14, 19Sep20 | ||
[[Category: Drama]] | [[Category: Drama]] | ||
Revision as of 23:16, 19 September 2020
EDGE OF TOMORROW. Doug Liman, dir. Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, script, from the novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Oliver Scholl, prod. design. USA/Australia: Warner Bros., Village Roadshow, et al. (prod.) / Warner Bros. (primary dist.), 2014.
Recombinant cinema with elements familiar from such works as the novel and film Starship Troopers and Joe Haldeman's Forever War, the classic creature-feature THEM! (1954), the war/Horror film ALIENS, War of the Worlds, plus the time-loop motif from GROUNDHOG DAY (1993) and other works[1] — and, for for some viewers if not the makers, THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY[2](1964)[3]: combined with wit, style, and a video-game esthetic — the tagline is "Live, Die, Repeat" — into a highly respectable movie. Significant here for a kind of absence. In Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Haldeman's Forever War novels, powered armor and military drop-ships transporting infantry are of science-fictional significance. Such elements are visually impressive in EDGE but of no more significance than a helicopter and what may be an SUV. Similarly, Ellen Ripley's putting on, and then later taking off, an exoskeleton in ALIENS to fight the Alien Queen is a powerful symbol; the exoskeleton powered armor suits in EDGE are just highly lethal First-Person-Shooter weapons; and nothing is made of the H. R. Gigeresque nature of the alien-invader "Mimics"[4] and their combining the mechanical and organic, with suggestions of nonvertebrate hydras and squids. That the high-tech war toys are just sort of there, like powerful weaponry in a "mundane" war film, may be a good sign or a bad one; but it is probably a sign of something.
Note, though, the training scenes and the representation of the alien menace as what look like randomly-moving, but very flexibly and quickly moving, Cuisinart blades, which can chop up the human trainee or at least send him — it's Tom Cruise as the male lead we see knocked around — into a bone-breaking crash against wall or floor. Note also the early scenes of Cruise's untrained, inexperienced Private Cage encumbered by his fighting suit: encumbered by it far more than empowered.
5. DRAMA, RDE, 07-09/VI/14, 19Sep20
