I had the chance to head out to see Edge of Tomorrow this past weekend. It had been hyped up quite a bit ahead of time, and I was worried it wasn’t going to be able to quite pull off those expectations. Groundhog Day meets Independence Day? It sounded too good to be true.
The plot is straightforward: aliens invade earth, and Tom Cruise is living the same day over and over at the same time. Instead of using that power to woo Andie MacDowell, he decides to perfect his exoskeleton suit fighting skills to save the world. (It would be a tough call for me–Andie vs Exoskeleton. Hard decisions.) Action ensues.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. In fact, it was headed for a 9.5/10 rating for me–maybe even the mythical 10/10. It’s tough when I get in a situation like that in the theater. Sort of like watching a complete no-hitter in process. Perfection is so hard to pull off.
Did it do it this time?
Well, I’m giving it an 8/10–so there’s your answer. Sad that it didn’t get there, but still a great movie. Very worthy of your movie theater dollars, and a lot of fun from start to finish.
Why just an 8? For that, I need a big SPOILERS disclaimer.
Ready?
The end just kind of blew up for me. It had me right up until the final reset. Tom Cruise blows up the big bad thing, he gets covered in its blood, and then we jump back to the beginning of the movie. Except now all the aliens are dead? What?
This makes absolutely no sense, and is completely inconsistent with the “magic system” they set up in the film. When time is reset, it’s reset for everyone else but the one person who gets reset. Humans and aliens alike. To have it reset a final time, but now have the aliens conveniently dead . . .
Yuck.
Yes, I get that it’s all fantasy to begin with. It’s not like we understand the technology that makes time getting reset possible. So yes, it could be this somehow works. But because we don’t know that it’s possible, it feels like a total copout to me.
And I’m not done.
Because you also have Tom showing up to see the girl for the last first time, and we’re supposed to assume they live happily ever after. This doesn’t work for me at all.
Imagine if in Groundhog Day, Bill Murray wakes up one day earlier, and that breaks the cycle. He loves Andie MacDowell, and he rushes to go to her side. What does she do? I’m betting she slaps him silly and calls for a straitjacket. She doesn’t know him. She thinks he’s a jerk, if anything. He hasn’t had the chance to prove himself to her yet.
The final reset wipes out all the character building he’s managed to pull off in her eyes.
What’s extra frustrating to me is that this is a fantasy movie. The fix would be so simple: just have them survive the final showdown. Have them both not die. No need for a final reset. The world is saved, they can be happy, and all is well with the world.
Talk about dropping the ball at the end of a movie.
I still liked it in spite of that flub, but it was quite the disappointment. Have you seen it? Disagree? Am I being too harsh? Let me know . . .
Well, if Andie McDowell had gone through her own Groundhog Days in the past, prior to a blood transfusion, maybe Bill Murray could have wooed her. After all, Tom Cruise had won her over a hundred or a thousand times before, within seconds of walking up to her, why couldn’t he do it again?
Having said that, I really liked the movie, but it wasn’t a 10 by any stretch.
Yeah, what Matt said–Tom spent all those previous days learning how to woo his Andie, and it was obviously working those last few days. There was no lost character building
And I could buy the last reset, if the Omega doesn’t reset like the other mimics & controlled the reset outside of the time loop, it could have reset the loop for Tom in its last moment, but then lost its connection to all the mimics when it finally died. Or something. You’re right that they didn’t explain it, but by that point in time I’d suspended so much belief that I didn’t mind accepting there were unstated rules.
But yeah, still no 10. Fun summer popcorn movie, with kind of an interesting premise, but same old structure & characters.