criterionforum.org

warren oates wrote:Really didn't like Edge of Tomorrow, which I've seen on a few best-of lists around here. I wonder if it's because none of those fans of the film had read the much earlier better drafts of the script or the novel it was based on? Perhaps in spite of all the bad changes the director Doug Liman (in his best film since Bourne, but that's not saying much) and star Tom Cruise wrought it was still good enough for you, as it was for the audience I saw it with -- at least for the first 45 minutes. After which the whole suffers from lame attempts to "open up" the story, a few weird second act dead ends (signaling rewrites/reshoots?) and a bloated overlong and unimaginative climax with the oddest location of all time --

Spoiler

our call sheet tomorrow says Louvre, parking garage... Paris, woo-hoo!

All the mumbo jumbo about what's happening and why seems even more torturous in this incarnation of the story. And the basic commitment to military scif-fi as a subgenre is lost in a palimpsest of hacky rewrites that try to shoehorn Cruise into the role of a "zero to hero" type who's supposed to start out a coward and end up a badass fighting machine. The best parts of the film are the early moments that have some lighter video-gamey fun with the reset premise. After that the narrative starts to feel as needlessly dingy and grim as the whole production palette.

"Edge of Tomorrow"

I really enjoyed this testosterone packed version of "Groundhog Day". I thought both Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt did a good job in portraying their characters (Tom Cruise has much more of an arc - he went from being an abject coward to a confident battle-hardened veteran by the end); and the direction by Doug Liman was kinetic when required and calm when the script called for it (not very often).

With a nice little turn by Bill Paxton as the hard-ass C.O.

I would recommend that you seek out "Edge of Tomorrow" if you are looking for a smart; action-packed; with a dark sense of humor summer thriller.

wllm995 wrote:"Edge of Tomorrow"]I would recommend that you seek out "Edge of Tomorrow" if you are looking for a smart; action-packed; with a dark sense of humor summer thriller.

I hesitate to ask, but, okay, aside from not being a completely mindless or nonsensical spectacle in the manner of Transformers, besides the cool premise that the film hasn't really honored, just what is it about this particular watered and dumbed down version of this thing that feels so "smart" to you? I'd be curious to hear a defense of the casting of the leads too, who for me both feel deliriously miscast. Blunt tries her best and comes closer than Cruise but only because she's a way better actor. Still, putting aside for a moment the idea that she's no longer really the sort of warrior woman the novelist or initial screenwriters envisioned, the production screenplay as it is undercuts most of the street cred her character had by ascribing her victories merely to the same twist that afflicts Cruise.

Groundhog Day is an appropriate but utterly superficial comparison that was still more apt in versions of this story that never made it to screen (imagine stars or producers arguing to Harold Ramis that we're getting bored with the repetition, that it's time to "open up" the story world and that we need a bigger set piece in a different location for the big ending, that Bill Murray is all wrong and we really should cast a more bankable star). At least in Groundhog Day and in the other better versions of this story, the repetition meant something to the protagonist beyond being a cool conceit and a manic emblem of gamer existentialism.

10 bucks that gets filed under "L" in most remaining video stores and libraries.

LIVE DIE REPEAT is a better title though

Third title change? Make up your minds, WB.

They should just call it Source Code 2: The Groundhog Day and be done with it.

domino harvey wrote:Sequel to be called Live Die Repeat and Repeat

The second "repeat" sounds/looks horrible. They obviously plan to shoehorn "and repeat" in small print underneath the fabulous title LIVE DIE REPEAT. Is Seth Godin consulting at WB?

They should've called it Repeat Live Die.

I can't recall a single instance of someone referring to this as LIVE.DIE.REPEAT online, while it's gotten asizeable cult following under its release title. It's really puzzling that they changed the name to start with and are still pushing it

I'm just worried that it'll get confused with the upcoming Bond sequel LIVE AND LET DIE AND REPEAT

Live or die trying to repeat.

Sort of like Groundhog D-Day.