Review of Edge of Tomorrow (2014) by Carlotta 4 — 22 Dec 2018

What a fantastic film! I went to see this with some friends expecting a "typical action film" (just something to pass the time) and we all left the theater saying "wow, that was WAY better than I thought it was going to be!" By the second time I watched the film I realized that I loved it.

First, the characters. Blunt is clearly the highlight of the film here--every scene she's in and every expression she makes is incredible, she acts out her character fantastically and you get the sense of the story she must have gone through without the film having to spell it out for you. Cruse also does well and the film gives his character a very drastic (while also believable) character arc. You see his highs and lows, moments of avoidance, moments of acceptance, and mostly just moments of sheer trying things over and over again until he finds a solution that works. But the film does this in a PROGRESSIONAL manner--rather than seeing the character go through his days sequentially and chronologically as some time-travel films do this movie wisely assumes the audience understands the general concept and chooses to skip the repetition entirely. The film is constantly pushing forward so you're seeing new things--we still see the characters struggle and fail, but you see it more on their faces and through their skill in combat more than the film having to show you every single second of every single reset. Sometimes it even uses the resets to comedic effect, it's all quite cleverly done!

As for worldbuilding, the alien design is fantastic. It's so organic and mechanical, threatening but sentient. It's a great design and a nice change of pace from more humanoid or simply "monster"-like aliens. You can clearly see how they're a threat but instead of just being "monsters" you also get the sense that they think and understand, which only makes them even more dangerous to humanity. The mechanic of how the time shifts happen, too, is quite clever (if a bit lucky for our protagonists), and serves the plot well.

When it comes to practical effects there's so many explosions and fire and cool looking scenes but the characters pull of the "look" of those giant mecha suits quite well. I can't help but assume that must have been a practical effect because it LOOKS good. The heaviness to the suits, the giant helicopter blade sword... no dated CGI here, almost every frame of the movie feels real (minus maybe that Louvre run) and it'll hold up great over time.

I'm kind of gushing at this point, I suppose, but this is probably the best action focused film I've ever seen, I've rewatched it many many times and I'll continue to rewatch it many times going forward. Good character arcs, great alien designs, wonderful practical effects, all woven into an interesting story and concept.