Based On A Book?! For Edge Of Tomorrow, I Would Have Guessed A Video Game!

The Good: Good plot concept, Mostly decent special effects
The Bad: Goes for some cheap laughs over smart science fiction, No impressive performances, Light on character development
The Basics: Treading away from the nihilism of a protagonist who repeatedly dies, Edge Of Tomorrow takes a formulaic story of humans resisting alien invaders and adds a time-travel element that makes it seem a bit fresher than it actually is.


Summer Blockbuster Season has truly arrived. One knows it is undeniably here when the films start taking a turn for the big, impressive special effects films that have little resemblance to sensibility or compelling storylines. Last year, the film of this ilk right around this time was Pacific Rim (reviewed here!) and this year there is a film that mimics the feel and sense of style of that film: Edge Of Tomorrow. This weekend’s two big films were based on books and Edge Of Tomorrow is one viewers would likely never guess came from a novel (unlike The Fault In Our Stars). Most of Edge Of Tomorrow has the look and feel of watching a video game – a massive war/space invasion game – play out.

Edge Of Tomorrow is based upon a Japanese novel (All You Need Is Kill) and it is worth noting up front that I have never read the book, so this is a very pure review of the film alone. Edge Of Tomorrow is a big-budget science fiction film that utilizes a time loop, much like the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Cause And Effect” (reviewed here!) did over twenty years ago. The time travel conceit that dominates much of Edge Of Tomorrow is explained well-enough, but the sheer number of repetitions through the time line make the film feel increasingly tedious. For genre fans, the film is more monotonous than fresh and it is very much like watching a video game played out over and over again.

Five years after the Earth is first attacked by a powerful alien race called the Mimics, much of Europe has been decimated in the ensuing war. However, an international military force has finally developed a reasonable defense with their “New Jacket” technology. With the first waves of soldiers outfitted with New Jacket technology killing thousands of “mimics” in their first assault, there appears to be hope for humanity. Operation Downfall is publicized as the big offensive that might finally liberate humanity and its public face, Major William Cage is drafted, under threat of arrest, to participate in the ground assault on a beachfront in France. Unfortunately, during the battle, for which Cage is ill-trained and not ideally equipped, cage is killed by a giant Mimic whose blood melts his skull, killing him.

After rather vividly dying, Cage wakes up twenty-four hours earlier in the unit of grunts who are told by the Master Sergeant that he is a deserter, where he is despised, confused and mistrusted. As he goes into battle slightly better prepared, he realizes he is experiencing something more than just déjà vu. Instead, when he is killed again, he decides after his resurrection to try to learn more to attempt to survive the battle. Despite better training, Cage is continually killed until he meets up with superstar soldier Rita Vrataski in the battle and he saves her life. When he does, she informs him that he should find her when he wakes up and the next times through the timeline, he leaves the unit he awakens to to find Rita at a nearby training facility. Convincing her and Dr. Carter that he is reliving the battle each day, Rita informs him that she experienced the same thing when she encountered a special Mimic’s blood. Rita tasks Cage with a new mission: bypass Operation Downfall to find the Mimic hive entity and destroy it. After extensive training and dying many times in the attempt to get off the beach, Cage and Rita successfully survive one battle only to have Rita die horribly as the invasion spreads to London and the pair makes it to a farm house. After several permutations, Cage works to find the way to win the beach battle, survive the farm house encounter, and make it to the dam that is housing the horde of Mimics.

For a story with a painfully dull middle, director Doug Liman does the best he can to keep the flow going. Instead of constantly cutting back to the beginning of Cage’s sequence, Liman smartly moves the cuts to the relative points of diversion. So, for many of the times Cage dies, the film immediately cuts to how the sudden soldier manages to survive the same death. Conceptually, Edge Of Tomorrow is actually a surprisingly simple film, but it is a hard one to stretch out in a compelling way to make it visually interesting.

As a result, Edge Of Tomorrow oscillates between exceptional special effects battle sequences and long scenes of tedious exposition. The exposition is necessary at first to understand the mechanics of the film’s time-travel conceit, but as the film moves toward tracking down the Omega Mimic, how Cage has to continue to explain and convince his predicament to people becomes tiresome. By the time Cage meets with Brigham a second time, the viewer gets it and most will just want the film to get where it’s going. The execution of the idea is hardly as entertaining as the writers, producers, and director might hope.

Thus, much of the movie’s entertainment value comes in the “wow” factor from the special effects. The mimics move ridiculously fast and the metal-framed soldiers are an easy excuse for the digitized versions of the characters to move in ways that defy the otherwise real physics the film tries to maintain. The battles feel very much like a first person shooter or MMORPG war game, but when the film slows down to speeds that the effects can be appreciated, much of Edge Of Tomorrow is appropriately visually stunning.

On the character front, there is little in the way of actual development. Instead, characters come around to accepting the film’s plot conceit; they do not truly develop and evolve, they are merely persuaded.

As for the acting, Edge Of Tomorrow is led by Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. While both Cruise and Blunt plausibly interact with their virtual environments and entities, neither brings much to the role other than their ability to run around and use heavy firepower. Blunt is poor casting for a supersoldier, regardless of Rita’s dependence upon her exoskeleton. She is too waifish to believably be a solider who runs around, firing weapons and slashing oversized cleavers and many of the moments her character is put in mortal peril her expressions are stiff as opposed to professionally restrained. As for Tom Cruise, his role of Cage is virtually interchangeable with any number of his prior action hero roles where his character works hard to either enter a conflict of evade enemies. He is credible running around playing soldier, but he brings nothing to the role that viewers have not seen from him in many, many other Tom Cruise films. If anything, Cage is one of the least charismatic Cruise performances.

In the end, Edge Of Tomorrow is a largely unmemorable special effects-driven alien invasion film and one suspects it will have a long-term impact on par with Battle: Los Angles (reviewed here!), which is to say that while the film might make a splash now, it will be forgotten by the time it hits Blu-Ray and DVD.

For other works with Emily Blunt, please visit my reviews of:
Looper
The Five-Year Engagement
The Adjustment Bureau
Salmon Fishing In The Yemen
Charlie Wilson’s War
Dan In Real Life
The Devil Wears Prada

4/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Go Is Not A Completely Dumb Teen Movie!

The Good: Surprisingly well put together, Decent acting, Lines of dialog
The Bad: Annoying, idiotic characters, Low opinion of youth culture
The Basics: If you want to watch young people use drugs, hang out, get into pointless chases and otherwise use bad judgment, Go is the perfect film for you.


"Teensploitation" is a word that has recently made it into the dictionary. It refers to any film or work that exploits young people as a crucial element of selling the movie, television show or lip gloss. Basically, it is the name for the whole genre of movies that tries to explore what being a young person is. It's a weird word and I am surprised it made it into the dictionary; it seems like more of a fad than a word with any real staying power. Nevertheless, there it is and I thought of the word as I sat down to watch the DVD of Go.

I honestly did not have high expectations for this movie. When I watch it again, which I will, I am bound to watch it with higher expectations than I had the first time around. Go is the teensploitation version of Pulp Fiction.

Told in three parts, in roughly chronological order, this is the story of three groups of people and their adventures over the course of a single night and how they all come together. It is the story of Ronna, who is about to be evicted from her apartment, so she goes along with a plan to score some ecstasy for some strangers and discovers that she can make a killing selling chewable aspirin and diet pills to posers at a rave. It is the story of Simon, a drug dealer who takes off for Las Vegas for a night and ends up on the run after putting his hands on a stripper. It is the story of Adam and Zack, a pair of gay actors who have ended up at the mercy of a police officer named Burke, who uses the two to set up Simon and instead end up setting up Ronna.

The three stories come together when Ronna is almost killed at the rave, Simon heads back to Todd's (his supplier) house to find Todd selling him out and Adam and Zack discovering they are cheating on one another with the same man. All with hilarious consequences.

Okay, the consequences are not hilarious. In fact, it is troubling how downright stupid just about every character in this movie is. Even the goody-goody Claire uses drugs, so it's hard to find real empathy in any of these characters. They are all weak-willed or flat out stupid and John August (the writer) and Doug Liman (the director) have a very low opinion of youth and their level of judgment. Claire, who seems intelligent and morally-upstanding at the beginning, allows herself to be used as collateral to Todd, uses speed, and ultimately uses her wits to arrange the almost moronic - though funny - resolution of the dilemma of Simon.

Simon is a flat-out idiot and it is problematic that so much time is spent on his character. He is not interesting to watch, yet a third of the film - at least - is his story. Simon is a loser drug dealer and it is hard to feel any empathy for his buffoonishness. Even worse, on the trip to Vegas, he is accompanied by Tiny (in a baffling element, Breckin Meyer, who played Tiny is one of the top-billed credited actors of this movie!) and Singh who are such worthless, pointless characters that they are dispatched at the earliest possible moment.

Indeed, throughout the Simon section of the movie, it is Taye Diggs' character Marcus that steals the scenes. He is interesting, reasonably intelligent and it is a shame that he was not worked into the script better. In fact, he is such a cool character, one wonders why he is hanging around such losers as Simon and Tiny. As well, seeing more of Marcus and his reactions to the hicks he runs into in Vegas would have given the movie Go a bit more depth and genuine character.

Finally, the Adam and Zack portion of the movie is interesting, but not enough to resolve the film. In fact, after their altercations with Burke and their hunt for Jimmy, their mutual lover, they disappear and the movie becomes about tying it all together. That is done by using Claire and Todd, but it is done without giving the pair a full section of their own (as Ronna, Simon and Adam and Zack are given).

What makes the film even remotely viewable is the dialog and the acting. The dialog is often funny. In fact, listening to the posers Ronna sells fake drugs to is funny as are Ronna's exploiting others the way she is exploited when she goes to get the drugs from Todd. There is a lot that is funny and the lines are well delivered.

The cast is pretty impressive. Sarah Polley does a good job of getting the viewers into the world with her strange, almost bland performance of Ronna. Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf are energetic as Zack and Adam. Katie Holmes, cute as ever, plays Claire with an interesting combination of coyness, intelligence and reason, which fails only in the writing of the character. And Timothy Olyphant portrays Todd with a wonderful mix of menace and style that makes the drug supplier one of the more interesting and watchable characters in the piece.

The film, however, is stolen by two actors: Taye Diggs and William Fichtner. Diggs plays Marcus as cool and levelheaded. He uses his limited time on screen to create a sage character that is interesting and slick. He plays the role with a looseness that is cool and he emanates an air of style. He brings a real sense of professionalism and character to the middle portion of the movie.

It is ironic, then, that in a teensploitation movie, the notable actor would be William Fichtner, who was in his forties when the movie was made. Fichtner plays Burke and he makes the role into something that is uncomfortably sleazy. Fichtner makes Burke a potential menace to Adam and Zack with leering and a wonderful control of eye movements and body language. He is a master and when his character's motives are revealed, the build-up that Fichtner has created using his tone, body language and movement, the result is one of the funniest in the work.

But, in the end, Go is probably not worth your time. Why? None of the characters are good. I am a person who loves characters who live in shades of gray or are outright evil. The problem here is there is no reference point, they are all gray and they create a piece that is more murky than interesting. None of the characters are completely likable and as a result, much of the movie hinges on individual lines and fails to come together as a piece worth repeated viewings.

The plus side? If you are into teensploitation, this gives you pretty much everything you might want, assuming you figure all teens use drugs and are incapable of ever using good judgment. And the DVD has a surprising number of extras for such a mediocre movie.

For other works with William Fitchner, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Date Night
The Dark Knight
Invasion
Ultraviolet
Mr. And Mrs. Smith
Crash

6.5/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Eh, On The Action-Adventure Front: Mr. And Mrs. Smith Fizzles.

The Good: Everything looks good
The Bad: Lack of convincing characters or acting, Predictable plot twists
The Basics: Unfit for consumption by clever individuals, Mr. And Mrs. Smith is simply another Hollywood action-adventure with nothing truly to recommend it.


Sometimes we sit down to watch a movie with the hope, the barest hope, that it will not be as terrible as we suspect it can be. Mr. And Mrs. Smith, if you want the short answer, is just as terrible as you might expect of a big-budget Hollywood, action adventure movie staring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Unlike the far better Jersey Girl, which suffered because of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's relationship off-camera, this piece of cinematic garbage apparently benefited from Jolie and Pitt's off-camera whatever.

John Smith and Jane Smith are bored with their marriage and in counseling to work on their problems. There, they recount what led them to counseling; they both learned that the other was lying to them about the same thing, in fact. Both John and Jane are hired assassins working for different companies. When one of Jane's missions is blown by John, he becomes her target and the two set out destroying just about everything in order to get to one another.

Along the way, they learn how much of their relationship was built on lies and how much genuine feeling they have for one another. And it all resolves itself in a feel-good Hallmark movie-of-the-week type way.

It's just crap. Save yourself the time and money. Better yet, watch a decent action adventure, one with brains. Spend a little more and get the first season of Alias on DVD. That's a vastly better use of your time and money. And I can say that without even knowing you. You can do better than this.

The best thing about Mr. And Mrs. Smith is that it looks good. The people are unnaturally attractive, their hair doesn't get messed up or singed off when giant explosions go off near them, and the explosions themselves look great on the DVD. This is a movie where things look good and Doug Liman, the director, hopes that will be enough.

He's wrong. First off, Simon Kinberg, the writer of this movie, should be forced to turn in his WGA card and spend the next five years selling ice cream. There was not a line of redeeming dialogue in this entire movie. The characters are utterly flat and it makes no sense whatsoever that they would spend minute after minute recounting all of the lies between them and then conclude that they should be together. This is stupid even for Hollywood fare.

The acting is all-around terrible as well. Brad Pitt supports the notion that he is simply good looking and can't act. There is none of his brilliance from 12 Monkeys (reviewed here!), none of his humor or charm from his guest appearance on Friends, nothing but a guy in a suit playing a part Keeanu Reeves could have covered just as insightfully. Angelina Jolie and Vince Vaughn (Pitt's sidekick and best friend in the movie) are dull and cringeworthy unfunny, respectively. Vaughn's appearances on screen are enough to make the viewer grab the remote to fast forward through his banal, predictable jokes and phrases.

The plot is predictable and all of the reversals that are executed, we've seen before in better works. I should try to say more that's bad about this film, but that's it. That's all there is. You have a terrible script with an inane plot, lousy dialogue delivered by actors who either can't or aren't performing and you have a lousy movie. This is it.

For other works with Michelle Monaghan, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Source Code
Mission: Impossible III
Constantine

2.5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for a complete, organized list of my movie reviews!

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Amnesiac Bond, Er, Bourne: The Bourne Identity

The Good: Acting, Character
The Bad: Plot twists were fairly obvious, Resolution (Alternate? ending)
The Basics: While entertaining and a decent example of how Matt Damon truly can act, this spy thriller fizzles with twists that are evident long before they are revealed.


If we've learned anything from the movies, it would have to be that when you lose your memory and find yourself filled with bullets, remove a laser pointer from your body to find where your safe deposit box is. It's a good thing Jason Bourne has seen the same movies to know to do these things as well. I'm fascinated by how movies with people suffering from amnesia always seem to have convenient moments for the return of their memories. Far more refreshing a film would be one where our hero (or heroine) never figures out why everyone is after them.

The Bourne Identity finds Jason Bourne not knowing even his name. He wakes up on a fishing boat, stitched together by a sailor, not knowing anything, but clearly possessing many skills. He speaks multiple languages and knows things like that, but his identity has been erased. At the bank, he acquires personal effects which clue him in on who he is. But without the full story, he does not understand why assassins are after him and he flees with the help of a woman (Marie).

So, basically, it's a spy thriller wherein the spy does not know he is a spy and he doesn't know why he is at the center of intrigue. It's not terribly hard to figure out given that early in the movie the CIA begins hunting him. Bourne is an assassin who failed to kill his mark and The Bourne Identity strives to put Jason on the track of what he was supposed to do and why he failed.

It's basically a shoot 'em up, drive fast all over type movie that has a lot of movement, but not a ton of substance. Before seeing the movie, I heard Roger Ebert's review and he liked the fact that Bourne used a map in the film. I liked that too, but it was a brief shot and very much underused. The idea that Bourne would not know a lot of things, like the specific layout of certain buildings, is an excellent idea that was not expanded upon. The story tried too hard to get him back to being an invulnerable hero-type too quickly to be believable.

Furthermore, there are supposed to be twists. Julia Styles plays a part and she is supposed to provide some of the unexpected turns in the story, but people who see lots of movies will see them coming from her. The reversals in The Bourne Identity are fairly predictable, though to be fair it's hard to do a good spy thriller these days.

What the movie does have in substance works well. Jason Bourne is interesting at the very least and Marie, a woman willing to drive a stranger for $20,000 because she needs the money, seems very real. In fact, Marie ties the movie to the viewer quite well. Despite the ridiculously long and complicated car chase, Marie makes it easy for the viewer to believe that everything we see could actually happen.

At the end of the day, it is the acting that saves The Bourne Identity. Chris Cooper has a wonderful supporting role that almost redeems his place in the awful Adaptation. (Though to be fair, he was the high point of that movie) Franka Potente plays Marie and she does it expertly. She is Hollywood beautiful, but makes the viewer believe she is desperate for money and simple and not as beautiful as her physique suggests. In short, she is in the movie for a lot more than eye candy. She has substance that makes us believe in Marie and in the extreme premises of the movie.

Matt Damon here saves much of the day with a performance that pushes his acting chops. Neither the somber protagonist from Good Will Hunting nor the smug angel from Dogma (reviewed here!) creeps into his performance. In fact, having seen interviews with Damon promoting such things as Dogma and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, his portrayal of Jason Bourne seems devoid of the actor's personality. In short, Damon successfully immerses himself in the character here and it pays off big time for him. Damon makes us believe in Bourne by the way he speaks, the way he moves and all of his other mannerisms.

So, while it is not the best spy thriller ever, it is entertaining. It's decent for a rainy day, though if you have the DVD and are intrigued by such things as the "alternate ending" advertised, you are likely to be disappointed, as the alternate ending is a minor difference from the one in the film. If you're looking to add something to your permanent collection in this genre, give Alias a chance; it has more going for it.

For other works with Brian Cox, be sure to check out my review of:
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
X-2: X-Men United
Braveheart

6/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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