Hey youtubers it's Charlie and I had a chance to see Edge of Tomorrow earlier this week
so that's why I'm posting this so early. I'm also working on an Emily Blunt Catwoman video.
But I wanted to post this first so you understand why her becoming the new Catwoman might be
a really awesome thing.
Because most of you probably haven't seen the movie I'm going to do a non-spoilery review
first then I'll let you know when we get to spoilers in case you want to wait to watch
that part. If you're just finding me for the first time, since we're in the middle of the
summer movie season I'm doing reviews of the stuff I'm really excited about like Fault
In Our Stars, How To Train Your Dragon and so on. Be sure to subscribe to get everything
and feel free to suggest movies to me.
The screening I went to was up at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The really big one where
they do a lot of movie premiere's. Tom Cruise surprised everyone at the end and answered
a bunch of questions. Just the screening itself was a lot of fun. I posted a bunch of pictures
of it on twitter and instagram.
The last big Tom Cruise science fiction movie I saw was Oblivion, which looked amazing,
but didn't really make me cheer out loud at the end. The director of that movie was the
guy that did Tron Legacy, this movie is a whole different team of people with the addition
of Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton. And they made all the difference. Hail Hydra.
It's like Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day. And what do those movies have in common.
They both science fiction and they both do comedy really well. Which is one of the first
things I noticed about this movie.
I had a really easy time connecting with the characters, and the way they play with the
conceit of time is pretty cool. The macguffin, it's all on the posters. Live Die Repeat.
It's like video game logic. You try a strategy, get squished and respawn so you can try again.
It doesn't get so stuck on the way that whole thing works that it stops being fun. But I
could make a whole video about the way that Respawn Time Travel stuff is used. Because
it's really fascinating the way they chose to explain it.
Tom Cruise said at that screening that he didn't even think of it as a movie about an
alien attack, it's like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day where the whole movie revolves around
his perspective as it changes with each respawn.
Emily Blunt also became my new number one badass movie female of the summer. Lady Brienne
will always rule the bear pit on my TV. But Blunt works so well in this time loop. Tom
Cruise is the one who changes a lot each time, so it creates a lot of opportunities to use
those respawns for comedy.
But the setup for her character is so great, it reminded me of the first time Woody learned
about Buzz Lightyear. Tom Cruise being Woody. Her face is on everything and she's like the
most elite of the elite. Which makes the respawn jokes so much funnier.
I feel like the humor is really what's going to make the movie fun to watch more than once.
And there aren't a lot of movies I watch twice anymore.
The only other non-spoilery thing that I want to mention is Bill Paxton. This year has been
good to him. First he literally killed it on Agents of SHIELD, Hail Hydra. In this movie
he's the character that conveys the entire narrative. Like the speech or turn of phrase
that might not seem super important at first, but then later ends up being what the whole
movie was about.
So when you go see the movie, pay very careful attention to what Bill Paxton says. He's also
really funny too. As expected. Don't be surprised if you get flashes of his Hudson character
from Aliens.
The only thing I would have liked to see was more backstory for Emily Blunt's character.
We learn a lot about her, but because this is a Tom Cruise movie, the vast majority of
camera time is spent on him. She does get some pretty awesome scenes though.
So time for my Top 5 moments. So here's where we get into spoilers so careful if you haven't
seen it yet. But here we got Number 5 - Asshole Tom Cruise
I'm talking about the beginning of the movie, before he's sucked into the Time Loop and
starts the Joseph Campbell hero's journey. If you've never heard about it it's just a
narrative structure that all major Hero stories share in common. So whenever big budget movies
are made, they stick to all the different stages in this picture.
Asshole Tom Cruise versus the general was just funny enough that I didn't hate his character
and watching him get his ass handed to him that whole first loop was a lot of fun.
Number 4 - Just the editing in general
I loved the way they would hard cut to make things funnier. They really only used it each
time he died. Each new time it happened, the slam to him waking up on the pallet got just
a little bit funnier.
Usually editing isn't something you're supposed to notice. Like the better an editor is, the
less you think about the transitions between scenes. I think they did a good job of subverting
that with the respawns.
Number 3 - Buzz Lightyear Emily Blunt
Just to be clear, Buzz Lightyear is funny because he's kind of an idiot. I'm talking
about that very first time we the audience meet her. Her face is on all the billboards
and the news casters all talk about her like she's so amazing the army has made her their
public face. She's like the biggest badass ever.
Even when Tom Cruise starts to get better, he's still not as good of a fighter as she
is. So in a real way, she's the biggest badass of the Summer, which is a lot of vindication.
She's missed out on being in a ton of huge badass movie roles.
I'll talk about it more in my Batman vs Superman video tonight, but she was originally supposed
to be Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and she was supposed to be Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's
Dark Knight Returns. But it just didn't happen, so finally she gets the chance to be that
Buzz Lightyear character. Minus the part about him being really dumb.
Number 2 - Asshole Tom Cruise becomes Badass Tom Cruise
The hero montage was just as much fun as the funny montages. And a lot of times those two
things became the same thing. Like Emily Blunt forcing constant respawns by shooting him
in the head.
I think my favorite badass time loop was the last one they did on the beach. When he's
doing cartwheels and jumping around Bill Paxton and the other J Company people and they just
sit there with their jaws open in disbelief.
What was his name again?
And my number 1 favorite thing about the movie is Tom Cruise as Kenny from South Park.
They don't ever explicitly say how many times he's died, Emily Blunt only made it to about
300. But I think he died way more. And after about the first 30 minutes of the movie he
turns into Kenny from South Park and you start laughing each time he dies.
That's really what's going to make this a fun movie to watch again. For example, Groundhog
Day is one of the most re-played movies in history. It's constantly on television somewhere.
That movie's great for a lot of other reasons, but I such a nerd for comedy I always get
really excited when a science fiction movie that's as dark as this can make me laugh a
lot.
So now it's your turn. Let me know what your favorite part was? All the respawns or one
of the characters?
My biggest question after it all is does Tom Cruise now have mega time travel powers. Like
he got Alpha Blood and was able to control resets for the very specific time point. Then
at the end he got the Omega's blood and was able to go back even further in time.
I think the explanation is that the organism was like the time machine and the blood was
like the key. So because the Omega died, Tom Cruise won't be able to respawn anymore.
Before they explained the time travel stuff I thought that the General or some other person
was spying for the aliens.
But, as I mentioned about Emily Blunt. She was supposed to be a bunch of big action hero
characters and it never worked out. Now she's in talks to be the new Catwoman in Zack Snyders
Batman vs Superman movie. Obviously that would go on to Justice League etcetera.
I'll be posting that video tonight explaining the whole situation. Be sure to subscribe
to get it. I'm also seeing Fault in Our Stars tonight. So that review will probably post
Friday.
Right now click here for my big Star Wars Episode 7 update and click here for my Maleficent
Review. Spoiler Alert Angelina Jolie was amazing.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tonight. High fives!