It has been six months since my last blog post here. I should apologize for that, but I've been pretty busy both with the guest author blog at Wordhorse.co.uk and editing my latest sci-fi novel due out soon. As the weather was bad yesterday I went to the movies and thought I'd post my impressions on Edge of Tomorrow.
Under the current Hollywood system, it's hard to make a decent film. Tom Cruise's latest, the Edge of Tomorrow, beats the odds and succeeds brilliantly. I won't spoil the film for those who have not seen it, but it is essentially a cross of the good parts of Groundhog Day and Starship Troopers. A man must relive the same horrible battle day after day to try and defeat an alien invasion.
The specials effects were very well done, but beyond that, the story worked on many levels. Without that decent plot, the movie would have fallen flat even with the combo of Tom Cruise - Emily Blunt.
Romance scenes between the lead characters were limited, thankfully. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-romance, but a love scene in an action movie is like a high speed car chase in The Piano. It adds nothing and distracts from the core purpose of the movie. Ben Affleck's Pearl Harbor being a perfect example of what not to do.
The supporting cast of the film (J Squad) was not your typical group. They were chosen to portray a group of misfits and that largely successed. The one disappointment was Bill Paxton playing a drill sergeant. I'm not sure if it was the make-up, uniform, or Paxton's portrayal of the character, but he didn't seem to execute the character very well. I kept seeing Bill Paxton in a fake mustache rather than a drill sergeant. However, that was the only miss in an otherwise excellent film.
Director Doug Liman has a limited filmography, but has successfully knocked the ball out of the park with Edge of Tomorrow. If I needed a director for Predation, he'd be on the short list. I'll be looking out for future movies from this director.
I rate Edge of Towmorrow as 9 out of 10 on the Simon scale.
Under the current Hollywood system, it's hard to make a decent film. Tom Cruise's latest, the Edge of Tomorrow, beats the odds and succeeds brilliantly. I won't spoil the film for those who have not seen it, but it is essentially a cross of the good parts of Groundhog Day and Starship Troopers. A man must relive the same horrible battle day after day to try and defeat an alien invasion.
The specials effects were very well done, but beyond that, the story worked on many levels. Without that decent plot, the movie would have fallen flat even with the combo of Tom Cruise - Emily Blunt.
Romance scenes between the lead characters were limited, thankfully. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-romance, but a love scene in an action movie is like a high speed car chase in The Piano. It adds nothing and distracts from the core purpose of the movie. Ben Affleck's Pearl Harbor being a perfect example of what not to do.
The supporting cast of the film (J Squad) was not your typical group. They were chosen to portray a group of misfits and that largely successed. The one disappointment was Bill Paxton playing a drill sergeant. I'm not sure if it was the make-up, uniform, or Paxton's portrayal of the character, but he didn't seem to execute the character very well. I kept seeing Bill Paxton in a fake mustache rather than a drill sergeant. However, that was the only miss in an otherwise excellent film.
Director Doug Liman has a limited filmography, but has successfully knocked the ball out of the park with Edge of Tomorrow. If I needed a director for Predation, he'd be on the short list. I'll be looking out for future movies from this director.
I rate Edge of Towmorrow as 9 out of 10 on the Simon scale.
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