Edge of Tomorrow
Oct. 18th, 2014 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackComparing book and film
I finally saw Edge of Tomorrow (thanks Bug!)
The film did a very good job at bringing out the key elements of the story into a coherent narrative. Exactly how the groundhog-day effect works was a bit unclear to me in the book, but the film unfolded it very well, both implicitly establishing the rules, and how the main character learned to exploit them, and having a helpful explanation. It set the setting and history extremely well with a brief montage of news clips at the beginning.
Changing the book's soldier with some experience in the army but no combat experience with fighting suits to Cruise's (excellently played) Smarmy Git Spindoctor Major with no combat training or experience at all was an excellent decision, it emphasises all the import things even more when the main character is starting further behind but learns as well, both how to win battles and also how to be a decent person, which wasn't in the book.
The major disappointment is in no way a surprise, that the setting and cast was hollywood-ised and whitewashed. It was more diverse than many other films. But the main character was replaced from Japanese to American. Rita was similarly reluctant-badass-soldier, but maybe less butch. The setting was transplanted from Asia to Europe, as were the nationality of most of the other troops the main character meets. Rita's female helper is gone, the nearest corresponding character is the (lovely but stereotypical) scientist.
What worked very well
It established the premises very well! It showed the first few loops, and Cage learning to handle it, and key moments from others, but also conveyed the process of learning very well with small moments showing the results: eg. Cage dissuading a fight by learning to close his eyes and still dodge the assailant, we only see the result, eg. the first few times Cage learns in a couple of tries how to save a squadmate from a falling ship, but when he's learning how to defeat the whole battle, we see him ignore the situation.
It was interesting and fun and occaisonally tense, watching Cage learn to handle stuff. And moving every time something harked back to an earlier scene.
What I would have changed
To me, it hadn't been stated at all that killing an Omega would skip two days backwards, so the ending felt like a deus-ex-machina (even though as soon as rita died and the camera lingered, I assumed there'd be a deus ex machina from somewhere). I would have put in some foreshadowing, that *something* might happen when you kill an Omega without saying what.
The film had very brief forshadowing that the aliens seemed to know what humanity would do, I would have made that more explicit, so discovering the looping reveals what was going on with that more explicitly.
I would have clarified what happens if Cruise survives the day, does he reset, or does he loose the opportunity to do so, or does he live for thirty years and then reset?
When Cage was not-killed at the Dam, he should have started carrying a dead man's switch in dangerous situations, I would have made that explicit, and had the tense thing about Washington be that he tried to activate it as soon as he had a vision and knew the answer was Paris, but was prevented somehow. Or in fact, resetting after that point and _then_ loosing the ability to reset might have been better, so it wasn't so implausible they got to washington, and back, in a day, and still had time for a drop mission.
It also seemed odd that Cage wasn't terrified of death after he got out of the loop, at least for a bit -- he's so used to relying on his immunity, I would have thought he'd be paralysed, not still blithely gunning things down.
In fact, it might make more sense if he killed the omega in the loop, and _that_ freed him, but then he and Rita had to fight their way to kill the alpha the hard way, and killing the alpha was the win-switch?
Interesting thoughts
I would have loved to see more little funny moments, of him having five minutes to kill and learning to juggle, or suchlike.
And other ways of playing with the concept, like head games with other people in the know guessing whether he'd been on this loop before.
I finally saw Edge of Tomorrow (thanks Bug!)
The film did a very good job at bringing out the key elements of the story into a coherent narrative. Exactly how the groundhog-day effect works was a bit unclear to me in the book, but the film unfolded it very well, both implicitly establishing the rules, and how the main character learned to exploit them, and having a helpful explanation. It set the setting and history extremely well with a brief montage of news clips at the beginning.
Changing the book's soldier with some experience in the army but no combat experience with fighting suits to Cruise's (excellently played) Smarmy Git Spindoctor Major with no combat training or experience at all was an excellent decision, it emphasises all the import things even more when the main character is starting further behind but learns as well, both how to win battles and also how to be a decent person, which wasn't in the book.
The major disappointment is in no way a surprise, that the setting and cast was hollywood-ised and whitewashed. It was more diverse than many other films. But the main character was replaced from Japanese to American. Rita was similarly reluctant-badass-soldier, but maybe less butch. The setting was transplanted from Asia to Europe, as were the nationality of most of the other troops the main character meets. Rita's female helper is gone, the nearest corresponding character is the (lovely but stereotypical) scientist.
What worked very well
It established the premises very well! It showed the first few loops, and Cage learning to handle it, and key moments from others, but also conveyed the process of learning very well with small moments showing the results: eg. Cage dissuading a fight by learning to close his eyes and still dodge the assailant, we only see the result, eg. the first few times Cage learns in a couple of tries how to save a squadmate from a falling ship, but when he's learning how to defeat the whole battle, we see him ignore the situation.
It was interesting and fun and occaisonally tense, watching Cage learn to handle stuff. And moving every time something harked back to an earlier scene.
What I would have changed
To me, it hadn't been stated at all that killing an Omega would skip two days backwards, so the ending felt like a deus-ex-machina (even though as soon as rita died and the camera lingered, I assumed there'd be a deus ex machina from somewhere). I would have put in some foreshadowing, that *something* might happen when you kill an Omega without saying what.
The film had very brief forshadowing that the aliens seemed to know what humanity would do, I would have made that more explicit, so discovering the looping reveals what was going on with that more explicitly.
I would have clarified what happens if Cruise survives the day, does he reset, or does he loose the opportunity to do so, or does he live for thirty years and then reset?
When Cage was not-killed at the Dam, he should have started carrying a dead man's switch in dangerous situations, I would have made that explicit, and had the tense thing about Washington be that he tried to activate it as soon as he had a vision and knew the answer was Paris, but was prevented somehow. Or in fact, resetting after that point and _then_ loosing the ability to reset might have been better, so it wasn't so implausible they got to washington, and back, in a day, and still had time for a drop mission.
It also seemed odd that Cage wasn't terrified of death after he got out of the loop, at least for a bit -- he's so used to relying on his immunity, I would have thought he'd be paralysed, not still blithely gunning things down.
In fact, it might make more sense if he killed the omega in the loop, and _that_ freed him, but then he and Rita had to fight their way to kill the alpha the hard way, and killing the alpha was the win-switch?
Interesting thoughts
I would have loved to see more little funny moments, of him having five minutes to kill and learning to juggle, or suchlike.
And other ways of playing with the concept, like head games with other people in the know guessing whether he'd been on this loop before.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-18 02:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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