Yesterday, Warner
Brother's released a trailer for the new summer Tom Cruise summer
sci-fi romp “Edge of Tomorrow” (not to be confused with “Edge of Darkness” or
“Edge of Glory”). The upcoming Doug Liman directed feature was adapted from a
light Japanese novel by the name of “All You Need Is Kill” (written by Hiroshi
Sakurazaka). Now, let that sink in a minute. Think of how awesome that title is
for a second, and now express immediate disappointment that the title is now
the remarkably bland “Edge of Tomorrow”. The cool title gods wept this day. At
least the title would have been memorable. Or, heck, go with the video-game
conceits and just call it “Respawn” or something of the like.
The trailer’s premise
is actually quite interesting (taking inspiration from “Groundhog Day” and
mecha-anime tropes), focusing on Bill Cage, a soldier who finds himself stuck
in a time warp of some kind, reliving a day in which his military deployment
battles a battalion of cephalopod-inspired alien creatures. Each time he dies,
he finds himself right back where he started, right about to get on a military
transport to the skirmish. Emily Blunt, she of the pretty face, plays a fellow
soldier who can process and sense his looping predicament.
This looks like a neat
little role for Cruise, playing a scared, meek soldier who is initially out of
his element, but through some Blunt training, ends up becoming a fearsome
battle-lord. This kind of role gives Cruise the chance to flash his innate
vulnerable aura whilst being able to be a badass by the time the picture is
over. I have always been a massive fan of Cruise – one of the most consistently
great movie stars we have had in the modern era – and this role seems to be
playing to his strengths.
One of the most
interesting features of the film is how distinctly Japanese it feels (it bleeds
anime tropes). Looking at Blunt’s Cloud sword (Final Fantasy 7) to the
appearance of mecha-suits, to the tentacled villain hordes, this production
hits on a rising trend in Hollywood, where they are trying to encroach on the
Asian markets. Today, big-budget Hollywood tent-poles have half of their
revenue generated from foreign markets (especially the Asian market), so, we
are seeing more and more instances of filmmakers utilizing international
influences that might appeal to international audiences. We saw this with
“Pacific Rim”, which was meant to appeal to anime/”Transformers” crowd (where
they recouped nearly enough for a sequel green light in the Asian territories),
with “Iron Man 3”, which shot specialty footage for the Chinese to ensure they
got to get on that market’s screens, and many other examples. It will be
interesting seeing what international elements absorb into Hollywood pictures
over the coming years.
The trailer is very
well put together, with a wonderful little vocoder ditty that gives the images
a degree of propulsion. There are lots of neat hero shots of Cruise (a very Michael
Bay-influenced one plays after the “Tom Cruise” intertitle shows), we get a
good sense of the general milieu of the galactic brawls, all dirt and grime
punctuated by bright globs of pastel orange. Thankfully, the mech-suits of a
weight and heft to them (they look like they would take some effort to get used
to them), a little clunky in a way in which you would imagine an enhanced
robot-suit might be. The “Live,” “Die,” “Repeat” title cards are a fantastic
little conceit, giving a sense of the endless, cyclical nature of military
combat (or war in general), and giving the trailer a propulsive little marching
beat. Some stand out shots include Cruise walking on a chalky grey battlefield
alone, the little shot, reverse shot of Cruise and Blunt looking at one another
as amber light dances across their faces (as Cruise’s mask visor begins to
creep down), and the little shot thrown in of Cruise on his motorcycle (can’t
be a Cruise vehicle without a motorcycle).
This could just be a case of a trailer disguising a poor,
schlocky work, but there is something in the general mood (not somber, but
rather mournful in an appropriate way) and visual makeup that make me hope for
a rollicking little genre piece. But even if it turns out bad, no worries,
he’ll have endless chances to make better of his situation.
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