The way popular culture works these days, nothing is new. Even one of the summer’s very few new intellectual properties, Edge of Tomorrow, looks suspiciously familiar. Although it’s based on the novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, the new sci-fi thriller from director Doug Liman is perhaps most easily described as “Groundhog Day with aliens.” Tom Cruise is stuck in a time loop at the start of an alien invasion, and as he relives the same day over and over again, he finds himself becoming exactly the warrior Earth needs to survive the attack. Unlike all the supehero sequels and reboots competing for your attentions in Summer 2014, there hasn’t been as much attention focused on Edge of Tomorrow leading up to its June 6 release date because, unless you’ve read the book (and most Americans haven’t), there’s been nothing to compare it to, and very little speculate about.
But let’s not let Edge of Tomorrow off the hook that easily. The plot may not be such a known quantity, and we can’t really worry about how Liman’s film will depict characters we all have been following for years, but the film’s release raises a series of questions that fans and Hollywood insiders are going to be asking themselves until audiences worldwide cast their votes by buying their tickets. Will Edge of Tomorrow rule or suck? That’ll have to wait for the review, but how will it impact the summer and the careers of the talent involved…? That’s an important part of Our Five Questions About Edge of Tomorrow.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Edge of Tomorrow: Our Five Questions
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Is Tom Cruise Still a Movie Star?
Tom Cruise is still household name - although not necessarily for all the right reasons - but is he still a "movie star?" A movie star can actually open a movie: audiences will turn out just to see him or her, whatever they're doing. But Tom Cruise hasn't had a hit movie that wasn't a Mission: Impossible sequel in nine years. Will audiences really want to see him in a movie that isn't already part of a franchise that they care about? Come to think of it...
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Can ANY Original Action Movie Make Money This Summer?
There are very, very few big prospective blockbusters coming out this summer that aren't already part of a franchise, or based on an existing, already time-tested intellectual property. Edge of Tomorrow and Jupiter Ascending are the only ones that anyone expects to set the box office on fire, but they still look like a gamble, with strange conceits and movie stars that haven't headlined a successful, and original, huge action extravaganza in years (if ever). Edge of Tomorrow isn't opening against any major action movies on the first weekend of June, so it will probably win the weekend, but the competition will stack up quickly. Can it penetrate the marketplace enough to justify its reported $178 million budget, especially considering our concerns about the director...?
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Is Doug Liman REALLY a Blockbuster Director?
Hollywood thinks of Doug Liman as box office royalty... but why? He directed The Bourne Identity, which changed the action movie landscape but was beset by ridiculous production problems, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith made money too despite more hellish woes on the set. But two hit movies that feel like happy accidents doesn't make him a reliable blockbuster storyteller. Jumper was a complete misfire, and the rest of his movies are well-regarded indies about disenfranchised youths and a good-but-forgotten biopic about Valerie Plame. Is action really his wheelhouse? Are the studios desperately trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by making him direct a movie with iffy stars in a rocky release landscape with a premise that seems distractingly familiar to everyone and their moms? And about that premise...
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Has ANYONE Forgotten About Groundhog Day?
Nobody has been able to talk about Edge of Tomorrow without bringing up Groundhog Day, a movie with essentially the same premise but play for laughs instead of seriousness. The comparison may not matter once you're actually in the theater, but will audiences be able to shake the obvious comparison out of their heads long enough to seriously consider buying a ticket in the first place? "Groundhog Day with Tom Cruise and aliens" doesn't SOUND like a big hit, but then again neither does the generic moniker Edge of Tomorrow. Which brings us to our final point...
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Couldn't They Come Up With a Better Title?
As a title, Edge of Tomorrow sucks. If you found out that Channing Tatum was starring in a romantic drama called Edge of Tomorrow, wouldn't that make just as much sense to you? If not more? What's worse, Edge of Tomorrow is based on a book by Hiroshi Sakurazaka called All You Need is Kill. Isn't that title more evocative? Wouldn't you be more inclined to see a movie based on that title alone more than you would something vaguely named Edge of Tomorrow? Hell, even the tag line for the motion picture - "Live. Die. Repeat." - would make a better title. Sheesh. Get with the program, Hollywood.
