by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright June 2014
I enjoyed Tom Cruise's Oblivion (my review here). It had some refreshingly different points of view on a familiar sci-fi scenario. So I was disappointed when this movie, Edge of Tomorrow, came out so silly, inconsistent and flat-out unbelievable. The Groundhog Day premise of "repeat until you get it right" was not a problem, that part worked out well. But the handling of power armor, fighting tactics, and the social relations of the soldiers were all unbelievable. The movie's saving graces are that the time looping is well handled and that Cruise and Emily Blunt are fun to watch.
The initial premise of the movie is terrible: A high-profile media-type officer is sent to become a front-line private in a risky amphibious invasion as some sort of revenge. One problem with this is that no one in the front-line collection of soldiers recognizes him. Another is why would this unit accept a completely untrained person? This is supposed to be a competent fighting group. Someone untrained would seriously screw things up. And except in hokey movies, you don't send in an "F Troop" unit as part of the front line of an invasion you want to win.
Then it gets worse. As with the Starship Troopers movie (my book review here) the tactics being portrayed during the fighting scenes make no sense! Here are just three issues I saw:
o There is no scouting and no bombardment to soften this landing zone up?
o These soldiers are clustered up nice and tight so they can be softened up easily by enemy bombardment? And they don't act as if they have combat tactics of any sort to enact. All the soldiers just sit around on the beach until they die.
o How are these power armored troops being any more effective at killing than guys with guns? In sum, they aren't. So... send guys with guns. They are a whole lot cheaper.
The way all the military is portrayed dates back to hokey World War II movies that were made in the 1960's. There is nothing modern about what is being portrayed.
Likewise, the social relations being portrayed are hokey WWII movie boot camp relations. These are not how seasoned soldiers relate or are treated -- especially not troops that have to deal with complex and expensive equipment. Keep in mind, these guys are working with equipment that equals a jet fighter in expense, complexity and killing capacity. These guys should be treated like fighter pilots.
In sum, the military portrayal just doesn't make sense. And the alien portrayal is no better. Given how badly the military and the aliens are portrayed, it is suprising how well the time looping is portrayed. In this aspect the movie handles itself well. That, and the fun of watching Cruise and Blunt interact, are the movie's saving graces.
-- The End --