dangrdafne says: So we finally got around to watching the Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise feature originally called
Edge of Tomorrow but then released on DVD/Blu-Ray as
Live, Die, Repeat.
Whichever name you call it, I call it great. I admit that I always seem to like Tom Cruise movies but this time I hardly remembered he was in it. Emily Blunt stole the show for me. She was amazing. She was strong, vulnerable, smart and cocky. I loved her character and her portrayal of her. I have never read the manga this movie is based on but I definitely didn't need to in order to follow along and enjoy the story. I was worried how many times I was going to have watch certain scenes but that went away quickly as the story moved forward without distraction. It is a very clever premise and the movie told the story well.
I did call this a mini Pacific Rim, however I didn't really like Pacific Rim but I definitely liked this movie. It is great eye candy for the action and I definitely enjoyed watching Emily's character have to shoot Tom's character quite a few times. She definitely seemed to enjoy this aspect of the movie ;)
Overall I give the movie 4.5 paws:
brainwise says: Of the two of us, I'm the only one who read the source material:
All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Er, actually, I read Takeshi Obata's
manga adaption. Still, that slightly influences my impression of the film with Blunt and Cruise. But only slightly. I'll focus on three of the differences.
The biggest difference between the novel (or manga) and the film is also its most creative: Writing the 50-year-old Tom Cruise as the jaded and cowardly PR hack, William Cage. This was a good way to get around the fact that Cruise was three decades older than the 20-year-old aimless and anxious protagonist,
Keiji Kiriya, who actually appears in the novel. And although I always tend to see "Tom Cruise" rather than the character he is supposed to be portraying, I actually found him pretty entertaining in this role. Cruise's Cage also has far more interaction with Rita Vrataski than Kiriya does in the book. But that works because we, as the viewers, also get more time with Rita.
Speaking of
Rita Vrataski, Emily Blunt's portrayal in the movie is also very different from the novel or manga. For one, Blunt is older than her novel's counterpart, and the Rita she portrays has not been involved in as many battles. Still, as dangrdafne said above, Blunt was pretty damn amazing in the film and I couldn't take my eyes off her whenever she was on the screen. Her Rita was powerful, sure of herself (for the most part), and able to handle the chaos of battle, almost bending it to her will. I do wish she would have had something
closer to the axe used in the book instead of the sword she had in the movie, but the sword worked fine. Unfortunately, in the movie, we did not get the scene where we learn why Rita uses a bladed weapon (instead of the rail gun) which then encourages Kiriya to get his own -- the reason being, the axe doesn't jam or run out of battery power.
The movie version of the enemy -- the unrelenting
mimics -- is also very different from that of the novel. And here, as in the script change to accommodate Cruise's casting, the change is successful. In the movie, the mimics are somewhat amorphous, tentacled killing machines. They are so much scarier and impressive this way! The battle scenes have enough action, tension, and humor to keep them interesting (which is good because the time-travel/reset angle means you have to view some of these scenes over and over), and the deadly seriousness of the mimics portrayal definitely provides the correct sense of the stakes involved.
There are a few other differences in plot and characters, but you can find other sites that will take you through all of those changes point by point. Besides, if I do that, I'll spoil the ending of the film (or the book) for you, and I don't want to do that. Suffice to say that the movie looks great, the main characters are acted well, and I was entertained. I would definitely watch it again!
I give the movie 4 paws!
(If I had not read the manga, I would have rated it 4.5 paws)
