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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Movies -> 
Edge of Tomorrow
    2014-06-06  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Tom Cruise stars in this cleverly crafted and propulsively executed sci-fi thriller about a soldier forced to relive the same day over and over again.

    “GROUNDHOG Day” and “Starship Troopers” make surprisingly compatible bedfellows in “Edge of Tomorrow,” a cleverly crafted and propulsively executed sci-fi thriller in which an untrained soldier must relive the same day over and over again — expiring violently each time — until he finds a way to defeat the alien marauders that have taken Earth hostage.

    This enjoyably gimmicky entertainment is not only one of Tom Cruise’s better recent efforts, it’s also arguably the most purely pleasurable film Doug Liman has directed in the 12 years since “The Bourne Identity.”

    Just as the amnesiac hero of that movie had to gradually get back in touch with his inner killing machine, so the initially hapless, aptly named Maj. William Cage (Cruise) must spend the better part of “Edge of Tomorrow” learning to unlock the ruthless soldier within.

    Introduced as a smiling representative of the United Defense Force, an enormous military operation designed to defend Earth against a nearly invincible alien race known as Mimics, Cage is a figurehead, not a fighter, which is why he’s so dumbfounded when Gen. Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) orders him into the front lines of battle, even going so far as to arrest him when he tries to wriggle his way out.

    Despite Cage’s vigorous protests to his commanding officer (Bill Paxton) that there’s been some mistake, his fate is sealed: Strapped into bulky metal combat gear and equipped with high-grade weaponry that he has no clue how to operate.

    Cage, along with his fellow soldiers, is deployed from London and deposited, none too gently, on a French beach, where a fiery humans-vs.-Mimics battle is raging at full force.

    Through sheer dumb luck, Cage does manage to destroy one particularly ugly, oversized Mimic, only to lose his own life when he gets a faceful of the creature’s highly corrosive blood.

    End of movie? Not quite. To his utter disbelief, Cage awakens to find that the day has started all over again, and once more he must attempt to talk his way out of the situation, get dropped into battle and try to survive the bloodbath on the beach as long as he can. Every time he dies, the clock is reset and he gets another chance to reshape the future, though it will take many, many replays before he learns how to navigate this particular cinematic videogame — where dying is as harmless as it is in “Candy Crush,” if rather more painful — and reach the elusive next level.

    The screenplay was adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s much-lauded 2004 novel “All You Need Is Kill” by Christopher McQuarrie, who knows his way around a mind-bending mystery scenario (“The Usual Suspects”), and by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, who previously worked with Liman on “Fair Game.”

    Crucially, the scribes have solved the problem of how not to make the film play like a repetitive slog; aided enormously by James Herbert and Laura Jennings’ snappy, intuitive editing, they tell their story in a breezy narrative shorthand, transforming what must surely be an unbelievably tedious gauntlet for our hero into a deft, playful and continually involving viewing experience.

    Over time, Cage figures out that, rather than try to warn his fellow soldiers that he has seen the future or fight his way off the beach, his best tactic will be to track down UDF’s star soldier Rita (Emily Blunt) before the battle begins. And sure enough, Rita not only immediately understands and believes what he’s telling her, but also has a trusty scientist friend (Noah Taylor) on hand who can at least partly explain how Cage, at the precise moment of killing the Mimic, became locked in a cycle of eternal recurrence. It’s at this point that the picture really spreads its wings, slowly illuminating the nutty rules that govern its futuristic universe, while also allowing Cage and Rita to break free of each day’s restrictive pattern in search of a stealthier, more effective plan of attack.

    Following his creditable if unremarkable work in “Jack Reacher” and “Oblivion,” Cruise is in particularly appealing form here, in no small part because the role is one he can ease himself into. Although he’s initially slick and confident, qualities the actor could embody in his sleep, Cage is soon revealed as a hopeless, ineffectual soldier trying to stay alive, and Cruise embodies this struggle with a refreshing lack of vanity that makes his eventual awesomeness feel genuinely earned, rather than a foregone conclusion.

    Blunt is alert, energized and emotionally present in a none-too-taxing role; while a bit more action for Rita would not have gone awry, the pleasure of “Edge of Tomorrow” is that it’s not an action movie first and foremost, but rather a cheeky little puzzle picture in expensive-looking blockbuster drag.

    The picture is released in 2-D and 3-D. It is now being screened in Shenzhen. (SD-Agencies)

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