For some reason I decided to re-watch “Edge of Tomorrow”, which happened to be an adaptation of the ranobe “All You Need Is Kill” by Sakurazaka Hiroshi. So, here is what I think about it.
Opening
So, what do we have for an “opening” in this movie? We have a sequence of clips,
most of which are clearly taken straight from YouTube. And they are so horribad
that for me this opening almost ended up being an “ending” as well.
No, I am not talking about video quality that is on par with YouTube@144p and
aspect ratio pulled out of someone’s ass. I have a problem with the way content
was used. Just look at this:
They show an AlJazeera report (and a bunch of other videos) on meteor that hit
Chelyabinsk (Russia) and say it is an alien attack on Hamburg (Germany)…
Who the fuck came up with this masterpiece? （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I simply refuse to believe that something even remotely similar was present in
Sakurazaka Hiroshi’s original work.
Movie
Regardless of what I said above, the movie is great!
For me, Tom Cruise associates with fighting aliens so he fits really well here.
As for Emily Blunt, as it turns out, I haven’t seen most of the movies where she
appeared. But in this case she was quite cute and I liked her character.
Overall I like the story. It is great that it doesn’t try to explain things that
it would fail to explain anyway. No things like “aliens came from Mars” or
“they have slept underground and now they woke up”. Instead it focuses on the
current problems.
The idea of a being, hive mind or not, that can “reset a day” is quite
entertaining. And I always wanted (still want more) to see a guy going through
pain and suffering, jumping back in time over and over again to save a girl.
Of course it is not exactly like that. It appears to be a multi-dimensional
(more than 4) creature that evolved to perceive time dimension differently and
be able to move in both its directions. Which is pretty consistent with the way
things have ended. Also there is a save-the-world factor, not just a girl, but
still quite close.
The only thing I am not 100% happy about is a conclusion and in general I think they could’ve stick-in a tiny bit more romance in there. But hey, I was prepared for the worse!
BTW, I really liked the lyrics of the ending song:
… I need to know now
Know now, can you love me again?
This was exactly my question during the movie’s last scene! （●’□’）♡
Ranobe
I haven’t read the original ranobe.
Reading (mostly) pure text is not really my thing. But I have really considered
listening to an audiobook. I was kinda skeptical about audio part so decided
to check what people say about it. Here are some comments on
All You Need Is Kill / Edge of Tomorrow (Movie Tie-in Edition):
I got this some time ago, when I first listened to it I loved it. Then audible changed the book without asking or my permission to this movie tie-in edition. It took out a big part of the book showing the main characters training. The book is lacking now, nothing like the story I originally bought and loved. Shame on audible
I think the choice of reader might have been influenced too much by the heavily Americanized movie. Too gravelly to pass as the everyman Japanese soldier. Pronounciation of Japanese was atrocious, highlighting a poor casting choice and lack of background work. Despite these problems, the Japanese style shines through, laced with tropes instantly recognizable to friends of Japanese pop culture.
And indeed, after listening to it for a bit I would say that this dude sounds like
a 40+ years smoker and would do a better job narrating American movie trailers.
Of course there are positive reviews too but I suspect they come from people that
have significantly different standards. As for me, things described in the quotes
above are a real show-stopper.
As indicated in the 1st quote, there should be an older version of the audiobook
that would possibly suit me better, but after some googling, I haven’t found any
traces of it.