Edge of Tomorrow - Quicky Review! - SPOILERS

If you've been to the cinema recently, you've most likely been barraged with Edge of Tomorrow trailers and advertisements. Normally I would go off them gradually, although with this, I felt compelled to go see it. The trailer looked better after I saw it a few times and with Tom Cruise's success in Oblivion and many other Sci-fi movies, I knew it would be a good watch.

In recent months we have seen comets flying over the sky of Russia and many other places on the news. Using the footage, Edge of Tomorrow has built upon the idea that they harbour life. However, this life is a little less microscopic and a little more giant, rip your face off and swing you round like a piñata big. Eventually the spread of these monsters has led to the European mainland becoming alien HQ. Much like the D-Day landing in WW2, England send troops over to the beaches of Normandy to push a seemingly weak army back into the stone age. Not all goes to plan and our protagonist --Cage, ends up dead, only to repeat the day continuously until he can find a way to end this war and the slaughter of the humans for good. The story reeks of Nolan's signature psychological games and most likely takes reference from him. With the increasingly bad K-D ratio of Cage rising steadily, he seeks help from the poster girl of this war. The Iron Bitch/Rita soon is able to sympathise with him as she has experienced the same. After a particularly jarring training scene we learn that there is a master key that if destroyed, will kill these aliens for good and they embark on a giant adventure to blow it the hell up. Without releasing a lot of information and ruining it, the story is surprisingly solid. It's engaging and the continual death toll of Cage and the repeat beatings he gets forces the same emotions of stress and anxiety that he feels. Just slightly less damaging and without the months lost...

Apart from the movies solid story, it cannot stand on that alone. After all, it is a sci-fi. Visually the movie looks wonderful. Although I can see many of the scenes being filmed on green screens, the general flow of everything going on made it bearable. Everything looked great but I do have to question the designers of those creatures. They are nightmarishly scary. If I was ever to dream something like that up, I would get myself checked. They looked amazing and did instil fear with the rapid movement and screeching. Now with the barrage of deaths, a personal favourite was acid being dropped on Cage which was brutal to watch but I may have giggled a little bit. Fighting with non-existent creatures isn't very easy so when they are being flung about, its animated brilliantly.

There isn't really not much more for me to say. Yeah sure, the acting wasn't the best but what can you expect. It's Tom Cruise in a Sci-fi movie. We come for fun action scenes where humanity fights against an alien terror and kicks some ass with it wrapped up nicely at the end. The fact that the story was good (perhaps generic in the genre) and looked great made at all the better. In the sci-fi genre, Edge of Tomorrow deserves 8/10. It's a full on fun movie with plenty of twists and turns that keep you guessing! Go see it! Seeing it's Wednesday, Orange Wednesday it!

Oblivion Movie Review! -TINY SPOILERS-

Opening earlier today, I rushed to to local Vue cinema to watch this badass film on their Xtreme screen! There are small spoilers in this review.

In the opening of Oblivion, we are given snap shots of a memory from Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), skipping throughout the huge landscapes pan shots. The CGI never looked out of place and looked exceptionally real when you are moving at pace. Robots and other set pieces look brilliant and lifelike even when they are manipulated by CGI for certain scenes. Then you have the set locations, these contrast between new and old, from a library to a lavish, modern house of the top of a huge tower.

To the action! At the start of the film, there is very little action and that continues most of the way through. Oblivion feels more of a Sci-fi thriller but for a 12A audience which restricts the amount of violence we could have seen if it was for an older audience, but it does have many twists and turns that catch you off guard and force you to piece the puzzle together on your way home.

The director; Joseph Kosinski, who also directed Tron Legacy, shows his stunning camera techniques and framing ability. Alongside the rest of his talent, directing a combat scene with no dialogue (or screaming) between the characters, just the whirling of gears, the pumping of machine guns and thrusters with music that fills you tension. In one of the beginning scenes we are located in a demolished American football stadium, a shot looks up at Harper with his arms raised in celebration

as a crooked goal post fills the background to draw your attention onto Jack. I would like to say that the writer of this did a brilliant job, with the plot twists, the character development of Harper and much more, but what the hell is with the sex scene in that freaky ass pool!? One, it was super weird. Two, you won't see me jumping into a pool hundred of feet in the air supported by a couple of beams in a world which was destroyed by nuclear fallout (It's not a spoiler, it says it right at the start of the film).

The official soundtrack was created by M83, who sounds remarkably like Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack. Whoever he is, M83 does brilliantly to create drama, raise tensions and get you pumped throughout action scenes. Sounds are crisp and truly reflect the area they are in and all the sounds are crisp and clear, especially in the huge ass screen with the big ass speakers!

Finally, the acting. It was alright. Not exceptional that you felt for all the characters. Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman's acting was the best out of the small cast with Olga Kurylenko felt a little flat and occasionally a bit dramatic. Andrea Riseborough was a character simply crazy and was much the same as Olga in certain scenes. All of the extra cast members were alright but they lacked a script and blended into the background when they could have had a much deeper connection to the outcome.

Overall, this Sci-fi - thriller is a good watch with some brilliant filming, good acting and epic music, this film is worth a watch.

My rating for this shall be 7.5/10

 

NEW Oblivion Trailer!

(Well, I think it's the newest...)

First of all!, I would like to welcome you to our new venture. Black Ribbon Reviews aim to review anything we can get our greasy hands on or remotely near!

Alongside any news that interests us!

Back to the news at hand! 

When hearing of the news about a new oblivion trailer, I jumped onto youtube to find this gem. Funnily enough, I watched it as an advert rather than the post itself....

Once watching it, I became eager to watch it and was extremely surprised to see Morgan Freeman is to appear! 

However, before the introduction of Mr Freeman, it appears that this film will be no different to After Earth starting Will & Jaden Smith. An earth destroyed by war and left behind by it's people seems a bit similar to each others premise, but now it feels like a much needed return to the Tom Cruise classic of Minority Report which depicts a world that is plagued by the higher authorities with a lack of basic moral thought.

Looking forward to watching this in cinema. With a good looking cast and what appears to be a decent enough script and premise, we could be looking at another Cruise classic.

BY DRAKE