Doug Liman

Major William Cage is a military public relations officer with zero combat experience who suddenly finds himself shoved onto the front lines of humanity's war against the Mimics, alien beings who've been slaughtering humans pretty much since they first appeared. He lasts only a few minutes into the battle before dying. Then, for some reason, he wakes up at the beginning of what turns out to be a repeating time loop. His only clue as to what's going on is Sergeant Rita Vrataski, known as "the show more Angel of Verdun" due to her unheard-of Mimic kill count at the Battle of Verdun.

It seems that one of the reasons why Vrataski was so successful in Verdun was because she'd also experienced time loops. With Vrataski's help, Cage learns what causes the time loops and how to use them to more effectively fight the Mimics. However, there's one thing that Cage has to do in order to save humanity that even Vrataski couldn't manage: find and kill the Omega Mimic.

I read the book a while back but never got around to reviewing it. Based on what I remembered of it, I wasn't sure how well Tom Cruise would do in the lead role. In the book, the main character was a young recruit much like the ones Major William Cage's "rah rah" war propaganda probably inspired to join the military.

Turning the main character into a guy who'd never expected to have to actually fight Mimics worked pretty well. Like the book's main character, Cage had no idea what he was doing and knew he was being thrown into battle as little more than cannon fodder.

For the most part, this movie was a surprisingly good adaptation of the book, although I spotted a few changes relatively early on that I suspected would lead to a completely different ending. I recalled the book ending either tragically or bittersweetly, and I figured Hollywood wouldn't be able to resist the urge to morph it into a happy ending. I was right.

The action scenes were excellent, and the movie did a good job of showing how Cage was gradually ground down by his repeated failures and having to watch Vrataski die over and over again. However, I wish the script hadn't been changed so that Vrataski was only a former, rather than current, looper. It would have spared viewer scenes in which a frustrated Cage tried to explain to Vrataski what she should do at each step of the newest loop, because Vrataski would have been able to manage on her own. I also think the original ending would have been more powerful (although, granted, more depressing) than the ending the movie went with.

All in all, a pretty decent movie up until the last 20 minutes or so, when it felt like every other blockbuster movie that somehow managed to pull a happy ending out of thin air.

Extras:

A couple featurettes, both of which I watched. "Weapons of the future" covered the battle suits and the training the actors had to do to wear them. I hadn't realized this, but the suits were both real and extremely heavy. "Creatures not of this world" covered the design of the Mimics.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

An alien invasion Groundhogs Day.

They didn't just steal the idea from Groundhogs Day, they studied it, they understood what makes it tick, and they nearly perfectly applied that template to an action movie. It goes without saying that Tom Cruise is no Bill Murray, though. And the ending is a let down. They eventually step out of the time loop (presumably with the understandable but misguided reason of providing a sense of peril), at which point the movie turns into generic, mindless show more action.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.9/4

(Jun. 2014) show less

Jumper on DVD. This movie lacked only one thing: a compelling story. It had exotic location shots in Tokyo, Rome and Egypt. It had fine special effects depicting teleportation and high-speed chases. It had a solid cast with Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson and Samuel L. Jackson in the lead roles. Christensen plays David Rice, a 15-year-old loner with an alcoholic father, who discovers that he has the power to teleport anywhere in the world. He runs away and for eight years leads a playboy show more lifestyle funded by occasional bank robberies. Jackson plays Roland, the leader of a secret organization, the Palladins, dedicated to tracking down and killing these “jumpers” for centuries. The audience is never given a sufficient explanation as to why “jumpers” must be eliminated, nor how Rice escaped their notice for so long, nor how they finally tracked him down. Rice escapes Roland’s initial confrontation and heads home, only to put his family and girlfriend (Bilson) in peril at which point the film devolves into one long chase, with Rice partnering with another jumper to evade Roland’s traps.
The producers clearly state that their goal was to establish this episode as the first part of a trilogy of films, but they would have better served viewers by making a complete film. The action sequences may be enough to satisfy some, but many will not be compelled to return for the sequels.

For all my book and movie reviews, please visit my blog at http://unsetalarmclock.wordpress.com/ show less

A CIA assassin wakes up with no memory of who he is and tries not to get killed by his superiors.

Entertaining. The action is good. The story starts out promising, but eventually fizzles out into formulaic nonsense. It's worth watching, but I expected a lot more.