615 butterfly effect
“"Edge of Tomorrow", I really didn't expect that the script Andy mentioned was actually "Edge of Tomorrow"”！
According to the context of the previous life, this movie should have been released in 2014. The male protagonist is Tom Cruise and the female protagonist is Emily Blunt. Not only that, this work has been from the beginning of the project. We locked in the top stars, first Brad Pitt, then Tom Cruise, and never considered other options..
But, it’s only 2011, and the script has already been approved? Moreover, neither Brad nor Tom actually came into his hands? Although it was just a test and inquiry of intention, not even a word of horoscope, the development trend of things was still completely different from the previous life..
Is this the butterfly effect and the timeline is disrupted? Or is it just a project? There is still a long way to go before filming and release. Maybe, in the final analysis, the work will still be released in 2014 and will still be in the hands of Tom. It is just Renly's random imagination.？
However, putting aside the jump that disrupted the timeline for the moment, the script was a work on the blacklist in 2010. Now that Warner Bros. has begun to develop the project, all this is said to be in the past. Return to the script of "Edge of Tomorrow" In itself, I have to say that the blacklist is indeed trustworthy, and Andy's decisiveness in killing is also admirable..
“"Edge of Tomorrow" tells an uncomplicated story. The future world is caught in the panic of alien invasion. The male protagonist William-Cage is an officer who can only talk on paper and has never been in actual combat. After rejecting his superior's order, the general threw him into a suicide mission as a deserter. As soon as he entered the battlefield, he died. But unexpectedly, he entered an infinite time loop and participated in it again and again. This suicide mission, death over and over again, until victory is achieved.
Works similar to time and space loops or chaos, "Groundhog Day" is undoubtedly a classic, and then there have been many other works such as "Butterfly Effect", "Source Code", "Looper", and "Edge of Tomorrow" is also one of them.
In the previous life, the film was directed by Doug Liman, the director who made "The Bourne Supremacy" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and was known for his sharp editing style and crisp rhythm control. Under his direction, the advantages and disadvantages of "Edge of Tomorrow" are very obvious. The tight and fast pace does not allow the characters enough room to play, and they are reduced to the image of a popcorn hero with facial makeup, but the rich imagination and powerful fighting style are Make the movie-watching process climax/climax one after another, and the entire narrative rhythm is completed in one go, making you hooked.
“"Edge of Tomorrow" won applause from film critics, with a comprehensive media review score of 71 points, a Rotten Tomatoes freshness index of 91%, and an average score of 7.5, which is very good for a commercial film. It can be said to be very gratifying. It outshines other works in the summer of 2014, surpassing "Transformers 4", "Godzilla", "X-Men: Days of Future Past", "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and other works. It is considered to be the best summer movie of that year. The commercial film with the best reputation among film critics.
But what is surprising is that "Edge of Tomorrow" has a divided reputation among the audience. The IMDB score is as high as eight, and it was once included in the top 250 classic movies list. The popcorn index also reached 90%. , but the theater score was only a disappointing "B+". It can be understood that senior audiences and professional audiences couldn't put it down and praised them one after another; ordinary audiences refused to buy it..
This situation was ultimately directly reflected in the box office data, which can be said to be a typical representative of whether it is a success or not..
The investment in the movie was as high as 180 million, but it only achieved a box office of 100 million US dollars in North America. Thanks to the strong appeal of Tom Cruise, the overseas box office grossed 270 million US dollars. But even so, the global box office It was only 370 million. Warner Bros. lost nearly 40 million as a result. Fortunately, the film later performed well in the Blu-ray disc market, and the balance of payments finally reached a balance. It can be said that it was a dangerous situation..
However, considering the excellent reputation of the movie and the strong appeal of Tom Cruise, Warner Bros. still gave the green light and decided to develop the sequel. However, the sequel project has been delayed until Renly was reborn. Before, I had not been able to put into shooting, so I had no way of knowing the quality..
There is no doubt that the quality of the script of "Edge of Tomorrow" has been affirmed by the scripts from the blacklist lineup. This script adapted from the original Japanese work "Samsara" is crisp, concise, clear in logic, and the story points are not consistent with the action. The scenes complement each other, the only regret is that the ending is a little weaker, and the sublimation and aftertaste of the endings of "Groundhog Day", "Butterfly Effect" and other works are lost..
Overall, compared to science fiction, this work has achieved an excellent balance between science fiction and action, and focuses on action scenes. There is no irritation in the whole story, and it is vigorous and unstoppable, taking the advantages of commercial movies to the extreme. In the previous life, "Edge of Tomorrow" was generally considered to be Tom Cruise's best work in ten years, even surpassing the fourth and fifth "Mission: Impossible" movies. This is not without reason.
If the quality of the finished product is so good, why hasn't the movie's box office taken off? Even if we don’t expect 300 million in North America, even the average of 200 million is far away, and it just barely breaks through the 100 million threshold. This result is really disappointing..
From the perspective of hindsight, industry professionals generally believe that the reason for the failure was Tom Cruise.
In fact, similar to Johnny Depp in "Dark Shadows", Tom has also fallen into the rut of a fixed image. From the beginning of "Minority Report" in 2002 until 2017, Tom starred in sixteen movies, eleven of which They were all sci-fi action movies with a unified style. After entering the second half of his career, Tom gave up competing for Oscars and broadening his acting career. He followed the old path of Adam Sandler and kept repeating himself. The road to "action superstar" is gone forever..
Even the "Mission: Impossible" series is no exception. For the first three films, the focus of promotion was "Tom Cruise is full of charm", while the focus of promotion for the subsequent films is always "Tom Cruise overcomes the shackles of age and constantly challenges his limits."”.
Before "Edge of Tomorrow", Tom had just starred in "Oblivion", which was very similar in style, genre, theme and story. This work had a terrible reputation and the box office was only 89 million. Before that, "Jack Reacher" and "Dangerous Spy" are also all familiar..
In other words, "Tom Cruise" is one of the top brands in the United States today. Countless audiences have chosen to enter movie theaters because of him, but they have been disappointed again and again. In the process, "The Disc" The revival of "Spy 4" restored some confidence to people, but it was immediately shattered. To put it simply, "being cheated", the feeling of disappointment caused the audience to gradually disappear quietly..
In addition, Tom's personal persistence is also one of the important reasons. He is handsome, handsome, young, vigorous and energetic. This is an important part of Tom's image brand. In order to continue this image, the film's publicity plan and the script's role focus , and even the director's shooting techniques will focus on creating such an image of "Tom Cruise"; but the fact is that when "Edge of Tomorrow" was filmed, Tom was already fifty-two years old. Ten years later, I have always been the same, but I have fallen behind the times without realizing it..
The actors of Tom's contemporaries, such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, etc., have all transformed, but he is the only one who still maintains the iconic image established in "Top Gun".
“The two heroines of "Forsaken" are seventeen and nineteen years younger than Tom respectively, while the heroine of "Edge of Tomorrow" is twenty-one years younger than Tom. The fact is that among the works starring Tom, He has a heroine who plays opposite him, and the age gap between them is within ten years. The last time was Demi Moore in 1992, when the two co-starred in "Yi Hai Xiong Feng"”.
Invisibly, more and more viewers are leaving because of the aesthetic fatigue of Tom's image..
Looking at Tom Cruise's personal box office, since 2005's "War of the Worlds", apart from the "Mission: Impossible" series, "Edge of Tomorrow" is the only North American movie with a box office of over 100 million. The former box office superstar , and now he is continuing his career as an actor solely relying on the "Mission: Impossible" brand..
To a certain extent, "Pirates of the Caribbean" has the same effect on Johnny Depp.
This explains the audience feedback of "Edge of Tomorrow" - professional audiences don't watch Tom Cruise, but watch the quality, and they naturally applaud; ordinary viewers don't watch the quality, but watch Tom Cruise, and feel surprised. But it’s more of a disappointment with the “same old stuff.” The negative word-of-mouth effect brought about by 2013’s “Oblivion” extends to the box office failure of 2014’s “Edge of Tomorrow.”.
Of course, is there room for improvement on Edge of Tomorrow itself? Maybe there is, maybe not, but this is a commercial popcorn movie, and the existence of shortcomings is inevitable. As long as the shortcomings do not affect the smoothness of the entire movie viewing, then it is forgivable. So, in the final analysis, it is still Tom Cruise Si, and a series of problems derived from Tom：
Promotional positioning, script importance, character creation, shooting focus, etc..
But taking a step back, without Tom Cruise, would "Edge of Tomorrow" still be able to achieve a box office of 100 million in North America?？
The cost of the previous work was 180 million, and the publicity expenses were even more generous. But judging from what Andy just said, the budget is only 100 million, and even project promotion is a problem, let alone other resources. . Without Tom, "Edge of Tomorrow" might really have to wait until 2014 to be released..
In addition to the director, Tom brought the entire production team of the previous work, just like the "Jack Reacher" not long ago. The screenwriter is Christopher-McQuarrie. The screenwriter who became famous with "The Usual Suspects" is Tom's favorite screenwriter. Even though he wrote such terrible scripts as "The Deadly Companion" and "Jack the Giant", he still collaborated with Tom on "Action Hitler", "Mission Impossible", "Jack Reacher", "The Mummy" and other works.
In addition, photographers, lighting designers, art designers, art directors and producers are all Tom’s exclusive team..
Without Tom, "Edge of Tomorrow" is a complete empty shell.
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