YMMV / Edge of Tomorrow

• Adaptation Displacement:
  • Being a Hollywood movie starring Tom Cruise, it's bound to become better known than the original Japanese Light Novel.
  • In a weird variant, the novel also has a manga version drawn by the artist of the popular Death Note, and people often think the film is adapted from it, even though the manga was made only after the film was announced.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The true nature of Rita and Cage's relationship. Is it romantic or platonic? Notably the kiss in the third act was an ad-lib by Emily Blunt and the film ends on a Maybe Ever After.
  • General Brigham: on the surface, he appears to be somewhat of an Obstructive Bureaucrat. However, if you consider the scene in his office with Cage and Rita from his point of view, it is possible to interpret his response to them as nothing short of genius. He opens the safe and gives them the transponder, then has the MPs arrest them outside. That way, he knows that if they are telling the truth they can easily evade the MPs by repeating the loop (with transponder in tow), and if they are lying he is no worse off. From his perspective, it's win-win.
  • Cage also mentions that Brigham was responsible for making sure that his secretary's son was assigned to a relatively safe location. Is this a Pet the Dog moment, or is it proof that the general plays favorites?
• And You Thought It Would Fail: The film itself is based on an obscure Japanese light novel, Tom Cruise was not as much an assured draw, and industry analysts and fans were suspicious on how it would fare. To their surprise, however, it was warmly received all-around - 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.9 on IMDb, and $370.5 million worldwide.
• Awesome Music: "Love Me Again" by John Newman plays over the end credits. The lyrics, which contain lines like "I told you once again, do this again!", make the song fit perfectly with the film.
• Broken Base: Some were upset about the Race Lift of Tom Cruise's character, while others were ok with it, or were willing to let it slide since it might not have been green-lit without Tom Cruise as a draw, as the novel would be pretty obscure in the West if not Japan.
• Catharsis Factor: A big appeal of the movie is the innate satisfaction in seeing Cage, who starts the movie off as a cowardly and unsympathetic jerk, getting completely humiliated and dying over and over again. It also helps that he's played by a controversial actor. To the point where few sequences, when taken out of context, are the epitome of War Is Hell, but within the story, they work as pure comedy.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Sgt. Farrell has gathered a popular and sizable fanbase for being immensely hammy and incredibly quotable. The fact that this is one of Bill Paxton’s last performances only increased this.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Anybody who knows their World War II history would recognize Operation Downfall as being the codename for the planned invasion of Japan.
  • Also the film being released on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
  • Verdun is depicted in this movie as a turning point in the war. It was also the site of a major and deadly battle in World War I, where France claimed a critical victory for the Allies as well.
  • One of the character of the film is named Skinner — B.F. Skinner of operant conditioning chamber fame.
  • When Cage finds Rita in the training center, she's in midst of doing the surya namaskar, a Yoga sequence composed by a cycle of moves. As if the metaphor is not clear enough, time itself is considered to be cyclical in Indian philosophy.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the film opened up to a weak box office total for a big budget Sci-Fi film (29.1 million, with most of its thunder stolen by, of all things, a love story about teenagers with cancer), it was more successful overseas, especially in China and South Korea. It eventually grossed $100 million in the U.S. and $269 million in other territories.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Come 2017, Emily Blunt would once again play a badass soldier who helped lead an attack on an enemy stronghold. The main difference is that she's a villain and her enemies are a bit more colorful than the Mimics.
  • This wouldn't be the last time Franz Drameh (Corporal Ford) would be wearing a high-tech suit, flying around in an advanced aircraft, and fighting aliens.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some people saw this film just to see The Many Deaths of Tom Cruise.
• Presumed Flop: Many news outlets called the film a flop based on the films less than stellar opening weekend in the United States. However, as mentioned above, international numbers were good, and positive reviews and word of mouth eventually pushed the movie over $100 million in America, and $370 million worldwide on a $178 million budget gave it a small profit, successful enough for Warner Bros. to greenlight a sequel (whenever that happens).
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Any of Sgt. Farrell's lines count.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • Some fans have joked that the movie is like the film equivalent of playing Dark Souls.
  • Between the power armor, dropping into combat out of the sky, and the hive-mind invading alien enemy, there's a lot of Starship Troopers in the movie, too.
• Stock Footage Failure: The opening of the film actually uses footage of the famous 2013 Russian Meteor incident, where a meteor exploded in midair and caused quite a bit of collateral damage (which surprisingly did not kill anyone). The in-universe news report, however, labels the footage as "Germany", and the subsequent meteors fell even further west.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The other members of J-squad don't get much lines or development, and as such it's hard to care when their deaths in the final battle are treated as such a big deal.
  • Also, while this doesn't apply to Sergeant Ferrell in general, it would have been great to see him take part in the final mission, and would have been a good swan song for Bill Paxton, given that it was the last big action/science-fiction movie he would appear in.
• Win Back the Crowd: For Tom Cruise, after the mixed reception of Oblivion (2013). More than a few critics have admitted to being reminded He Really Can Act. Similar with his winning turn in Tropic Thunder, Cruise received a lot of praise for Playing Against Type: instead of starting out as a badass, Cruise plays a wimpy protagonist who runs around battle (the first time) screaming for someone to turn off his safety and has to learn how to become one.

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