At the New York City press screening of Edge of Tomorrow earlier this week, I jotted down only a few short notes. Among them: “demon spawn of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” That’s what immediately came to mind after my first glimpse of the movie’s aliens. How would other people describe them, I wondered? Below, a round-up of how some of the country’s best critics attempted to convey the weird look of these tentacled, fast-moving creatures.
“dreadlocked wigs dipped in steel”
— Amy Nicholson, Village Voice
“black, scampering dreadlock wigs or electrified Rorschach Tests”
— Jake Coyle, Associated Press
“huge, hissing, squid-like dervishes”
— Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
“somersaulting metal octopuses”
— Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“hordes of giant swirling-twirling octopi”
— Clint O’Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer
“unnervingly inhuman creatures that look like crosses between dragons, octopi, and live wires”
— Keith Phipps, The Dissolve
“ferocious metallic spidery critters with way too many tendrils that whip around like crazy and pierce you like javelins”
— Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
“nightmare creatures that look like razor-tentacled squid and roll across the landscapes like tumbleweeds”
— Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
“overgrown, radioactive crustaceans that got caught in an oil spill”
— Justin Change, Variety
“generic-looking tentacled aliens”
— Lou Lumenick, New York Post
