In spite of it being one of our most-anticipated movies of 2013, we wound up having mixed feelings about Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium. The high expectations set by District 9 were certainly part of it, but overall Elysium just didn’t soar as high as we’d hoped. But one area that was unquestionably badass? The exoskeletons sported by Matt Damon’s Max and Sharlto Copley’s Kruger. Apparently we weren’t the only ones to think so, as YouTuber The Hacksmith is in the process of building his own powered exoskeleton, and it just passed the impressive test of easily curling 170 pounds. Check it out up top, and here’s a tech featurette from Elysium for comparison’s sake.

Even though Paul the prophetic octopus is no longer with us, and even though Brazil is struggling to get the necessary infrastructure and amenities completed in time, I’m looking forward to the 2014 World Cup. I’ve played soccer since I was a kid, and watching the best players in the world do their thing for 90 minutes is a joy, especially since there are no commercials in each 45-minute half. It doesn’t hurt that soccer players are easy on the eyes, either. I don’t really need another reason to tune in, but now I have one, a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton will make its World Cup debut this year.

On June 12 at the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paolo, a Brazilian paraplegic will wear the exoskeleton, get out of his or her wheelchair, walk to the middle of the field, and start the World Cup by kicking a ball. Miguel Nicolelis developed the device. Among other things, he’s a neuroengineer who became a TED talk darling with an early manifestation of his idea involving monkeys controlling robots.

The latest trailer for Tom Cruise’s upcoming sci-fi/action fest Edge of Tomorrow hit the ‘net earlier this week and it continues to show potential. While Cruise has had a hit-or-miss track record with SF, this one looks to at least deliver on the action front, with Cruise and Emily Blunt blasting holes in tentacled aliens while sporting badass combat exoskeletons that let them do things like, for instance, somersault through the air so they can hack apart aliens with a sword that looks like it was pulled out of Final Fantasy. (You can click the embedded images for larger versions, or check out the full gallery below.)

Why buy a robot when you can wear one? Especially if wearing one makes you into an alien-fighting superhero. The “body extender” exoskeleton made by engineers at Italy’s Perceptual Robotics Laboratory is just that, and is touted as the most advanced wearable robot out there.

This exoskeleton is very flexible, and it essentially tracks a user’s movements — if the wearer squats or bends to pick something up, the exoskeleton goes with him, albeit slowing down his actions just a little bit. This is how it gets the name “body extender,” as it integrates with the wearer seamlessly enough that it functions as an extension of his body, rather than as a separate apparatus.

We know how much our readers love Tom Cruise and the upcoming YA adaptation Divergent, but instead of going ahead with our first choice and changing the name of the website to reflect that, we thought we would just show all interested parties some new stills that Warner Bros. and Summit shared. Above, you can see a still from Edge of Tomorrow, at the moment in the movie where Cruise and Emily Blunt look at each other right before saying, “Lookit these crazy robot suits and such!”

Well, the scene will probably have a little more context than that, and will no doubt involve Blunt’s super-soldier Rita Vrataski telling Cruise’s Lt. Col. Bill Cage that she can teach him how to be a better soldier. Edge of Tomorrow centers on Cage, who gets trapped in some kind of a strange time loop while in the middle of a battle against an army of aliens, in a future where really badass exoskeletons assist the human army. Though he doesn’t know what is happening or why he’s going through it, he finds Vrataski, who is similarly trapped, and together they train and try to figure out a way to stop the enemy and rid themselves of their extraterrestrial-filled Groundhog Day.

With Doug Liman’s future-war flick Edge of Tomorrow due to premiere its first trailer in the near future, it showed off several viral images yesterday, and now USA Today has debuted new shots of its two photogenic leads, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. The former is kitted out in one of the film’s trademark exosuits, and the latter looks like she could beat me at arm wrestling even without the mechanical help. Pretty sure I could still take Cruise though, but that’s mainly because I always keep a throw-down bag of eye-sand in my back pocket, but I’m far too chivalrous to use it on Blunt.

Edge of Tomorrow plays like a gritty, sci-fi version of Groundhog Day, with Cruise playing William Cage, a soldier in a war between humanity and aliens. When he’s killed in action, his story doesn’t end — instead he finds himself reliving the same day over and over. Thankfully he carries over his memories and skills each time, so he works to figure out how to break the cycle and save his own ass, as well as presumably turn the tide of the war, save the day, and kiss the girl. So it goes.