Movie Review: Edge of Tomorrow



Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) comes into the summer with a great little film that's a win/win for everybody.  If you're a Tom Cruise fan, you get to see another good performance in a fun summer blockbuster.  If you can't stand Tom Cruise, you get to see him die over and over again.


Tom Cruise (Jack Reacher) stars as Major William Cage, who is a spokesperson in the military for the United Defense Forces (UDF).  This group was formed because of years of fighting alien beings called mimics.  It has gotten bad and Cage is dropped in the front lines of an assault even though he has never seen a day of combat in his life.  He is killed fairly quickly, and this is when the time loop begins.  Each time he dies he is sent back to the day before the assault.  He eventually runs into Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt, The Adjustment Bureau), who at one point also had this ability to "reset".  She tells him to find her the next time he wakes up.  He dies over and over while slowly getting trained by Rita, and they have to find a way to use this time loop to their advantage to defeat the mimics.


I went into this film expecting another mindless, fun summer sci-fi flick starring Tom Cruise.  I got way more than that.  This movie has everything.  Sci-fi, comedy, romance, drama, action, exoskeletons, aliens, Tom Cruise, and a kick-ass Emily Blunt.  Yes, I said comedy.  This was the last thing I expected, but when they had to kill Cruises character so many times, it could have gotten boring. Instead, they injected it with a little bit of humor.  Some of them even made me chuckle out loud momentarily.  It's more than just the kills, too.  A lot of the dialog was very witty.


That's not to say it's an all out laugh fest.  The end of the movie gives way to a little more intensity.  The action is all well done throughout the movie.  What caught me even more than that though was the story.  The writers could have taken the easy way out and just not explained the time loop and just had you accept it.  Instead what they give you is a well thought out storyline and explanation.  It was smartly addressed and they never veered from or broke the rules of their own mythology.  It doesn't make sense in the real world, but within the context of the movie it never loses you or makes you question any of it.


The performances in this film are great.  Brendan Gleeson (The Guard) plays the stubborn General Brigham, who is responsible for sending Cage into battle.  And Bill Paxton turns in a good performance as the tough guy Master Sargeant of the squad Cage is assigned to, who then becomes a bit befuddled when Cage starts resetting and coming back magically anticipating everything he's going to say.  The two leads of course drive this movie, and they drive it well.  Tom Cruise has the demands of action star of course.  However he also has to pull off some funny dialog and also show growing emotions for Blunt's character.  I thought he pulled off quite the performance, balancing all three of these things seamlessly without making the movie seem all over the place.  Emily Blunt pulls in a great tough girl performance.  She is no damsel in distress, actually quite the opposite.  She is the one who trains Cruise to be a better soldier throughout the movie.  The two of them have great chemistry on screen together.


The pacing of the film is also something that must be discussed.  Being a Groundhog Day type movie, where there are many, many deaths, pacing could be hard to pull off.  There has to be several montages so the film doesn't drag out to 12 hours.  The writers and director really knew when to go into montage mode and when to slow it down and show more of an individual day.  It was done well enough so you could get an idea of just how long he had been doing days over again without them spelling it out for you.  This of course was also contributed to by the dialog and acting.


Don't let the previews fool you into thinking this is just another generic sci-fi movie.  If you're looking for a fun time at the movies, but not necessarily a turn off your brain kind of movie, then this is for you.  The pieces were put together well enough to turn what could have been another generic summer blockbuster into a witty, fun, joyride of a movie.


Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Cage: The only thing I can feel are my lips.