Movie Review

Edge of Tomorrow

Craig Younkin is also a reviewer for Movie Room Reviews

In this day in age, originality basically becomes more about combining ideas that came before, and in that way, you could call “Edge of Tomorrow” an original. You could also say it’s like “War of the Worlds,” only instead of running from aliens with Dakota Fanning, Tom Cruise instead gets Bill Murray’s resetting power from “Groundhog Day.” But inventiveness aside, it would be nothing if not executed well and in that regard director Doug Liman and screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie, and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth take Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel “All You Need is Kill” and make it worth all the repeats.

This is also a Tom Cruise movie that for once doesn’t distract by being all about Tom Cruise. He plays Major Cage, a PR man much better suited for selling a war we’re involved in with an alien race called Mimics than fighting in it. Unfortunately the powers that be want him on the front lines during a raid on Normandy Beach and when he refuses, he finds himself knocked out, waking up on an air force base, and knocked down in rank to Private.

The raid on Normandy set-piece is a real thriller. First soldiers are sealed up in these metal body suits that make them look like that Fox Sports robot, then they are sealed into a plane and then dropped while the plane is in the air. The plane then explodes while it’s dropping these guys off and the guys not only have to deal with the burrowing, nearly indescribably fast moving Mimics on the ground but they also have to avoid being hit by crashing, flaming plane debris.

As far as days you don’t want to live over, this one ranks between losing Katie Holmes and having to sit through “Rock of Ages,” but every time Cage dies, he keeps waking up right back at the base where he started and living it all over again. Running into war hero Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) on the battlefield turns out to be fortuitous as she’s had this same re-occurring affliction in the past. Soon Cage is trying to help them both get through this maze of a battlefield and any proceeding dangers to find the Omega, which is like a power source for the Mimics.

It all starts off fairly nerve-wracking and gradually finds humor in the absurdity of the premise. The parameters are set so that even if Cage can’t die, a wrong move could seal humanity (or Rita’s) fate for good and McQuarrie and the Butterworth’s create a surprising, frustrating conflict that only gets more intense the further into it we get. The action works too, whether it’s the physical comedy of watching Cage train against spinning metal hands (mimicking Mimics) or another really phenomenal sequence near the end involving Mimics and a plane.

“Edge” starts out like it wants to say something about selling vs. fighting a war but then slowly backs away from wanting to say anything. No matter, Cruise is basically at his action hero best while Blunt matches him nicely. They also get fine support from Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson as various military personnel. The movie is the star though, an awesome looking thriller that’s action packed, unpredictable, funny, and impressive-looking. It’s the blockbuster of the summer so far.

Craig's Grade: B+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%