Edge of Tomorrow

If Edge of Tomorrow ends up disappointing at the box office, I'll know that the blame lies with the ad campaign, which is attempting to sell the film as yet another apocalyptic Sci-Fi thriller with the gimmick that its main character gets a chance to repeat scenarios and learn from past mistakes if he happens to die in battle.  The ads throw a lot of CG, and Tom Cruise gunning down faceless aliens.  What they don't show is just how smart, energetic, and at times witty the film can be.

Set during an unspecified time in the near future, we find that Earth is under invasion by a hoard of aliens called Mimics.  The Mimics are big, have lots of tentacles, and love to rely on that age-old battle strategy that aliens in movies love to employ - Mainly, jumping in front of human soldiers and screaming at them.  You would think an advanced alien race could come up with a better plan than hiding under ground, popping up, then screaming for a few seconds, giving the enemy ample time to blow them away with their high-powered mech suits and weapons.  However, the Mimics do have one big advantage in battle.  They are controlled by a massive brain that hides itself away somewhere, and can learn from its own mistakes.  It holds the power to turn back time, so if a battle doesn't go well for the alien forces, the brain can literally reset time to before the battle begins, and be prepared for any strategic assault the humans may launch.

So, the humans are largely fighting a losing battle.  In order to keep morale up, the government employs an army publicist by the name of Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) to go on TV, and generally act as a "talking head" on news shows, selling the war effort.  Cage's job is to highlight any positives in the war effort, and right now, his main job is to celebrate and highlight a war hero by the name of Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt).  This is the way Cage prefers things, staying away from the battlefield, and smiling for the cameras.  So, naturally, he is horrified when a military General (Brendan Gleeson) tells him that he is going to be going on the front lines with a camera crew to document a major upcoming battle plan.  Cage tries to go AWOL, gets caught, and finds himself not only demoted, but stuck right in the middle of an infantry group that's going to be in the thick of war.

Plain and simple, Cage is a coward on the battlefield.  He also has no idea how to actually use any of the weapons he's given.  Seeing Cruise play this type of character (and earning some big laughs in the process) is a nice change of pace.  It's interesting seeing him playing against type, and running away from the enemies for once during his early scenes.  During the big battle, Cage is eventually killed by a special kind of Mimic that glows blue (an "Alpha Male"), but not before he is splattered by the glowing blood of the alien creature.  This blood somehow transfers inside of him, and grants him the ability to be reborn to an exact moment every time he dies. Each time he falls, he wakes up again at the infantry camp, reliving the same experience, and being shipped off to battle.  He doesn't understand any of this at first, obviously, and neither do we.  But the film does have some fun with his confusion, and once again, Cruise is able to squeeze a lot of dark humor out of some of his failed attempts at surviving. 

Eventually, Cage gets Rita's attention, who seems to know a lot about what's happening to him, and why he keeps on being sent back to an earlier time.  Each time Cage starts the loop over, he must track down Rita, and explain what is happening to him.  And each time, they work toward changing the flow of war, so that they can track down and destroy the massive brain that is controlling the Mimics.  It may sound complicated, but unlike a lot of Sci-Fi films that deal with time travel and paradoxes, Edge of Tomorrow is fairly straight forward.  Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) also knows how to tackle the issue of Cage reliving the same scenes over and over, without making them repetitive.  He knows when to repeat, and when to skip ahead to a different outcome of a similar scene, so that the flow of the story never slows down.  It may be a gimmick, but the movie knows how to use it.

Besides, the central gimmick of death and rebirth is not the main thrust of the story.  There is also the growing relationship between Cage and Rita, which is complicated by the fact that each time Cage restarts, Rita does not know who he is.  He retains memories, and grows close to her, while he remains a stranger to her.  How the two resolve their differences and work things out is one of the more interesting aspects of the screenplay, and makes for an uncommon lead couple relationship.  Also impressive is how completely Emily Blunt has transformed herself for this role.  Usually known for comedic and quiet roles, she is completely believable here as a battle-hardened veteran who slowly softens as Cage works on building her trust.  As for Cruise, he has a chance here to show his charisma, action prowess and comedic skill with his role.  It's not exactly anything we haven't seen from him before, but it's an effective performance.

Edge of Tomorrow doesn't really break any new ground with any of its ideas, but it doesn't have to.  All that matters is what it does attempt it does very well.  Walking in, this was not one of my more anticipated films, as the ad campaign had done little to capture my attention.  Therefore, I was surprised by how quickly it was able to grab my attention, and to hold it all the way through.  This may not be one of the top blockbusters of the summer, but I hope it's not ignored by audiences, either.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

0 comments