Edge of Tomorrow

I have to say that this movie was surprisingly enjoyable. I did have my doubts about it. I always have doubts about movies that manipulate time. I guess one advantage the movie has is that it does not really involve time travel and changing the past to influence the future but “only” resetting a day and living it over and over again. The entire concept is of course still totally ludicrous. Even if we forget about the feasibility about resetting time altogether there are just so many things that are wrong with the concept. For example, is time reset all over the universe or just on Earth? Both of those avenues create their own issues further down the line of course. Even if we try to forget these larger issues there are the issue that as soon as Cage altered his own behavior from one repetition of that day to another he would alter the chain of events and what he knew was the events in the previous repeat would no longer be certain in the one he was living right then. Not to mention that he had a longer and longer chain of people to convince on a single day and still get the job done. Okay, enough harping about that. If you manage to lock out all these annoying issues with the story what remains is, as I wrote before, actually a fairly enjoyable movie. It is primarily a science fiction action movie of course and the action as well as special effects are not bad at all. We get treated to plenty of the classical déjà vu scenes were Cage tries to convince people by predicting their immediate future in minute details. Classical and very not innovative but well done and I have to admit that I am a bit of a sucker for these impress-and-surprise someone scenes. On the whole the movie managed to use the basic concept of reliving the day and make it feel reasonable fresh despite it not being a entirely new idea. The fact that the acting was quite adequate and that both Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt made a good performance as far as I am concerned of course helped. Naturally the movie builds up towards the climactic battle against the alien central organism and of course everyone (who Cage managed to convince) have to throw in their lives to get Cage in position for the final attack. Personally I liked the ending although I have to say that I was a bit miffed that the writer did not manage to come up with some more imaginative ending scene between Cage and Rita though. Bottom line, an enjoyable movie well worth watching.

What makes <em>Edge of Tomorrow</em>'s 'failure' a bit surprising is how many of us have always wondered - what would happen if you put <em>Groundhog Day</em> in the context of an invasion of Earth by aliens keen on destroying the human race? Okay...so bad example. This is about action, killing aliens, and getting in as many 'gallows humor' one-liners as possible. And I realize it tanked in the theaters (relatively speaking) but (I can't believe I'm going to say this)... But it's a fun movie. It's entertaining, the directing is sharp and quick. In <em>Groundhog Day</em>, about the 4th time you "I Got You Babe" you are screaming at the film - "WE GET IT!!! MOVE THE STORY ALONG!!" That never happens in <em>Edge of Tomorrow</em>. Each cycle through, the story advances and another layer is revealed. The director seems to get that the audience is smart and they can keep up. Tom Cruise is well, he's Tom Cruise. But Emily Blunt is fantastic in the film. The ending was a bit of a head-scratcher. Won't spoil it here but the rest of the movie works and thought it was very entertaining. It's a fun action movie - and there's nothing wrong with that.

Resetting the day. Edge of Tomorrow is directed by Doug Liman and collectively written by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. It stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, with music by Christophe Beck and cinematography by Dion Beebe. It has proved to be a great decade for sci-f, it seems that for every misfire there are three great genre films to off set the disappointments. Sitting at the top end of the table is Edge of Tomorrow (AKA: Live Die Repeat). Adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel "All You Need Is Kill", the story has Cruise as William Cage, an American army Major who upon being thrust into combat against an alien race decimating Earth, finds he awakens to the same day after being killed in action. Seeking out Rita (Blunt), the most decorated soldier of the time, Cage must understand what is happening to him and hopefully save the future of mankind. So far so Groundhog Day/Source Code then, but Liman's film never lets up from the get go, frenetic with its action, funny into the bargain, and also sexy, it manages to blend audience pleasing conventions with clever thought and process. There's nothing new in the philosophy on show, and there are regular sci-fi tropes for familiarity of genre, but if you are going to recycle formula then do it with verve and swagger, which this most assuredly does. Boosted by Cruise turning in a good one as an unlikable character who develops into a protag to shout for, and Blunt as a super sexy bad-ass poster girl for the war effort, Edge of Tomorrow ultimately rocks. The science will obviously infuriate those who take such things way too seriously, but as the terror of this particular war unfolds on screen (nifty effects), and we have been bought wholesale into our heroes and their quest, its small failings are hardly worth cocking a snook at. 8/10