Edge of Tomorrow: Live. Die. Repeat. Again. And Again. And Again.
Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt
Director: Doug Liman
Synopsis: Tom Cruise stars as William Cage, a military officer who is charged with desertion and thrown into battle against an alien enemy who can rewind time. During a beach storming, Cage becomes endowed with the alien’s ability to control time. He must then team up with Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a highly skilled warrior to destroy the enemy.
Review:
“Edge of Tomorrow” is a thrilling science-fiction/action movie with a great story-telling concept. The special effects are well done, the sounds and music are wonderful, and the acting is great. Tom Cruise has done it again, and is supplemented very well by a fierce Emily Blunt.
Just as one would expect from a Tom Cruise movie, “Edge of Tomorrow” is action packed. It’s full of tendril-y aliens flinging soldiers across sandy beaches. It’s full of big futuristic planes and guns. I don’t mean to cheapen the action with these statements. The action scenes are really quite good. It’s just when we (along with Tom Cruise’s character) relive the same battle over and over again, spanning several montages, it starts to get very repetitive.
At first, the “Groundhog Day” meets “Independence Day” concept threw me for a loop. I had never seen any trailers for “Edge of Tomorrow,” much less seen any sort of promotional data for it, so when Cage time-jumped for the first time, I had to rethink my pre-formed opinion. Honestly, I was expecting another action packed shooter movie. What I got was much better. As I got used to the concept of the day repeating, it began to wear on me. I know that these kind of films require lots of repetition so that the audience can feel the psychological strain that the characters in the films are going through, but this one seemed to wear on for just a little bit too long.
Once the repetition began to die down (So to speak. You’ll get it if you watch the movie.) I started to feel like the movie was going somewhere again. There was one point, at a small farm, away from the battlefield, where there was some serious character development and you really begin to feel what Cage was feeling as he reveals that he’s lived the scene at the farm over and over; and each time he has, it’s hasn't ended well. At that point, I realized that I did, in fact, enjoy this movie.
So despite its minor flaws, “Edge of Tomorrow” is a overall good movie, with great acting and some very interesting story-telling. I would highly recommend it to any science fiction fan who loves great story-telling, as well as the exciting action scenes.