Review – Edge of Tomorrow
I’ll admit that I was sold on Edge of Tomorrow when I was asked by a friend if I wanted to go see the Tom Cruise snuff film. I know that it was based on the novel All You Need is Kill, but I’ve never read that and so had no foreknowledge about what to expect. From the previews, I had presumed it would be some kind of mash-up between Starship Troopers and Groundhog Day with an underlying romance. I was not far from the mark. It certainly has all of those elements, but what I hadn’t anticipated was the amount of time I would spend laughing at the film. In this case, I’m fairly sure that was intentional.
To be clear, I don’t personally dislike Tom and I don’t wish the man any harm. He seems to take himself less seriously these days (at least in the interviews that I’ve seen him do) and that’s awesome. I would be just as happy to see any established actor in a role that caused them to be shot, squished, bitten, and generally maimed over and over again for the amusement of the masses. However, he really does a phenomenal job in the role of Major (and very quickly Private) William Cage and his transition from shocked to confused to bored to determined is a joy to watch. Emily Blunt exudes cool as battle hardened killer, Rita Vrataski aka, the Full Metal Bitch.
The basic plot seems to be the result of the writers spending a feverish weekend watching AMC and taking various sketchy notes for the duration. The sci-fi elements are very much copied from Starship Troopers. An alien race invades Earth and is kicking our butts, so we recruit a new generation of soldiers via heavy media propaganda and send them off to their doom. Scrap the bugs and replace them with robotic things, but keep the whole hive mind concept because it’s just so damn classic. Replace spaceships with power armor and let sci-fi D-Day commence. And why is the robot collective doing so well? Time manipulation!
Up, up, down, down. left, right, left, right, B, A, start
Enter the Groundhog Day elements and the crux of what makes the film so enjoyable. Pvt. Cage, through bumbling luck, manages to kill an alpha mimic, which is basically an alien field commander. As a result of it’s blood melting his face off, Cage gains access to the alien ability to reset time by roughly one day each time he dies, and hilarity ensues. The death montages alone in Edge of Tomorrow are worth the price of admission. It is absolute morbid, slapstick mayhem as Cage learns, over uncounted days, the positions and attack patterns of every alien on the beach. He goes from barely being able to turn the weapon safety off to being a one-man wrecking crew, but it’s just not enough. That is until he finds a mentor who has gone through the same thing. Then the training montage of deaths begins.
The story is very well put together and thankfully makes no attempt at a bullshit explanation for the alien ability to reset time. Sometimes “a wizard did it” really is the best way to go for these things. In fact, that carries over to most of the movie. Trying to pick apart the science of a film that refuses to take itself seriously is best left to those that just hate fun. I mean, there’s a woman in power armor who (for reasons unknown) prefers to fight the alien threat with a goddamn buster sword. At least swords don’t need reloading. The aliens are pretty much the same kind of unnamed numerous menace as every robotic menace, from The Matrix robots to the Decepticons in Transformers. The virtually one-sided romance is handled brilliantly and Cage’s descent into routine boredom is near perfect in my opinion.
Bottom line here is that Edge of Tomorrow is exactly what you should watch if you’re looking for an entertaining film that doesn’t require too much thought. It’s probably not going to win any Oscars, but it will be a fun way to spend an afternoon. Think of it like watching someone trying to cope with being a character in an old video game. You know, the kind where the enemies all come from the same place every time and winning comes down to memorizing the patterns bit by bit as you die, respawn, and repeat. I saw it in 3D, but the effects aren’t so spectacular that I’d specifically suggest seeing it that way. If you don’t see it in theaters, make sure to rent it and have a bad-movie night with friends when it comes out on Blu-ray.
