Edge of Tomorrow (2014) review

Easily one of the most notable comedies of all time is 1993’s ‘Groundhog Day’, which revolved around an arrogant TV weatherman who finds himself caught in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over again. The concept of a character ending up in a time loop has also been seen in a few other movies such as ‘Source Code’ and ’12 Monkeys’ and that idea is also prominent in director Doug Liman’s ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, which is based off of a 2004 Japanese light novel, ‘All You Need is Kill’ by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. I have to say… I was quite surprised when I saw that this film was getting really good reviews (it currently stands at an 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) because going in, I was sort of expecting to have a RT rating somewhere in the 60’s or lower but instead it’s currently one of the best-reviewed films of this summer… and in its opening weekend, it only grossed $28.8 million here in the U.S. Oh man, that’s sad, especially when considering that this really is one of the best films of the year so far. A far more original film than what we’re usually seeing these days (I mean… original as much as being based a ‘light novel’ can be but I digress), ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ features some great action sequences and Tom Cruise at the best that’s he’s ever been in quite some time.

For the last five years, a war has been going on between humanity and an alien species known as the Mimics, and while at first the aliens continued to defeat the humans in battle, the United Defense Forces have been able to turn the odds around with the introduction of armed exoskeletons to help soldiers in battle. As the UDF intends to launch an invasion against the Mimics in France, UDF spokesman Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) learns that he has been ordered to cover the action on the beaches, despite the fact that he’s completely inexperienced when it comes to combat. Not wanting to go, even going so far as to blackmail his superior officer, Cage ultimately ends up getting stripped of his rank and is put into battle with the first wave of soldiers, who are quickly annihilated by the Mimics, who have anticipated the attack in advance. Cage ends up getting killed after destroying a larger Mimic but ends up getting doused in its blood, resulting in him getting stuck in a time loop as he finds himself continuously resetting back to the day before he’s sent into battle every time he dies. Cage soon teams up with Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), one of the UDF’s top soldiers who, as it turns out, was also in a time loop during a battle, as she helps him train while they work together to try and find a way to defeat the Mimics before the invasion in France ever begins.

The whole scenario of a character getting caught in a time loop can run the risk of becoming tiresome after a while but thankfully that’s not the case here. Obviously, as is typical with this scenario, there are times where, after Cage has been through the time loop a few times, he is able to anticipate what’s going to happen but it’s not really done by having the same scene run over and over again. Instead, at certain points the movie is already at the point where Cage knows what’s going to happen instead of just showing him continuously failing over and over again which again could get rather tedious if we were watching the same thing happen repeatedly. In fact, the whole scenario about Cage’s method of trial-and-error ultimately results in the film’s greatest strength; its humor. There are a lot of funny moments revolving around a lot of the mistakes that Cage makes while in the time loop, like one particularly funny moment that I won’t dare spoil here but I will say that it happens before Cage even steps into battle. Speaking of battles, the action in this movie is well-shot, those mech suits are pretty darn cool, and the film has a very nice pace to it, always keeping your interest at all times.

Whether you like him or not, there’s no denying that Tom Cruise is a fantastic action star and here I’d say that he’s the best that he’s ever been for quite some time. For one thing, I really like that the character he plays in this doesn’t start out as a badass soldier (like, let’s be honest, most of his action roles these days), but rather an inexperienced spokesman for the UDF who so does not want to go into battle that he’s willing to blackmail the commander of the UDF so that he doesn’t have to fight. Obviously that doesn’t work for him, but overall this serves as a very nice change of pace from what we usually see from the characters that Tom Cruise plays while Cruise still maintains a lot of charm and wit while in the role. Equally excellent here is Emily Blunt, in her second straight great sci-fi film in a row following 2012’s ‘Looper’. Her character Rita is such a terrific action heroine that really, this movie didn’t even need Tom Cruise’s character because she could have probably done everything on her own, though with that said Cruise and Blunt do have some really nice chemistry and camaraderie. Hopefully this means that Blunt will get some action roles in the future because I could definitely see her in more action roles, especially if they’re written as well as her role in this film was.

It’s kind of sad that this movie didn’t do so well in its opening weekend. I mean, here we have one of the best-reviewed films of this summer and one that really lives up to that pedigree thanks to excellent action sequences, a great pair of leads, and most importantly, a good sense of humor. But instead, less than $30 million worth of people saw this film when it debuted. Thank god for the international box office then because otherwise this film could’ve ended up being a big box office flop. Whatever the reason was for this film’s weak opening weekend, whether it be because of a bad marketing campaign that might have made some audience members think this was another ‘Oblivion’ (a film which, for the record, I did like but overall it wasn’t as well-received as this one) or because of how, in these days, Hollywood isn’t too keen on more original material (though again, as I said, this is based on a light novel though it’s still fairly more original than a lot of other films these days), one thing is for certain. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I highly recommend that you do because this is one of the best films of the year so far and I do feel that you’ll be satisfied by what you see.

Rating: 4.5/5