By: Robert Murphy
Spoilers bro, watch it.
I like many of you have probably seen the commercials for
Tom Cruise’s latest film and looked upon it with skepticism because of its
bewildering premise of a man stuck in an infinite loop doomed to repeat the
same day over and over again. Live, die and repeat is the idea behind Edge of Tomorrow and while the whole
thing struck me as the kind of thing that couldn’t be pulled off but I was very
wrong once I got into it. William Cage (Tom Cruise) is an army major who mainly
provides publicity and awareness for the war that humanity is taking part in
against the alien race we dubbed as Mimics in which we have been beaten badly
in and we had only just won our first victory in this war a short time ago. Sadly major Cage is not what you would call a super solider who is ready to place the final blow against this alien race and he proceeds to lumber and whine all the way up to the battle that is meant to be the final push to take back the world from the Mimics. His unlikely partner in this fight though is up to the task, popularly known as "the full metal bi!@#" real name Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) she is the most decorated and exceptional solider the world has to offer in it's defense and the two will end up working together to put an end to this threat.
As I said I had my doubts about the film from the get go but as I watched Edge of Tomorrow I quickly found joy in the fantastic way that it was handled. Major Cage, loses his life during the battle he desperately did not want to be a part of but he ends up killing a unique form of Mimic in his last moments that grants him the ability to skip backwards in time. Every time he loses his life he returns to the day before the battle and repeats all the same events over again but he is the only one who knows anything about. At first he attempts to simply stop heavy loses and win the battle hoping that things will improve but quickly learns that this isn't going to be accomplished all on his own. That's when our incredibly kick butt heroine enters into the story and it is reveals that she has gone through this whole thing in much the same way, that's how she became so regarded as a solider and how her skills are so immense. In turn Cage's skills will improve much the same way as his continuous (which are obviously sped up a bit) allow him to become just as deadly of a solider and preform some stellar action scenes. I neglect to mention that each of the soldiers are equipped with an enhance exosuit which greatly improves every soldier, including Cage early on, into a killing machine. These suits often appear realistic like they could be used in my distant future and make the action that much more thrilling.
To my surprise as well, there is a great deal of humor that goes along with Edge of Tomorrow's story mainly with the time loop functionality. As Rita starts to train Cage to try and make him a somewhat passable soldier who can put an end to the war, she trains him every day before the battle or before he loses his life again and the later usually happens as she will simply kill him to start the day over again and retry anew. This becomes more and more hilarious as time progresses, at first Cage is weary about being shot in the head, one scene he simply has a broken leg and is crawling away from her explaining he can make it, only to have a bullet placed firmly in his skull. The ever stoic Rita doesn't help things either as she will at certain points just say "let's shoot you and start the day over" like it was no big deal while Cage feels a little differently, heck I would too. The time skip notion is really handle so fantastically in the film and I cannot say it enough how much I enjoyed it even in the touchier romantic scenes.
Cage's character at points feels the weight of reliving so many days over and over again and seeing Rita die before him. Cage's affection for Rita is pretty obvious through most of the movie and its really a unique sort of romance to see and watch, even though the day starts over and Rita will still be alive the next day if something happens it really hurts. It doesn't help also that each time he learns more about her and gets closer to her when she really doesn't because she can't remember things like he can. Cage gains a somewhat superhuman mind reading ability it would seem to most people outside of the loop who don't understand that he learns all the information about the people around him because he's done it all before. This is also a very funny aspect to the film as he wows people and leaves them speechless at the know-how he gains about people's lives, sometimes he cuts out the middle math of conversations and has them himself while people just stand there slack jawed. Comedy plays a very unique role in the film and it's surprising when you think about it because you end up laughing more in Edge of Tomorrow than you would at an actual comedy.
In conclusion, Edge of Tomorrow really turns out to be a fantastic surprise for an action thriller as it takes the Japanese novel All You Need is Kill and gives it a wonderful representation on screen. The trip line style of time traveling is both exciting and hilarious when it comes to Cage learning how to fight and become stronger and when he is repeatedly getting knock around during training, shot in the head and starting it all over. The concept behind this alien race having time travel abilities is a bit of stretch considering Mimics don't appear to be an insanely intelligent super race, they're more like killing machines to me but that really is the only thing I didn't go in for 100% with the film. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are both exceptional on screen and Tom I will say was a great pick for the role as he plays the smart/smug mystique role of Cage later on perfectly, it's right in his wheel house. Action, comedy and killer robotic aliens, I loved it all in the Edge of Tomorrow.
As I said I had my doubts about the film from the get go but as I watched Edge of Tomorrow I quickly found joy in the fantastic way that it was handled. Major Cage, loses his life during the battle he desperately did not want to be a part of but he ends up killing a unique form of Mimic in his last moments that grants him the ability to skip backwards in time. Every time he loses his life he returns to the day before the battle and repeats all the same events over again but he is the only one who knows anything about. At first he attempts to simply stop heavy loses and win the battle hoping that things will improve but quickly learns that this isn't going to be accomplished all on his own. That's when our incredibly kick butt heroine enters into the story and it is reveals that she has gone through this whole thing in much the same way, that's how she became so regarded as a solider and how her skills are so immense. In turn Cage's skills will improve much the same way as his continuous (which are obviously sped up a bit) allow him to become just as deadly of a solider and preform some stellar action scenes. I neglect to mention that each of the soldiers are equipped with an enhance exosuit which greatly improves every soldier, including Cage early on, into a killing machine. These suits often appear realistic like they could be used in my distant future and make the action that much more thrilling.
To my surprise as well, there is a great deal of humor that goes along with Edge of Tomorrow's story mainly with the time loop functionality. As Rita starts to train Cage to try and make him a somewhat passable soldier who can put an end to the war, she trains him every day before the battle or before he loses his life again and the later usually happens as she will simply kill him to start the day over again and retry anew. This becomes more and more hilarious as time progresses, at first Cage is weary about being shot in the head, one scene he simply has a broken leg and is crawling away from her explaining he can make it, only to have a bullet placed firmly in his skull. The ever stoic Rita doesn't help things either as she will at certain points just say "let's shoot you and start the day over" like it was no big deal while Cage feels a little differently, heck I would too. The time skip notion is really handle so fantastically in the film and I cannot say it enough how much I enjoyed it even in the touchier romantic scenes.
Cage's character at points feels the weight of reliving so many days over and over again and seeing Rita die before him. Cage's affection for Rita is pretty obvious through most of the movie and its really a unique sort of romance to see and watch, even though the day starts over and Rita will still be alive the next day if something happens it really hurts. It doesn't help also that each time he learns more about her and gets closer to her when she really doesn't because she can't remember things like he can. Cage gains a somewhat superhuman mind reading ability it would seem to most people outside of the loop who don't understand that he learns all the information about the people around him because he's done it all before. This is also a very funny aspect to the film as he wows people and leaves them speechless at the know-how he gains about people's lives, sometimes he cuts out the middle math of conversations and has them himself while people just stand there slack jawed. Comedy plays a very unique role in the film and it's surprising when you think about it because you end up laughing more in Edge of Tomorrow than you would at an actual comedy.
In conclusion, Edge of Tomorrow really turns out to be a fantastic surprise for an action thriller as it takes the Japanese novel All You Need is Kill and gives it a wonderful representation on screen. The trip line style of time traveling is both exciting and hilarious when it comes to Cage learning how to fight and become stronger and when he is repeatedly getting knock around during training, shot in the head and starting it all over. The concept behind this alien race having time travel abilities is a bit of stretch considering Mimics don't appear to be an insanely intelligent super race, they're more like killing machines to me but that really is the only thing I didn't go in for 100% with the film. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are both exceptional on screen and Tom I will say was a great pick for the role as he plays the smart/smug mystique role of Cage later on perfectly, it's right in his wheel house. Action, comedy and killer robotic aliens, I loved it all in the Edge of Tomorrow.
Good:
- Excellent performances by Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt
- The trip line style of time travel is handle fantastically both with the action and the comedic moments
- Fast paced and very solid action throughout the movie
Bad:
- Not really sure these aliens would have this time travel ability but oh well you can't win them all
Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10
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