You've seen Tom Cruise in a lot of action movies. We've certainly seen him wielding a gun in more films than not and we're well used to him being the hero sporting the gleaming Hollywood smile in nearly all of his pictures. But what we definitely haven't seen him play is the coward, let alone the coward that is upstaged in the tough stakes by a woman. And that's pretty much the entire premise of Edge Of Tomorrow in a nutshell.
Based upon the Japanese manga novel, All You Need Is Kill, but with a few details changed of course, the film almost plays out in a game-like way with action sequences so involving, you feel exhausted just watching them!
Set in the future, the entire Earth is in the middle of an alien invasion from creatures called mimics. Creatures who are absolutely obliterating the world one country at a time and the human race has seemingly no choice but to band together to stop these things from destroying the planet. In the build-up to a planned attack on the mimics, it is Major William Cage's task to get the public supportive of the idea and to recruit as many army volunteers as possible. But despite being a glorified promoter of actively fighting these lifeforms, Cage (Cruise) has never seen a day of combat in his life and when he is forced into battle by his superior, he can't help but try to weasel his way out at every opportunity.
Completely out of his depth, as soon as Cage is thrown into the war he dies almost instantaneously but whilst this would normally be the ending of a typical action movie, for Edge Of Tomorrow, this is just the beginning. As in a desperate attempt to save his own skin, Cage set off an explosive into one of the mimics and as a result gets covered in it's blood (and subsequently gets burnt by the explosive himself).
Awaking once again at the army base the day BEFORE the battle, Cage soon realises that he is stuck in a time loop, having to live out the same brutal battle until every time he dies, it resets again. He later finds out that the aliens have the ability to alter time as they so wish which explains their dominance over the humans in every ambush and since he was covered in the mimic's blood before his death, he's kind of inherited their time-travelling powers. Sounds completely confusing right? But fear not, it's relatively easy to understand when actually watching the action unfold yourself!
Now with an advantage over the mimics, Cage can now remember where the aliens are and what they are going to do in the fight and as he lives out each day, his combat skills strengthen. With the help of experienced war hero, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), Cage manages to change his actions day by day to not only survive that particular battle against the extraterrestrial race but to stop them once and for all.
Whilst seemingly more like a classic action piece rather than these hyped-up "robot fights are awesome" attitudes that films such as Transformers or Pacific Rim have conjured up over the years, from the minute Cage is said to be going into battle, it's obvious it's a frightening concept and rightfully so. You can literally feel Cage's fear and through the harshness of the settings and the oblivious, almost insane way the other characters wholeheartedly embrace the danger, you can almost understand his cowardly ways. It's unusual that you see yourself empathising with a seemingly unlikeable character but when you're watching you can't help but realise that you would do the same if faced with such a terrifying prospect.
Almost posing as a complete juxtaposition to Cruise's wuss, Blunt's Vrataski is a hardened, muscly, unemotional war machine inside a human's body, never having to think before she dons her exoskeleton suit before going out and kicking some alien arse. Blunt's characters lends itself more to the heightened science-fiction-like qualities of Edge Of Tomorrow, coming across as a slightly exaggerated G.I. Jane or Alice from Resident Evil derivative, but it works in comparison.
As Bill comes to know Rita across the day he lives on repeat, it makes for a different kind of love story as she meets him for the very first time over and over again. So as his feelings grow, hers start from the beginning every single time and it's these little touches that make Edge Of Tomorrow more impressive than most typical action movies. As Cage's feelings get deeper for Vrataski and he starts altering the future to favour her rather than purely mankind, it humanises the characters even further and creates a softer side to Cage making him more likeable.
Emily Blunt has enough softness about her to be believable as Cruise's love interest but can also hold her own in the battlefield scenes (of which there are many) as the 'Full Metal Bitch'. Blunt has often surprised audiences by constantly opting for roles we wouldn't necessarily expect her to pick and Vrataski is no exception although she fits into the character's suit to speak, very well.
There's no question that this film is first and foremost an action but there's a surprising amount of humour within it that works well despite it's pretty dark content. This is most likely down to the fact that the characters, whilst being in a surreal setting, themselves, seem very real and human, and this can't just be down to the fact that Liman quotably opted for real-life scenery and costumes. It's prove of a well-written script and one that understands that people sometimes need to laugh their way out of a hard situation particularly when they have no other option. These aren't some superheroes with powers battling off an enemy, these are real people with ordinary, old school weapons and sometimes, even they need to distract themselves a little.
It's ideas are fresh, clever and almost impossible to find plot holes within, which is an achievement for a film that so heavily grounds itself in time travel and science-fiction, both of which are farfetched subjects. The repetition of the same day never becomes boring as director, Doug Liman seems to know exactly what needs to be shown and doesn't waste time progressing the story along with unnecessary scenes.
It's pace is relentless and doesn't have a faltering moment where you find yourself losing interest and credit has got to go to the creators for that. Throughout the entire movie, it is so evident that the entire team knew just how to execute a movie such as this and even so much as a poorly edited scene could have compromised it and broken the flow but there are no such scenes. Liman proves here that much like in his previous movie, The Bourne Identity, he's so aware as to when to linger and explain a certain point as well as move on to the next surprise or piece of developing storyline.
With all it's glowing positives, Edge Of Tomorrow will undoubtedly be the surprise hit of the summer and certainly one that shouldn't be missed. Leads Cruise and Blunt carry the film with intelligence and obvious understanding of both their own parts and each others and it's truly impressive. The ending leaves the whole film open for a potential sequel but whether they should do that when the film works so well as a stand-alone piece is a wonder. Quite simply, go see it, and if you like it as much as me, you'll want to keep watching it, over and over and over again.
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