A few months ago, I watched another
sci-fi movie starring Tom Cruise where he helps save the earth from
aliens. That movie was 2013's "Oblivion,"
and at the time, I totally had it confused with “Edge of Tomorrow.”
As it happens, both movies are excellent, and Cruise is excellent in
both. In fact, I have really come to appreciate Cruise as a solid
actor who is at his best doing fast-paced action. He really classes
up any project he appears in.
In “Edge of Tomorrow,” Cruise
plays Major Cage, a military public relations guy with no real
soldiering experience. Earth is in the midst of an alien invasion,
and Cage is a spokesperson, appearing on the news to laud the heroic
soldiers fighting the beasts, and to drum up new volunteers. Cage
balks, though, when he is ordered to actually accompany troops on a
second Normandy invasion to retake France from the aliens. He winds
up on the front lines anyway, in the midst of a bloody battle, and he
gets killed. At the moment of his death, though, he wakes up again
the previous day, and finds himself re-living all the events leading
up to his presence on that battlefield. He gets killed again, and
the cycle repeats, over and over. Why this is happening to him, and
what he does to deal with the situation, well, that's all part of the
fun!
And this movie is fun! It's so nice
to see an action movie that doesn't make me loathe myself for
watching. Tom Cruise really commits to this role of a cowardly
pretty-boy who has to man up, and he is blessed with a tight
supporting cast. Emily Blunt is impressively badass as a fellow
soldier who helps Cage. Bill Paxton hams it up in a small role as a
field sergeant. Kudos also go to the screenwriters for a well-crafted
story that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
It would be easy to glibly describe
“Edge of Tomorrow” as a sci-fi “Groundhog Day,” but this
movie is something completely different. “Groundhog Day” was all
about Bill Murray's character learning to accept his situation and to
be at peace with his endlessly-repeating day. “Edge of Tomorrow”
is constantly moving the action forward. As Cage relives his day, he
is constantly changing his strategy as he unlocks different aspects
of the situation. In some ways, the story is like a video game, where
you keep starting over at the beginning every time your character
gets killed, and you get further along each time. “Edge of
Tomorrow” doesn't have any of the lameness of a video game movie
though. This is a tightly-crafted, well-paced story that won't make
you groan with exasperation. It's true that the time travel aspects
don't make any more sense than they do in any time-travel movie. Once
you suspend your disbelief for the basic premise, though, the
characters' actions make sense. “Edge of Tomorrow” isn't going to
change your view of the universe, or anything. It's just good, solid
action entertainment. Watch it yesterday!
4 stars out of 5
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