Movie Review: The Edge of Tomorrow

Spoilers: Tom Cruise does indeed run in this movie.
(image from http://www.impawards.com/2014/posters/edge_of_tomorrow_ver4_xlg.jpg)

When I first saw the trailer for The Edge of Tomorrow, I thought this was going to be a really bad attempt at sci fi and a half assed attempt as romance.

Oh look, it's Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, and they seem to have powers that let them relive a single day together. Sure there's action, but...eeeh.

SO I went and actually saw the movie because I'm a loser and have no job and I gotta say, this was a VERY pleasant surprise. The movie didn't suck at all!


The Edge of Tomorrow follows the story of Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) and an Earth that's been invaded by an alien life form known as Mimics. These aliens have managed to take over three quarters of Europe and show no signs of stopping.

As it turns out, these aliens seem to be able to tell when a human counter attack is about to launch. As a result, the humans barely every win any fights.

William Cage is a coward. He's specifically an Officer by choice because he doesn't want to do any fighting in the front lines. So in the beginning, the main character is a bit of a weakling. He has zero combat experience and dies very quickly in his first fight.

It isn't until his first death that he suddenly finds himself with these powers that allow him to reset that one particular day, reliving each moment over and over again. Think Groundhog Day but with aliens and exo skeletons.

Long story short, Cage meets Rita (Emily Blunt) who used to have the same powers as he did, but lost them. It's all explained in the movie, I don't need to go into details. But the basis of the plot is that these two characters try to use Cage's powers to their advantage to fight back these alien hordes.

Also, awesome Exo-skeleton suits.

What happens is an action packed movie full of clever story writing and excellent visuals. I get a kick out of a guy reliving the same day and doing things slightly differently just to see how things would be affected.

There was no half-assed romance as the characters were more like buddies than lovers and on top of that Tom Cruise actually does a pretty decent job in his role. I did prefer Emily Blunt more though, her Rita was fantastic and she was a genuine badass.

As the movie went on, the flaws of the film became quite apparent however, and most of it can be pin pointed to the very forgettable side cast. In a way, I guess it makes sense story wise to not have an important side cast, but at least give them more of a personality so that I care about them when I see Tom Cruise try and save them or interact with them or whatever. They weren't very memorable, especially compared to Rita and Cage.

In terms of time, the movie runs at about 2 hours. Well, close to it. This may seem like a length run time for a sci-fi action film, but it gives the story enough time to breath and flesh out it's story. However, I've noticed that things can get for too fast paced and constant jumps due to time travel might cause confusion. Sometimes I'd question where the movie is going at certain points because...well...I'd get lost and might lose some details of the plot. This doesn't happen often though and when it does, the movie does a good job of recovering.

One thing that should be noted is that The Edge of Tomorrow is based off of a Japanese Manga/Novel called All You Need is Kill (bad ass title by the way) and according to my friend who's read the source material, the movie does change several things up to make it more...'Hollywood'. They weren't bad changes either, he rather quite liked it and had no complaints about them whatsoever.

Overall, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by The Edge of Tomorrow. It was a clever science fiction flick with a clever plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

If you've got some time on your hands, I recommend that you go and watch it.

Verdict: 4/5

Positives:
+ Clever story
+ Exo-skeletons aren't over used
+ Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise perform well together
+ No half assed romance!

Negatives:
- Forgettable side characters
- Lot's of jumps can make things confusing


Rating Key:
1 - Don't bother wasting your time. Don't even look at the trailers.
2 - Save it for bad movie night or for background noise during sex if it's not entertaining enough.
3 - Not bad, kinda average, but don't watch it twice in a short amount of time.
4 - Good, worth a second watch and worthy of a group viewing for marathons or what not.
5 - Awesome! Has the chance to be a classic and something that you should TOTALLY bug your friends into watching!