'Edge of Tomorrow' - Review

Based on the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow is a sci-fi action movie from director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Cruise plays Bill Cage, a soldier drafted into a seemingly unwinnable war against a superior alien race, who becomes caught in a time loop of his final day of battle. As the story develops, Cage meets Rita (Blunt), a bonafide super-soldier who attempts to forge him into a weapon that will help win the war.

To be fair to the film, it's got a lot to live up to based purely on the premise alone: the déjà vu element of Groundhog Day competing with the production aesthetic of Starship Troopers. The difference is that Groundhog Day while was a much more contemplative piece, this film thrusts you right into the dizzyingly disorientating, knuckle-breakingly gritty thick of it. And whilst everyone in Starship Troopers just looked like people in plastic costumes, you really feel the weight of the enormous and ungainly mecha-suits the soldiers are wearing, a mix of thudding sound design and cleverly-designed costumes preventing the hardware from simply turning into military porn.

Perhaps the greatest triumph of the film is that it manages to make Tom Cruise - someone who always looks like they're on top of everything and having a good time - look confused, out of his depth, and laughably incapable of doing what has to be done. Emily Blunt takes his place as the proper action hero, elevated beyond the usual 'woman as eye candy' stereotype and given a great deal more to do than most women in typical action fare, performing her role with an ice-cool edge and sheer brute force. Among the supporting cast the true standout is Bill Paxton as a no-nonsense, southern-fried army captain assigned to lead Cage's unit.

The déjà vu element is played to its fullest extent, and manages to provide a comedic heart to what should essentially be a hopeless and bitter story, many physical gags and other gallows humour brought out by the repeated beach landing sequence. It wasn't very long into the film when I realised that I'd actually laughed more than I had at most recent comedy films, and I think it's something to be admired that a film that - at least in its publicity and advertising campaign - is sold purely as an action movie dares to throw something fresh into the mix.

Much like he did with The Bourne Identity, Liman manages to make the audience feel every punch, the aforementioned sound design plus a very well-managed blend of live-action and CGI bringing out hard-hitting, pulse pounding action amidst the developing story. The only issue one might have with the sound is that it makes the music impossible to hear, but the musical score supplied by Christophe Beck is so lacklustre and generic that it might have been better to simply ditch it altogether. Another issue is that the farmhouse set piece and it's allusions to some kind of character backstory feels very out of place and, if removed, wouldn't be missed or affect that rest of the film in any way.

Edge of Tomorrow is a great example of a film defying audience expectations and simply saying 'y'know what, let's just have a bit of fun for once!' Sporting a well-rounded double-lead and an all-guns-blazing attitude to the central idea, it is a much smarter and funnier film than the horribly generic trailers gave us reason to hope for. 

4 Stars