Edge of Tomorrow is one of those nice little surprises. Not a big surprise like Disney casting aside heteronormative values in Frozen or Cabin in the Woods being a thorough analysis of the horror genre. More of a Lords & Miller 'this actually turned out good?' surprise. On the surface it all sounds terribly derivative; 'Action Sci-Fi version of Groundhog Day? Haven't seen that since Source Code.' The star is the original cocksure, hyper-competent everyman now with a heavy dose of personal baggage which coupled with the rise of brand dominance is just not the box office draw he used to be (just look at Knight & Day, Oblivion). In fact Edge of Tomorrow itself may have fallen victim to Cruise's diminishing star power losing out heavily to The Fault in Our Stars. And yet in spite of all that the film still works as a satisfying blockbuster.
Part of Edge of Tomorrow's success does seem to be down to just how aware it is of Cruise's less than favourable reception among audiences. Beginning the film as military PR-man Major William Cage, promoted over his head for the sole purpose of marketing a futile war against alien invaders in the near future. Cage is slick, disinterested in war, dismissive of the loss of human life and, when told he's being deployed to the frontlines, resorts to blackmail and desertion. So half of the inital appeal is largely due to schadenfraude, watching him get thrown down with rookie recruits, then into a horribly violent warzone to get killed by the aliens and then find out we get to see it all happen again.
See the reason the aliens have been so ably kicking our arses is because certain members of their species have the power to reverse time. When Cage accidentally kills one he absorbs the power and gets sent back 24 hours, which is where the film pretty much runs on video game logic. Soon the battle becomes a question of memorising enemy spawn points to proceed further before dying a resetting. It's not long though before he acquired the assistance of Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a hot-shot soldier whose exploits against the aliens are legendary thanks to previously being stuck in the same loop as Cage.
Watching the evolution of Cage from spineless coward to battle-hardened soldier, thanks to Vrataski is probably the films strongest section. Essentially attempting to write the walkthrough guide to the battle while making Cage capable enough to actually walk through it. There's little in the way of surprises as the solution boils down to eliminating the hive mind that will take out all the aliens Phantom Meanace-style. But the action is exciting and they almost always find something funny or compelling to do with the various deaths. That's perhaps Edge of Tomorrow's biggest achievement, that while it often runs through several of the same scenes and lines over and over again it never feels repetitive. There's always some fresh twist to the each resurrection and it manages to play Cage's learning about the people around him without completely ripping off Groundhog Day.
Props too go to Emily Blunt as Vrataski who in a lesser film would be relegated to exposition-monkey. Here though she managed to give the stone-cold warrior woman enough visceral entertainment value to be fun and enough good timing to even get a few laughs in. I did roll my eyes at the revelation of a dead boyfriend but given she had to experience the trauma repeatedly as Cage now has to do with her it actually provides a nice amount of depth.
Edge of Tomorrow isn't going to change your life but if you're not in the mood for overly-acerbic teenagers dying horribly of cancer it's probably your best bet before the new Transformers comes out. High octane science fiction that'll be best remembered as a fun watch a few years from now.
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