Edge of Tomorrow - Movie Review
3"Edge of Tomorrow" (2014) directed by Doug Liman is a sci-fi time loop war movie which is a bit cheesy but is still really good in my opinion. "Have I something on my face soldier?"
Humanity is at war with an invading alien species called Mimics. William "Bill" Cage (Tom Cruise) is conscripted and sent to the front line against his wishes to fight in the first wave. Cage kills an extremely rare type of Mimic called an Alpha, which grants him the power to control the flow of time similar to the Omega, but the catch is that time only resets when he is killed. Cage teams up with an ultimate warrior girl boss named Rita (Emily Blunt) who is one of two people to believe his time stories because she has gone through an experience like him in the past.
Edge of Tomorrow (also known as Live Die Repeat) is based on a Japanese novel called All You Need Is Kill and this film made me want to go and read it pretty badly, the source material was pretty strong and made for a perfect adaption into a film. I've seen a few time loop films but this one is king for me personally. Edge of Tomorrow is focused on fast paced excitement and action while not compromising it's inherently interesting premise and circumstances. This is one of Tom Cruise's strongest roles in my opinion as well as he is playing a shady propaganda spewer and not some default action hero combat expert.
Now this is a film that is similar to "Starship Troopers" (1997) which is one of my favorite movies ever, so it needs to be treated the same. It is purposefully satirical and being a mockery of itself; so it's important to recognize the distinction between actual bad movie and a great movie pretending to be bad for humor and portrayal purposes. What is actually wrong about the film though is a short list; and I would argue the biggest issue is the character motivation for Cage . . . As he is a seemingly unpatriotic liar who wants no direct part in the war; and the film makes the mistake of revealing the "cure" to his time reset problem very early on, meaning it's strange why Cage doesn't just try to cure himself and get a blood transfusion as fast as possible. If I had to guess why he continues to fight and not cure himself there would be two reasons, the first being that it seems like the world will end if he is unable to destroy the Omega in this specific loop as we see the Mimics invade non combat location cities when Cage decides to take some time off and relax in a bar, and the second reason is because his feelings for Rita develop stronger and he wants to save her; but this is purely my own speculation / rationalization and the film never clearly and concretely lets us know why Cage doesn't just cure himself as soon as possible and let the rest of fate play out without his involvement . . . Oh and the other issue is that the ending makes no sense and is completely unexplained, but I honestly just pretend that part isn't even canon.
Edge of Tomorrow is genuinely fantastic because of it's awesome source material. This is a film that at first glance might seem shoddy or cheesy, but I assure you it's all intentional in the interest of creating a fun entertaining experience.
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