In ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, Central Europe has been overrun by alien creatures, and things are looking bleak for all mankind. However, a recent victory by human forces have given people hope and a major assault on France is planned. Tom Cruise, a PR man Major Cage who helps recruit volunteers for the war, is forced into fighting as part of the offensive. Within minutes of landing in France he is infected by an alien which results in him living that same day over and over again.
When watching time-travel movies, it is best not to look for plot holes, as you would generally find so many that the whole film falls apart. Part ‘Source Code’, part ‘Groundhog Day’, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ is enough fun that is easy to go along with the ride and not think too deeply about what you were watching. That is as long as you can get past the badly explained reasons why Cruise – who is apparently really good at his job – is being sent on what is basically a suicide mission.
Interestingly it is the first half of the film, where we see Cage going into battle time and time again, that is the most enjoyable. There are some really creative ways used to kill Cage; the action that results in the day starting again; and some nice humorous moments too. It is also interesting seeing parallels between the invasion in this movie and the D-Day invasion in the same part of France, that has received so much coverage recently. Watch this film, then re-watch ‘The Longest Day’, and you will see what I mean.
Once circumstances change, Cage stops re-living the same day and heads up a mission to kill the brain controlling the aliens, the film becomes a more standard sci-fi actioner. The ending is pretty unsatisfactory: it feels like the result of too many focus groups. There were a lot of script re-writes and re-shoots during the making of the movie and my guess is a lot of those were for the last 15 to 20 minutes of the film.
Despite his advancing years, Cruise is adept at this sort of role and Emily Blunt is very good as fellow soldier, Rita, handling the action sequences better than you might expect. As you would expect those action scenes are well staged by Doug Liman, the director of the first Bourne film.
Rating 6 out of 10