By Geno McGahee
Tom Cruise is a huge star, but there really aren’t many of his films that stand out. I’ve seen many of his films and they’re not bad, but I never watch his films twice. EDGE OF TOMORROW is another case of this. It’s a sci-fi, action-packed, interesting movie but, in the end, there is just something missing. I can’t put my finger on it, but this very good film had the potential to be a classic. It just came up short.
Cage (Cruise) is used as a tool to push the military. He has no actual war experience and doesn’t want any, but he is forced into it by his superior. Aliens have taken over the world and these are different aliens then Cruise dealt with in WAR OF THE WORLDS. These aliens are actually worse. They are insect-like and are tough to kill. When Cage is told that he will be hitting the beach as a soldier, he tries to get out of it, but they force him…literally.
Cage gets suited up in this robotic fighting suit and sent to combat under the leadership of Master Sergeant Farell (Bill Paxton). Even though Bill Paxton never has a hard time getting work, I think that he could do more. Paxton, when he’s in the lead, brings some amazing things such as A SIMPLE PLAN and FRAILTY. To the credit of Paxton, he brought his A game to this minor role and was very believable as the hard ass military boss.
While fighting the alien insect things, Cage is killed. He wakes up, living the same day over again. He sees the great soldier, Rita (Emily Blunt), killed, and vows to save her. He keeps repeating the day over and over again and she keeps dying. At one point, she stops him and says “find me after you wake up.” Some alien blood got into his veins and now he has the ability to reset the day and they now want to use this skill to find the brain that controls all these insect things and stop it.
Cage keeps dying and coming back to train and improve his combat skills under the guidance of Rita. This is sort of like GROUNDHOG DAY with Bill Murray. In that flick, Murray kept reliving the same day and he used it to learn to play the piano and get chicks. Cage just wants to keep his chick alive and save the world and as he continues, he becomes more of a grizzled soldier.
After some visions, Cage discovers where the Omega (alien brain) is and teams up with some soldiers to save the world, leading to an alien attack-filled conclusion with some big action and a happy ending.
EDGE OF TOMORROW is good. It’s actually very good, but it is very forgettable. Part of the problem may be the aliens. They are CGI and they look very fake. I know that I’ve never seen real aliens before, but if I did, they wouldn’t look like that. They’d look badass. These aliens just aren’t believable. They look way to much like a video game. Every time the big action scenes happen, this film loses a beat. The story is cool, the performances are good and the scenes between Cruise and Blunt are interesting and compelling.
Despite the empty feeling I now have, I highly recommend EDGE OF TOMORROW. It is worth a watch, like nearly all Cruise films, but like nearly all Cruise films, you probably won’t watch it again.
Rating: 7.5/10
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