EDGE OF TOMORROW - Tuesday 10th June 2014.

I checked out the latest Tom Cruise actioner last night at my local multiplex - 'EDGE OF TOMORROW' with a few movie buddies - and I liked this Doug Liman Directed offering - a lot!

Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel 'All You Need Is Kill', this film charts the story of an invaded Europe following an alien attack, in which the said aliens have taken up residence and are marauding across Europe advancing on the UK leaving death, destruction and devastation in their wake. Set in the not too distant future Tom Cruise plays Major William Cage - a stationed US military PR guru working with the UK based 'United Defence Force' in London - headed up by Brendan Gleeson's General Brigham. We learn early on that Cage is a graduated desk jockey great with words and spin, but no good with a gun out in the field when the going gets tough. He is cowardly, weak and weaselly and when 'ordered' to go into battle by Brigham does everything he can to worm his way out of it. This duly gets him drugged and demoted down to the rank of Private and he awakes at Heathrow Airport - now the forward base for the allied United Defence Force push into Europe to conquer (or so they believe) the advancing aliens. What follows is a lot of kicking, screaming and gnashing of teeth as Cage meets his fellow grunts and cannon fodder for a quick PT session and kit-out before the advance the next morning. Scarred shitless and wearing his newly developed exo-suit with rapid fire technology that he cannot grasp, he is next flying high above Normandy Beach ready to descend into battle. He lands in the thick of it and is clueless what to do whilst his fellow foot soldiers die in immense numbers and horribly all around him. It is only a question of time before an attack by a fast moving multi-tentacled ferocious alien (called 'Mimics) takes Cage out but not before a few rounds have killed the beast causing it to land on top of Cage and bleed black acid blood all over him - dissolving his face and head in an instant - and so Cage is dead!

This 'blood on blood' encounter though gives Cage the ability to distort time and he awakes again back at the Heathrow Airport forward base yesterday when he was first dumped there in his new found position as Privateer. Now, you'll be thinking 'Groundhog Day' and you could be forgiven for that because there are similarities here with reliving every day until you can effect meaningful and purposeful change. And so it is with this film! Cage goes through the same routine every day, gets killed and reawakens yesterday to go through it again, and again and again countless times. The difference though is that every time he gets killed in battle he learns and experiences different things that allow him to avoid situations and advance with new found knowledge, in an attempt to ultimately thwart the Mimics.

It is unclear how many times Cage dies - but it would be in the hundreds and as we progress he knows what to expect, it becomes mundane, boring and predictable and at times he welcomes it because it allows him to 'reset' and start again stronger, wiser, more confident in success. This is what moves the story along aided and abetted by his trainer Rita Vrataski (played with conviction by Emily Blunt) who herself has been in the same position as Cage and can therefore relate to what he is going through every day - but she is now clean as a result of a blood transfusion to save her life - and she is national hero thanks to a win against the Mimics in the battle of Verdun which she spearheaded.

Cruise gives a strong, solid and convincing performance here that would rank as one of his best in a long while; Doug Liman handles the action astutely and the sweeping vistas of Normandy Beach, Heathrow Airport and central Paris with a toppled Eifel Tower are rendered very well. The story line moves along at a good pace, there are moments of humour, the Mimics are well realised and a little different to your everyday intergalactic insectoid interloper, the close quarter battle scenes are big and impressive enough, and Bill Paxton and our own Noah Taylor ably support the cast.

In the final analysis, Cage's multi-repeated deaths and his learnings as a result serve to save the day in the climatic central Paris face off set in the depths of a flooded La Louvre underground car park. There is a little twist at the end which you'll have to see for yourself, but it did leave me with a question for Mr. Liman . . . will it for you too?
I saw this in 3D which serves to sharpen and define the imagery on screen, but 2D will easily suffice. See it on the big screen - it's worth it!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-