Re-Live Each Day “On The Edge Of Your Seat” With ‘Edge of Tomorrow’
I’m not sure who it was, either Aaron or Gerard here, but I remember it like it was only yesterday (no pun to the subject matter of this film), when one of them recommended to the Why So Blu clan members that they needed to check out the trailer for Edge of Tomorrow. Come to think of it, Aaron probably had a leg up on us all last year with his coverage of three Warner Bros. titles here and of course his WonderCon writeup this past April here. And like usual, when I first watched the trailer I refuted that I would ever love it. I mean I loved Tom Cruise in Oblivion last year and I even loved a loophole time jumping flick like 2012’s Looper, but I sometimes get agitated and very antsy when I’m forced to watch the same thing transpire over and over only to get a little bit more info each time. However, like usual, popular consensus seems to always get under my skin and I seemingly can’t help being swayed by it. So it really all began weeks ago when Craig Kandiko of Fat Movie Guy had the audacity to say that Oblivion has nothing on Edge of Tomorrow. Those are fighting words. LOL. I guess you can say I owed it to myself to check this bad boy out. And here we are.
First thing first, make no mistake, this is Groundhog Day set in a sci-fi world. Like Oblivion to so many hardcore sci-fi movie lovers, there’s not much of an original twist to this one other than the promise of you having an absolute blast with it that is. Tom Cruise is back again, doing what he does best as of late, dropping a dope performance on us all. And I have to admit, I think I love Tom the most in these sci-fi action roles like this one, Oblivion and Minority Report as opposed to his others such as Jack Reacher, the Mission Impossible franchise, etc. The guy really knows how to have a good time in these campy tales and one has to look no farther than the giant movie screen in front of them to realize that. If you can suspend your disbelief for a mere two hours, then I guarantee you’ll have fun with this one. That’s how confident I am. And even better, this is one of the finest 3-D presentations I’ve seen in the theater so far this year too. However, I digress. I’m kind of getting ahead of myself and blowing my wad prematurely by letting you know how much I love this film. Let’s be a little more unbiased for a bit and talk more in-depth about Edge of Tomorrow. As Gerard Iribe would say, what say you?
So it comes as no surprise that this is yet another action vehicle for Tom Cruise who honestly shows no signs of aging or slowing down in his 50’s. Do you think he is a vampire? God! That would be so cool. Maybe he’s onto something with that church of scientology stuff. I should check into it, but I digress for the time being because I have a review here to finish. In the co-starring role we find the very eye pleasing Emily Blunt. There’s this one scene they repeat over and over where she’s holding up her body weight by balancing with only her palms on the floor and slithers up in a sexy fashion once Tom’s character enters. It was funny because you could hear all the testosterone in the room during the press screening because nearly every time they showed that event I heard “oh my God” mumbles from the male populous. Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson sport supporting roles too.
Edge of Tomorrow is actually based on a Japanese light novel by the name of All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. It is directed by Doug Liman, who has already helmed several films I really enjoy, based off a screenplay penned by Christopher McQuarrie and a few others. And let’s cut straight to the chase. This film’s about aliens! And they’re named Mimics! Supposedly it’s for their ability to “mimic” and counter military strategies making them nearly unbeatable. So sign up! The military needs a few good women and men ready to take them on and save all of humanity! I knew absolutely nothing going into this movie, other than it being a Groundhog Day story, and I managed to have a blast. The same can happen for you too!
The story takes place in the not so distant future in mostly Western Europe I guess you can say. Aliens invaded us and for the most part mankind has been losing until now when a new way to combat them was invented, the so called use of these exoskeleton suits I guess you could say, almost mech like, but not quite. There’s also a star soldier in our movie, almost a national hero like Captain America is to the Marvel universe, named Rita Vrataski (Blunt). However, there’s more to her than meets the eye that Cruise’s character, William Cage, will expose in her. And that’s all I will say on that subject.
So the crux of our story centers around Major William Cage who’s really nothing more than a glorified journalist/PR person for the military and has zero combat experience. Well unlucky for him the military has plans to send him out onto the front lines for an invasion they are planning much akin to a D-Day like storming of the beach (think Saving Private Ryan if you will). It’s the preparation for this battle where Tom Cruise proves what a star vehicle he is, not so much in the action department, but in the comedic one because he wants nothing to do with fighting, nothing whatsoever. He’ll have you in stitches as the comedy is really amped during these scenes here and the good times really never let you go because after all we’ve all seen the trailers, you know he dies an awful lot and what better way to combat living the same day over and over again than by making light of it. Remember, laughter is truly the best medicine. Don’t ever forget that! And of course there’s the obligatory teaming up to save the world from extinction in this movie, yada yada yada, but you already knew all that!
I don’t want to spoil the hows and whys as to “why” Cage gets to be the lucky one to relive every day, but rest assured I just wanted to let you know it’s explained. It’s not the most original idea just like Oblivion isn’t the most original sci-fi adventure of all time, but as I said before and I’ll say it again…if you can sustain your suspension of disbelief for just two measly hours here, I think you’ll have a great time with this one. There’s plenty of action, plenty of comedy and of course plenty of letting the good times roll over and over, but just when you think you had enough of a particular event happening the writers were smart enough to shake things up and keep you in the game. And if nothing else, there’s always exceptional special effects throughout on the lines of how spectacular things looked in Elysium at least. I liked them better than the ones employed in Godzilla. What’s your take on them? Call me curious.
So I guess my only beef is the one I need to take up with Craig. While I enjoyed the hell out of this one and will enjoy it even further on the Blu-ray format in four months or so to come, it’s still sadly no Oblivion for me. It failed to hit me on that emotional high coupled with the gorgeous cinematography and scenery that Oblivion smacked me across the face with last year. Now that’s not to say it was a bad effort, quite the contrary. I loved Edge of Darkness, but I enthusiastically like Oblivion better for many more reasons than I have time to go into in here. However, if I have to pick one reason, perhaps the love story or love interest wasn’t all that fleshed out here like it was in Oblivion and maybe that’s my sticking point. I don’t know, but I do know this. I’m sure looking forward to another visit with Edge of Tomorrow. The film literally had me on the “edge of my seat” as I anxiously and excitedly lived out every repeat day of Major Cage’s life with zeal, zest and the utmost of gusto. Edge of Tomorrow, despite not having a huge climatic ending, is both ambitious and bold and most importantly, thankfully not tiresome like so many loophole adventures can be. Beam me up Scotty! I want to see it again! Repeat please!
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