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Review: Edge of Tomorrow

★★★★☆

Four Stars

Tom Cruise is the most consistently bankable star in Hollywood because he has never made a remotely controversial film in his thirty-year career. This proves to be the case once again in Edge of Tomorrow, a strong sci-fi action offering from previous Cruise collaborator Doug Liman. Having worked on The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Jumper, Liman is in familiar territory with this film revolving around aliens, explosions and the manipulation of time based on Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill.

Cruise stars as William Cage, a smarmy PR man turned soldier who has never seen combat in a war for Earth against an extra-terrestrial hive mind. Cage is thrown into action alongside Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski, heroine of the only battle humanity has yet won against the invaders, known as mimics. Moments before his inevitable and brutal demise, an encounter with one of the mimics grants Cage the ability to manipulate time, “resetting” him 24 hours earlier but with full knowledge of his previous life. Cue repeated attempts by the duo to figure out a way to beat the alien menace, each ending in Cage’s death and restarting the day before.

It is an engaging premise, but aside from this, Edge of Tomorrow is happy not to push the boat out too much – having a female lead who can kick ass and setting the majority of the action in Europe rather than the USA is as far as Liman goes. Casting-wise, Brendan Gleeson’s gruff, stubborn general and Noah Taylor’s eccentric scientist are somewhat contrived stereotypes who nonetheless provide good foils to Cruise and Blunt respectively. As for the leads themselves, Cruise has played this role a hundred times before and does so again with as much flair as one might expect (hint: not loads). Blunt, meanwhile, gives the kind of brusque performance we have come to expect – and enjoy – from her, but the script does not allow her a huge amount of depth in which to move.

It is, understandably, the action set-pieces and the aesthetic of Edge of Tomorrow rather than the characterisation that truly carries the film. The battle sequences are truly awesome, pitting an international force of humans in mechanical suits against the terrifying octopean mimics. “Groundhog Day x Starship Troopers” was how one Twitter user hailed the film, but this perhaps doesn’t do it justice; a potent mix of The Matrix and Saving Private Ryan would be more accurate a description. Indeed, certain scenes of soldiers aflame and dismembered on Normandy beaches appear to be in direct tribute to Spielberg’s epic; imagine D-Day but replace the Wehrmacht with Sentinels from the Matrix franchise and the result is something close to Edge of Tomorrow. Video games, too, are central to the film’s aesthetic, and any teenage boy would recognise elements of Gears of War and Final Fantasy in Vrataski’s mecha suit and massive sword. The plot, which closely resembles Cage replaying a difficult level of a war game over and over again, lends itself to this vibe, and whilst engaging with gaming has the potential to make the film childish, it doesn’t. Equally, Liman builds intense drama without over-relying on bloody violence.

The film suffers only one awful moment of tacky Tom Cruise-action-vehicle symptoms, and that’s during the final five minutes. Without elaborating, it’s a disappointing loss of nerve from an otherwise riotously entertaining and high-octane film. Sure, it takes itself a bit too seriously, and sure, it doesn’t reinvent sci-fi, but Edge of Tomorrow is proof that a good concept in the hands of an accomplished action director can still make for an enthralling and engaging viewing experience.

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