Edge of Tomorrow:
Major William Cage is part of an international military that recruits from all over the world to fight against Mimics, a race of robotic aliens that have been fighting humans for at least a few years now. Cage is railroaded by his superiors when he attempts to blackmail his commanding officer. With no combat experience, Cage is a highly inadequate soldier. Cage is dropped into a massive and bloody battle of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France (France has been occupied and destroyed by the Mimics). However, the battle (supposed to be a surprise strike on the aliens) goes horribly wrong when the Mimics somehow become aware of the strike before it happens and effectively slaughter the entire fleet of soldiers. Cage dies horrifically in the battle, but then wakes back up, alive but with complete knowledge of the battle, and begins living the same day over and over again, waking up every time he perishes. He then meets a hardened female soldier: Sergeant Rita Vrataski (nicknamed "The Angel of Verdun" and "Full Metal Bitch"), who has knowledge of his abilities and trains him in how to control them and use them to defeat the Mimics and save humanity. Although not the most original concept (it's very similar to the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day), the film shocked me with how entertaining and investing it was. I'm not saying it's something I'm dying to see again, but after last spring's underwhelming and dull Oblivion, I was pleasantly surprised.
Tom Cruise plays his typical role: a man who appears oridnary and even weak, but ultimately rises up to face the challenges he's presented with and beocmes an action hero. Cruise also did his own stunts, which were very physcially demanding, another thing he's famous for. Emily Blunt was very good in her portrayal of the jaded and highly-skilled soldier Vrataski. The bad-ass heroine isn't something she usually does, so it was a welcome change of pace and I'd like to see her do more stuff like this in the future. Both her and Cruise had to actually walk around in heavy metal suits, which was physically exhausting, and she trained for weeks to be physically fit enough to play the experienced soldier. Bill Paxton (cast here due to his famous role in Aliens) plays the kind of douchey Master Sergeant Farrell, who belittles Cage from the moment he arrives at the military base the day before the disastrous battle. Paxton, as always, does a great job protraying a cocky and slightly stupid military officer. Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter, 28 Days Later, Gangs of New York) has a small supporting role as Cage's superior, General Brigham. Kick Gurry, Dragomir Mrsic, Charlotte Riley, Jonas Armstrong, Franz Drameh, Masayoshi Haneda, and Tony Way (known for his recurring role as Dontos Hollard on Game of Thrones) play "J-Squad", a group of inexperienced and rough soldiers who Cage must befriend in order to be successful in the army. They are underdogs, much like Cage, so I really wanted to see them succeed and get the respect they deserve. Noah Taylor (another reucrring Game of Thrones actor, known for his role as the sadistic mercenary Locke) appears in a minor role as Vrataski's colleague, a scientist by the name of Dr. Carter, who has a revolutionary idea about how to defeat the Mimics. The cast are actually very good, especially considering many of them are not very famous or are only just gaining fame.
Daniel Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) is no stranger to action films, and is able to deliver a lot of thrills in this movie. The visual effects and costumes are also very cool, and the design of the aliens isn't the most original, but they still carried a menacing presence whenver they appeared on-screen. The movie actually has a fair deal of gruesome deaths in it, with minimal blood, which I was surprised by, but also I got to give the movie credit for having the balls to push the boundaries of the PG-13 rating a bit.
Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth pen a pretty entertaining script, despite it obviously taking a lot from other films. I've never read Hiroshi Sakurazaka's All You Need Is Kill, so I can't say how well the movie adapts it, but from what I've read, they actually did a fairly good job.
Edge of Tomorrow isn't the best sci-fi/military action film; it doesn't have the scathing satire of Starship Troopers or the classic moments of Aliens, but it gets the job done. The cast deliver pretty great performances for an action film, the visual effects are excellent, the action scenes are brief but they are fast-paced and sometimes emotionally engrossing (one scene in the French countryside in particular comes to mind), and the script is faithful to the source material while also adding elements to make it more entertaining to a Western audience. 3.5/5 stars.
(Image: Wikipedia)
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