Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Review

Edge of Tomorrow is directed by Doug Liman and stars Tom Cruise as Major William Cage and Emily Blunt as Rita Vrataski. Tom Cruises character plays a major that goes around news stations telling the public about this war that is going on. The war is with an alien species that wants to essentially wipe out humanity to have the earth for themselves. But Major William Cage has been drafted to now enter the war and a freak death means that he has to live the same day over and over again, however with the help of Rita Vrataski, William Cage will learn how to be a warrior.

Edge of Tomorrow is a really impressive and well-made film. Doug Liman knew how to encapsulate time in the film, as with a film that has to repeat itself over and over again it can become boring and repetitive. However we got to see the characters progress, from Tom Cruises especially, as we got to see him from a wimpy Major, that over the time (which is one day) become a warrior to take down the aliens. I was also fond of Emily Blunts characters development, because we got to know more about her every time Tom Cruises character dies and starts the day again. Her character as the badass was great to watch because she just captures the role, she’s intimidating when needed and commanding when needed. I enjoyed how we weren’t told how many times William Cage’s character died, they could have gone down the easy road of putting dialogue where a character would say “I died 100 times already”, what you get is clever ways such as William Cage and Rita Vrataski planning their way across the beach (This is where the battle takes place), and it is not a simple plan of “let’s go straight, then turn right”, it’s a plan where they have to know how many steps, what degrees to turn, and what will pop out of nowhere, and those scenes give the audience the idea of how many time William Cage has died. Marvellous to watch.

Doug Liman knows how to direct an action scene, because there were a few and they were all flawless. There was no shaky cam that just made you dizzy, there was no shots that hide most of the action. You get to see it all, especially for one scene that makes all other action scenes look pants (from films like the fifth Die Hard), with Tom Cruise running around a platoon and shooting these aliens, and Emily Blunt doing awesome flips and shooting aliens, in addition the music makes it feel like a futuristic battle and adds to the film. What I also loved was this beach scene was right after we get to see Tom Cruise train and in both of those scenes we knew that Tom Cruise had died a lot of times and was becoming this beast of a warrior. A special mention to the team that created the aliens because they look amazing and they look like they can do harm. When I first saw them my mouth was open because this wasn't what I had expected, it was just great to watch them move about a rip humans in half with their eight tentacle looking arms.

The only problem was in the third act of the film, the realism went out the window, as in the film we get to see Tom Cruises character break a leg from being wacked across a room, but in the last third we see him fall along way down on to concrete and he comes out with a limp. I can let this go because the film was too good to hold any minor grudges.

The film out did itself, because I didn't hear about this film that often and when I watched it, I was surprised that it was really good, and I think this actually helped the film because there was no expectations. For me Edge of Tomorrow thoroughly deserves a 9/10