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Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow

Tom Cruise uses all his Continues.

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Based though it is on 2004 Japanese novel All You Need is Kill, this big-budget Hollywood adaptation of the time-repeating war flick offers multiple nods to some of Western cinema's best sci-fi work. With echoes of Groundhog Day, Source Code, Aliens - amongst others - arguably there's little original about the story of an individual forced to repeat the same battle against an alien threat over and over due to a time loop. Yet as we've learnt from the top-tier titles that have released in the wake of their respective genre's iconic figureheads, just because it's not wholly original doesn't mean it can't shine. You only have to look at thirty years worth of top-notch sci-fi films post-Star Wars to figure that out.

Tom Cruise slides back into the science fiction genre as the central protagonist cursed (or blessed) with a new-found ability to skip back in time. A marketing firm weasel conscripted into the US army when an alien life form attacks earth, he remains firmly on home soil working as a PR man for the service, more comfortable being grilled by journalists than being attacked by extraterrestrial nasties.

Early on he's forcibly drafted to the frontline, and joins the first wave battalions in the movie's near-future take on the Normandy beach landings. His shell-shock hits before he's even landed on the battlefield, and dies mere minutes later... only to reawaken the previous day at his arrival at the Heathrow barracks. The film's tagline of Live, Die and Repeat is less snappy strap, more concise description of the film's story.

Edge of Tomorrow

While Groundhog Day took pains to reshoot the same scene and shot multiple times, with only Bill Murray's performance adding any contrasting nuance to previous takes, director Doug Liman lingers little on the same trick, only using an initial repeat of the establishing sequence to convey Cruise's confusion and earn our understanding. Henceforth he tracks the same days from different angles or locations, and only using a smattering of quick-fire repeat shots to emphasise the darkly comedic potential of a lead who has to die to become a better soldier and survive longer on the battlefield.

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Comedy is a surprising element to what is essentially a war film, but one shouldn't be wholly surprised given its star. One of the most memorable scenes of Steven Spielberg's Minority Report had Cruise chasing his recently-removed eyeballs as they rolled down a corridor and into a drain. As with that, so to here do we get horrific situations eased by gallows humour. And it works, works well, finding humour in war - but importantly doesn't become a war comedy.

And we find Cruise, while ostensibly playing Tom Cruise in every film he's been in recently, bringing necessary, if not deep, layers to a role that demands cowardice, despair, dismissal and renewed hope. It's far from the sublime acting that Murray brought to portray a million lifetimes in similar circumstance, but it's closer to Cruise's better selling of irresponsible father in War of the Worlds than bland worker bee realising the con in Oblivion.

But despite the name placement, poster standing and on-screen time, this is really Emily Blunt's film. Her portrayal of revered soldier Rita Vrataski is captivating. No-nonsense, straightforward and dedicated to achieving victory, no matter what the cost of suffering to who she's training, she's got the role down pat. Look in her eyes and you see that hopelessness hammered by countless deaths - all that's left is duty. In a movie that has so, so many echoes of Aliens (hello Bill Paxton!), the Weaver comparisons are obvious yet just. You only have to contrast her performance to Charlotte Riley, who's stuck playing a wafer-thin version of Vasquez. Riley's masquerading as a cliche of a tough-talk soldier. Blunt mines the presence that Sigourney brought to Ripley: you believe her role.

For all the fast pace of that beach landing, the training regimes Cruise's William Cage undergoes and the speed of the alien Mimics - much like Matrix's Sentinels, our destroyers are multi-limbed and relentless - shots are clear, the camera steady. There's no confusing blurring of motion that dogged Liman's The Bourne Identity. Oddly given the movie's premise, it's surprisingly bloodless as well. As with Godzilla, chasing that wider audience-pulling 12A means it's the most family-friendly war we've seen on the big screen in a long time.

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Edge of Tomorrow

While the film veers from expectation come the second act, it plunges straight into convention for its conclusion and epilogue, and an excellent film becomes just a great one.

The effect of learning the beats of the battlefield through repetition makes sense from a video-game perspective, but there's little in the way of fallout as a result. Cage becomes a better soldier, sure. But a better person? Arguably we don't get to see much of a character change beyond knowing how to turn his gun safety off, while there's little sense of danger in encountering the unknown later in the story, as Cage enters a new location without prior knowledge of what'll happen. Familiarity breeds confidence. Audience expectation then, that unfamiliarity should breed fear. We see little of the last.

But this is nit-picking. This is solid sci-fi, and it's telling those changes we'd want are small alterations rather than widespread transformations, the biggest issues due to Hollywood's demand for certain plot elements that are not only unnecessary, but also lessen the whole. Grab a ticket, and go watch and enjoy the best non-video game video game movie since Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

08 Gamereactor UK
8 / 10
+
Familiar premise addressed differently, Blunt's performance, Mimics design
-
Hollywood-friendly final act and finisher.
overall score
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Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow

MOVIE REVIEW. Written by Gillen McAllister

"This is solid sci-fi, and it's telling those changes we'd want are small alterations rather than widespread transformations."



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