Edge of Tomorrow is a science fiction action movie about a man who is forced to fight in a war against alien invaders, called Mimics, against his will. Only the aliens have the power to reset the day by creating a time loop and correcting any mistakes they make in battle once the day resets. This renders them all but invincible until the hero, William Cage, steals this power by accident and learns to turn it against the enemy. Note that Edge of Tomorrow is also known as Live. Die. Repeat. Probably because Edge of Tomorrow is a stupid name for the movie.
So, what did I think about Edge of Tomorrow? Yeah, I’ve heard the jokes. Many of you scoffed at this movie because Tom Cruise starred in it. You laughed and said it might be worth it to see Cruise get killed a bunch of times but that was about as far as you would go. Then you either downloaded it illegally for free (no judgements) or didn’t see it at all. Because you thought it was going to suck. Well…
You were wrong.
Edge of Tomorrow is a good movie. Don’t believe me? It got a 90% freshness rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It scored a 71 at Metacritic. Others liked it as well. But don’t worry. You can still redeem yourself in the crucible of war by buying the DVD or Blu-ray. You should see it if you like scifi or even action movies with a light dose of humor. No joke. Um, no pun intended.
There is one caveat. If you’re familiar with the novel, All You Need is Kill, then I have to tell you that – in typical Hollywood fashion – the movie has very little to do with the novel. You can read the manga, which is pretty faithful to the novel, for free here. But that doesn’t matter. Edge of Tomorrow has about as much to do with All You Need is Kill as Will Smith’s I Am Legend had to do with Richard Matheson’s story. But it’s still a good movie. I even sort of believed that Cruise was a younger man. (He has been suffering from a bad case of old man face in some of his other recent films. Hey, it happens to the best of us.)
Bear in mind that there’s plenty of humor in the movie. Cruise really does get killed again and again, all while trying to navigate his way through endless choices that – he hopes – will lead to winning the war and totally banging Emily Blunt, who is pretty damn hot in this movie. He is forced to endure being kicked awake over and over again every time the day resets. Then he has to listen to some guy prattle on with some speech about bravery and war and how he’s been accused of impersonating an officer and blah blah blah. There’s also plenty of action. Cage goes from coward to complete bad ass as the time loop forces him to fight and train hundreds of times.
I’m not saying that Edge of Tomorrow is perfect. Few stories are. If you think too much about it, you will find flaws as some of the reviews I linked to will show. But this is still a good one all the same. I recommend it.
