Edge of Tomorrow review

BEST NEW FEATURE

So, new Tom Cruise movie. How is it? Find out below the break.

Edge of Tomorrow is a film based on the Japanese light novel All You Need is Kill. Having not read the source material, I can only attest to the quality of the film. Thankfully, on its own merits, the film is excellent.

In Edge of Tomorrow, Earth is under attack by an alien species called the Mimics. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is conscripted to assist in the final push against the Mimics. However, he doesn't last long, and soon finds he's in a time loop.

Edge of Tomorrow shares conceptual similarities to Groundhog Day, but instead applies them to a military action film. The way this concept is utilized by the movie is very effective, giving a strong reason for the protagonist to be so adept at fighting, and allowing for significant character development. Indeed, the script is very clever in most respects. The time-restart premise is the film's main twist on the action movie formula, and indeed it's built upon so well that the movie has some freshness to it. One particular thing of interest is how frequent expository dialogue is in fact a major plot point that is fully justified in the situation.

The film is also quite funny. There are a number of clever comedic moments, and they always manage to elict a laugh. Later on, the jokes become much less common, but where there is humour, it's very effective.

The characters are fairly well fleshed-out, in particular the protagonist. Cage is a most likely one of Cruise's strongest characters to date, who starts out as the rare Tom Cruise character that is wholly incompetent in combat. Over the course of the film, he grows with the repeated carnage of war and the weight put upon his shoulders. Indeed, one of the more interesting running ideas in the film is how he is affected by repeating the same events each time he dies, and how that builds him up to be a typical action lead.

The female lead, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), is also a strong character, if not as much as Cage. She's a war hero, and her experiences in the battle where she got her reputation make for a lot of character depth. She assists Cage throughout the movie, managing to be just as effective even if she doesn't remember how the day went last time.

In an action movie, one of the most important elements is the direction. Edge of Tomorrow has some very well-filmed action, and doesn't rely much on city destruction for its action scenes. Instead, action scenes are very much a battle between the characters and the aliens, and these fights are consistently engaging. Direction otherwise moves along at a pace that never gets dull, and the film remains highly gripping throughout.

The soundtrack isn't particularly great, though. It's a fairly generic sci-fi action movie soundtrack, and isn't particularly memorable. The film also suffers from a somewhat weaker third act, though discussing that in too much detail would spoil a twist in the film.

However, despite some issues, especially around the third act, Edge of Tomorrow stands as one of the year's best films so far, and is very likely to go down as one of the best action movies of the year.

9/10

Extended thoughts [Note: Spoilers]