Cruise stars as a soldier fighting a never-ending war against an invading alien armada in “Edge of Tomorrow.”
And for any sci-fi movie to work, there has to be a “hook”; in this case Cruise as PR expert Major Bill Cage is quite literally thrown into a meat grinder of a battle in which the entire European defense force, reminiscent of the Allied invasion of Normandy in WWII, is wiped out as soon as they hit the beach.
The rub is that Cruise’ Cage gets “up close and personal” with one of the aliens and then finding himself in a time loop which repeats the same day over and over and over again.
This premise is snatched directly from the Bill Murray 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day”; in this case Cage remembers everything that happens to him after he is sliced and diced thousands of times. The “hook” is that he gets better at killing the invading horde of aliens along the way. Initially inept and under the nose of “tough as nails” Master Sergeant Farell, played with a special zeal by Bill Paxton (“Aliens”), Cage is chucked into every possible and unwinnable situation.
Like Jackie Chan, Cruise does his own stunts, carrying around nearly 100 lbs of a mechanized war suit that is supposed to give the wearer the strength of Samson.
All in all it is an interesting concept, especially when Cage teams up with another solider, Rita Vratask (Emily Blunt). Director Doug Liman (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith) works the two well as potential comrades in arms and eventually as friends. The chemistry of Cruise and Blunt is obvious but unspoken as they are forced to live and re-live every single 24-hour period until they eventually move off the beach and into central London.
This will be a strange movie for filmgoers this summer as it is not a sequel, prequel or have a Roman numeral after its title.
“Edge of Tomorrow” is totally fresh and original, a rarity from Hollywood that loves to milk as much money from its film franchises as possible.
Cruise, coming off his latest sci-fi outline in “Oblivion” and is in pre-production for “Mission: Impossible 5” looks as young and vigorous as he did when he did in 1985’s “Top Gun.”
What doesn’t work so well is the backstory of the aliens, a multi-legged, superfast monstrous creature that just wants humanity’s collective head on a pike. Like last summer’s “World War Z,” no one really knows where these bad guys are from except they are here. Deal with it.
As a PR man, comfortable in writing about others’ exploits, the early going elements of “Edge of Tomorrow” have a detached feeling to it, as Cage watches the battles from his armchair position before being dropped into D-Day, totally unprepared and unschooled.
From a credited screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie who is quite at ease writing for Cruise as he had with “Valkyrie” and “Jack Reacher,” “Edge of Tomorrow” hums along and has few glitches. Just when you think Cage is stumbling, Vratask will pull out a pistol and shoot him in the head or he just gets sliced up by another alien, re-setting the day to eventually get it right.
The payoff in “Edge of Tomorrow” is worth it as Cage eventually becomes a one-army, swatting away aliens as you would a golden retriever puppy from making do-do on the carpet. Unlike in “Oblivion” where he was sleepwalking, Cruise is at full command in “Edge of Tomorrow.”
Here, he is the ultimate Alpha Male; an unstoppable killing machine as he and his power suit become one. Even when it is discarded, Cruise’s Cage seems unstoppable, simply because he knows when he gets it wrong, he can always start the day over.
Tom Cruise has never looked better and like this movie’s premise, keeps getting younger day after day after day.
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