Edge of Tomorrow review

EDGE OF TOMORROW:

A VISUALLY STRIKING AND ACTION PACKED VISION OF TOMORROW, WITH A RESET BUTTON!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Tom Cruise in a never-ending war in Edge of Tomorrow

            Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jumper) returns with his latest action thriller, Edge of Tomorrow. Based on the Japanese light novel, All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and stars Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible franchise, Minority Report, Oblivion) and Emily Blunt (Looper, The Young Victoria, The Adjustment Bureau) as soldiers fighting in an unstoppable war.

            Set in the near future, where an alien race known as the Mimics have invaded the world and conquering most of Europe. Major William Cage (Cruise) is called in by Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton-Aliens, Twister, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) to join the army and fight in an unbeatable war between humans and the Mimics.

            Cage soon realizes that every time he is killed in battle, he can reset the entire day before he was killed and live it all over again.

            He then meets Secret Service, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) who also has the ability to reset. She agrees to help Cage learn how to be a better soldier and to survive longer in the battle.

            After countless times of training and dying (This happens a lot in the movie!), they soon come up with a strategy to help them fight off the Mimics and save the world from total annihilation.

            Overall, Edge of Tomorrow is a brilliant sci-fi adventure; sure it has some goofy dialogue and cockiness from Cruise and over-the-top action, but the concept is executed very well and it keeps you guessing until the end. I love sci-fi thrillers that have concepts like this, it reminded me a lot of Inception…except with aliens and more CG effects.

            The special effects during the fight scenes and animation on the Mimic creatures and absolute eye candy; if you can get past the motion sickness of some of the action.

            The Mimics’ designs are very creative and crazy-looking, reminds me of the Sentinels from The Matrix, except with the glowing blue mouths of a Pacific Rim Kaiju, every scene that showed one of these, I got hyped.

            Besides the effects, action, and concept, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt surprisingly share very strong chemistry together. You can feel the pain they’re going through and you’ll want them to get through the war, who would have thought a current Tom Cruise movie could have strong character development between him and another character?

            I guess my only problem is they don’t really go into much detail on the Mimics’ backstory, their motivation, how did they find us, what caused the invasion to begin with? It’s a small problem I have with the film, it doesn’t destroy the film, and besides it has strong character development with Cruise and Blunt to make up for it.

            So if you’re a fan of big budget summer blockbusters with lots of explosions, creativity, and strong characters, along with a ridiculous but engaging premise, this movie is fantastic and consistently entertaining throughout. It's easily the best summer blockbuster I've seen this year so far and hopefully Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Guardians of the Galaxy will continue this trend. 

            In the meantime, I will gladly reset the day and watch this movie over and over again because this is pure sci-fi popcorn fun with a dose of intelligence and wit to boot.