I can't remember the last time I actually wrote a review for a movie, it was either for Green Lantern, or Captain America: The First Avenger. Regardless, I decided Edge of Tomorrow was the film that warranted me diving back in to reviews. So keep reading for my take on Doug Liman's generic looking sci-fi film.
The basic plot seems like the best place to start. I'll admit, Edge of Tomorrow wasn't a movie that I was interested in seeing it all, the posters, clips, tv spots, and trailers, all made it look like a very generic sci-fi film, so I expected to see basically the same alien invasion film that we've seen time and time again. Thankfully, this is NOT the case.
Director Doug Liman introduces us to an alien invasion that I don't think we've really ever seen before. This isn't the same mass destruction, world burning, invasion that you're used to. The invasion, for the most part seems to be isolated to the European regions, places like Germany and Paris, with the rest of the world, still going on about their lives as they normally would, discussing the war much in the same way people talk about the war in Afghanistan.
Time travel in any movie is something that's really hard to tackle, the logic or science behind it always sounds dodgey at best, it leaves the film full of plot holes and inconsistencies, etc. But personally I think they did an awesome job of handling it in this film, I really can't think of any plot holes or inconsistencies caused by the time travel aspect of the film. I'm sure someone will mention one in the comments, and then I'll have to come along and tell them why they're wrong, but that's not that point.
Tom Cruise steps it up a notch in his role as Cage, when the film starts off, we don't see the usual confident, suave, and cool, Tom Cruise character that we're used to. Cage is very much timid, weak, confused, and more completely terrified about the idea of going into battle. So it's a pretty big deviation from what we're used to seeing from Tom, and he absolutely nails it. With Tom playing pretty much the same character in every movie, it's easy to forget just how good of an actor he actually is, and Edge of Tomorrow is a perfect reminder of that...For the most part anyway, as the movie progresses, he starts to develop into the same Ethan Hunt-esque character we know so well.
As for the rest of the cast, besides Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton are the only ones that really get any amount of screen time. I wouldn't say they're going to get any standing ovations for their performances, but that could partially be blamed on the material they're given to work with. Blunt plays the stereotypical, cliche, female badass that we've seen 100+ times, and Paxton, plays the stereotypical, cliche, asshole military sergeant that we've seen 100+ times. That being said, they do great in those roles, the characters themselves are just lacking. The rest of the supporting cast is mainly made up of J Squad, the people that Tom's character is paired up with, and again, a lot of them are the cliche's that we've seen time and time again, and they're never really given any depth, there's no connection to them, there's no caring what happens to them, they're just kind of "there". Unfortunately one of the movies biggest downfalls, is it's character development, which is practically all but non-existant.
Again Doug Liman introduces us to something fresh and new, the movies villains, the aliens. Not the typical aliens that we're used to seeing on film, they look like bio-mechanical spider-wolf-squids (SyFy original movie? Sharknado vs Bio-Mechanical Spider-Wolf-Squid). I was nearly blown away when we got our first look at them on the big screen, the look absolutely amazing, the designs, the effects, the way they move, the way they attack, they really do look like they would be terrifying creatures to be up against.
Everything else, the score, cinematography, direction, script, is pretty damn strong. Liman and his team really did an amazing job at bringing this world to life, the raw brutality of the alien battlefield, the scope of everything, even though the only battle we see takes place on a single beach, it FEELS massive. The effects are excellent, but with technology the way it is these days, it seems difficult for a big studio to make a movie with shitty effects anyway.
So there you have it, my review of a movie that I was in no way excited to see, a movie that I predicted to be bland, unoriginal, and utterly boring, but overall it's fun movie, with a few minor issues, but nothing that gets in the way of the film itself. The best way for me to describe my viewing of Edge of Tomorrow, would be to say, that I was pleasantly surprised, and it's a perfect example of why you shouldn't judge a movie just by it's trailer. It's an example of that, but it's not one I or anyone else on this site will ever follow, because where's the fun in that?
EDGE OF TOMORROW
8/10