Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong, Noah Taylor, Charlotte Riley, Tony Way, Kick Gurry, Franz Drameh
Edge of Tomorrow looked genuinely dim in prospect; it unites two filmmakers in dire need of a win. Firstly its star Tom Cruise who enjoyed muted success with the recent Oblivion, Knight and Day and Jack Reacher but flopped with Rock of Ages. We may have to reach back to Valkyrie, maybe even Last Samurai or Minority Report for a non-franchise, satisfying Cruise lead. The other is director Doug Liman; the Swingers/Bourne Identity man since Jumper and Fair Game proved either a critical or financial pleaser. The outside view doesn’t get any better when you consider that the plot once you consider that the plot screams of great unoriginality.
Cowardly major William Cage (Cruise) poses as the media face of the futuristic military’s attempts to reclaim Europe after it’s infestation by aliens known as mimics. After refusing his combat services, Cage is detained by General Brigham (Gleeson) and awakes in the thick of the front line infantry. He’s swiftly deployed into a supposed surprise attack on French land but hordes of the enemy are waiting for the soldiers. Cage is killed within minutes but returns to the army camp he was in twenty-four hours ago and is forced to fight the battle again. The only person who understands Cage’s condition is veteran and propaganda icon Rita Vrataski (Blunt) as the same thing once happened to her.
The unoriginality is a genuine problem, Groundhog Day, Source Code and Starship Troopers all coming to mind, but a refreshing sting comes from Christopher McQuarrie’s work on the screenplay, finally giving us a reason to be excited for Mission: Impossible 5. As the story expands, what initially seemed like throwaway lines (“Battle is the great redeemer,”) are given context and quickly seem both profound and appropriate to the narrative.
The story is hugely playful with its time travelling concept prompting gags and drama in equal measure. Cage is forced to reiterate his predicament to Vrataski who’s meeting him for the first time each day even though he knows her better than anyone while there’s great comical property in the soldier’s failed attempts at infiltration.
Stylistically, Doug Liman’s directing is taking a very different approach to the generic action treatment we expected. It’s got the punch of Bourne, the jumps of Aliens and occasionally bringing to mind the likes of Saving Private Ryan. Even with these in mind, the film’s greatest inspiration is obviously video games – the whole concept of replaying a battle until victory is gained, each time picking up more knowledge and memorising tactics in order to win, is evidently spawned from the various shooter games around.
Thankfully Cruise’s role as Cage is given genuine room for development as he grows from a rat-faced PR into the action hero we know him as. He doesn’t fully convey the likely torment of dying every day but is still the best he’s been in ages. Blunt, a relative newcomer to a full on action role (she doesn’t quite get into the thick of the action in Looper or The Adjustment Bureau, is brilliantly cast as the ultimate warrior type that would ordinarily go to a male such as Cruise and therefore cleverly reversing the blockbuster norm.
Across the rest of the cast, Bill Paxton is extremely pleasing as Cage’s devilish Sergeant Farell and Noah Taylor’s Dr is fine but the rest of the supporting players are a frustrating group of caricatures. One of the generation’s great actors, Brendan Gleeson, is thoroughly wasted in a standard sinister general role while Cage’s reject regiment J Squad seem to only exist in order to string together the weak finale.
McQuarrie’s shine on the script does wane in the film’s final act. Edge of Tomorrow is clearly suffering World War Z’s syndrome of a last-minute rewritten ending that reluctantly walks away from the rest of the narrative. The final act completely contradicts the science introduced beforehand; I don’t for one minute believe that alien blood can allow time travel but I can should the logic be consistent, which it is for the first ninety minutes or so.
The problematic ending does cast a shadow over the film but this is one of the year’s unexpected delights. The leading trio of Cruise, Paxton and Blunt are superb while Liman and McQuarrie do an excellent job of fully embracing the war film aspect, shooing away the worries of unoriginality. It’s hugely smart (never once going the way you expect), funny (occasionally taking a dark comic glee in it’s brutality) but crucially it’s genuinely thrilling.
8/10
“What I am about to tell you sounds crazy. But you have to listen to me. Your very lives depend on it. You see, this isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation.”
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