Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Review (Or as I prefer ‘All You Need Is Kill’)

Edge of Tomorrow is believe it or not an original, funny and great science fiction film. The acting is solid, the script plays with the plot brilliantly, you like and route for the characters, the action is fast paced and visuals are almost flawless. Wasn’t expecting this to be one of my favourite films of the year but so far it’s up there. Don’t trust the trailers or that new terrible title, just go out and see the film it is really good. If you ever thought what would a hybrid film made from Groundhog Day and Aliens be like? And thought yeah I’d watch that then this is for you. It’s even got Bill Paxon. I’ll go into much more detail below but for now bookmark this if you are waiting to see the film, leave any comments below, if you have seen the film then check out the spoiler sections and I will look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts.

“What I am about to tell you sounds crazy but the longer I talk the more rational it’s going to appear”

Plot:

The epic action of “Edge of Tomorrow” unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again.

Tim’s Film Reviews Recommended

Story: 90%     Acting: 90%     Characters: 90%     Dialogue: 90%

Sci-Fi/Action: 100%     Style/Sound: 90%     Visuals: 95%

Total: 92%

The story could have easily been mishandled; I mean its time travel, to say its tricky is an understatement. But when a science fiction film gets it right they can make great films and this is one of them. What I liked about the story apart from the intelligence of the overall plot is the similarities they make between this fictional war and WW2; Europe being taken over, amphibious invasion of France, and obviously all Nazi’s had robotic tentacles and could reset time. We also get fictional propaganda and insight into their history. The story is hard to discuss without spoilers and I’d rather talk about characters and action for now.

The acting is good with some great characters built up in the film. Tom Cruise never phones it in and that continues with another great lead character. But what I really want to commend is Emily Blunt’s performance and the writers for making her a real strong female character. I love a good strong female lead and it is so damn rare. Emily Blunt was the “Full Metal Bitch” and she should be damn proud of it. The supporting cast were all pretty good too. Brendan Gleeson as a general, the members of J Squad, and Bill Paxton who I didn’t even know was in this. Have him in a damn trailer and my interest would have gone up at least 10% . More on the characters in the spoiler section.

The science fiction of this film has some interesting parts to it, we have alternate world with an already established history, and we have an alien invasion, mechanised suits of armour and time travel. A lot of films have stumbled trying to make just one of those work but somehow Doug Liman pulled it altogether in an exciting and mostly realistic way. The aspect I was most worried about though was the resetting time. You can just picture that going all kinds of wrong, I’ve seen it go bad plenty of times and so when it was cut and directed in a fun and changing way I was incredible happy.

The visuals are really strong, I joked about the Mech suits but they looked solid throughout, no terrible CGI scenes of Cruise doing a run or anything unnecessary. They kept the CGI to a minimum, only when needed as it should be. I do really want one of those suits though. The aliens didn’t look half bad either and I know it’s starting to get hard to create unique aliens but they looked pretty intense as adversary, also the speed of them meant you didn’t get too long to study their details. And lastly all of the action was handled brilliantly, great fight choreography.

SPOILERS!!!

Seriously guys turn away now to avoid spoilers. Tom Cruise shoots Emily Blunts character in the back and then drops to his knees and screams “Hail Xenu!” I told you not to read this section. There is a lot to talk about here so I’ll keep it brief and talk more in the comments. Tom Cruise doesn’t normally do this role. He first plays a cowardly big talking propaganda man and then through extensive and painful trial and error becomes a warrior against the alien threat. All of the fight cheoreography was brilliant but I was especially enjoying Emily Blunts sword play (Don’t even). Actually kind of reminded me of some anime because of the oversized nature of the weapon, looked so damn cool though. Lastly we have the ending, I heard some complaining but I like three types of ending. A nice happy ending, an open ended ending and a devastating ending. As long as it makes sense I really don’t mind. But what did you think?

Trailer:

The best reviews I found would be these:

“In conclusion Edge of Tomorrow is smart film that takes ideas seen in previous sci-fi films and puts an interesting spin on things with a good plot and great central performances from Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. While this isn’t the best film I’ve seen this year, it was a hell of a lot better than I expected and is possibly one of Cruise’s best films in recent years.” Hypersonic. Full Review 

“Edge of Tomorrow exceeds on many levels mainly in acting, lightness of tone and action.  The story-line does become less interesting as the movie progresses but is nevertheless always entertaining.  Action-light scenes are lifted with humour and the chemistry between Cruise and Blunt is a pleasure to witness.” Screenkicker. Full Review 

“The battle scene on the beach is well-directed and feels thrilling in IMAX 3d. As we return to the same battle repeatedly it doesn’t get tiring or boring as the film approaches the battle in different ways. In fact that goes for most of this film. But I still think All You Need Is Kill was a better title.” My Kind of Movie. Full Review

“Aside from the generic final act and chirpy ending, this is better than the average Hollywood action film. It’s a fresh take on a genre increasingly bogged down in strained Die Hard sequels and Expendables movies. It’s worth getting out to see on the big screen and in 3D, and if Tom Cruise is a problem just remember that you get to see his face being burned off.” Funk’s House of Geekery. Full Review

Spoilers!

My favourite scene would have to be the repeated and hilarious use of Tom Cruise’s whimpering scream each time he dies. Each and every time was funnier than the last. It could have been really dark but it was just brilliant.