Film Review: Edge of Tomorrow

Director: Doug Liman

This recently released science fiction movie is based a big budget version of the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The filming process was quite arduous especially for Emily Blunt as each of the battle suits weighed around 39kg which was hard to act in for long periods. Between takes, the actors would be suspended by chains from iron frames to take the weight of the suits off their shoulders. The films budget was $178 million.

For 5 years, humans have been at war with an alien species called Mimics. They have taken most of mainland Europe so the humans are planning an all out attack from the beaches in Northern France. Major Cage (Tom Cruise) is ordered to cover the battle on the beaches against his protests and he wakes up at Heathrow Airport ready to deploy the next day. But after landing on the beach and battling the mimics he dies then wakes up again at Heathrow Airport the day before, slowly realising that he has the power to continue living the same day.

Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) and Sergeant Rita Vratask (Emily Blunt)

Tom Cruise's latest Hollywood blockbuster is reasonably impressive, for an action movie it has an intelligent side and Emily Blunt adds a lot as his battle partner. For me this was a completely different change of direction for Emily Blunt as an actress but she more than pulls off the macho female Sergeant whose the human hero of the war. Aside from this the action is strong as you'd expect but there is a decent comedic element to the script as well.

Director Doug Liman produces impressively choreographed scenes with the gripping tension of his previous film The Bourne Identity. It avoids the pitfalls of many previous action movies with the usual clichés and a bloated running time, why most movies are needlessly over two hours still baffles me. Unfortunately the ending did become apparent before it was played on the screen before me but it still represented a fun and surprisingly good film.

2.5/4 Intelligent action movie is better than expected