Groundhog Day, by way of Battle: Los Angeles
The H-Bomb: Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), is a military PR man who, for reasons that are too muddled to get into here, is demoted to Private and sent to the front lines in France for a major offensive against a hoard of tentacled alien invaders. Since Cage has zero combat experience, and is a bit of a chicken shit, it is a forgone conclusion that he won’t last long when the troops hit the beach. Nevertheless, he is strapped into a combat mech-suit and dropped into enemy territory along with hundreds of battled hardened grunts to go fight the good fight.
Except, the fight doesn’t go so good. This offensive was supposed to be a surprise attack, but the aliens somehow knew the cavalry was coming, and every single soldier who lands on that beach is slaughtered, including wartime heroine, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), whose success in defeating the aliens in a previous campaign have turned her into an apocalyptic celebrity. Right before Cage bites the dust, he lays waste to an alien that looks a little different from the rest, and gets its blood splashed all over him.
Then he wakes up. It’s the day of the offensive, all over again. Things around him play out the exact same way. When he is killed on the beach a second time, he awakens yet again to relive the event, each time learning more and more, and being able to survive the big battle for a little longer each successive time. Fuck, I really hope this synopsis is making sense. Anyhow, after reliving the same battle for too many times to count, Cage approaches super soldier Rita on the battlefield, and once he finishes explaining his bizarre situation, she says something very curious, “Come find me when you wake up.”
When he arises to live through the same day yet again, he seeks out Rita, and yet again tells her his story. Instead of simply calling him a nut-whack and telling him to fuck off, she informs him that what’s happening to him used to happen to her. So, with this invaluable ally on his side, Major-turned-Private Cage must use his knowledge of the day’s events, and a shit load of trial and error, to (eventually) figure out a way to defeat this seemingly invincible menace.
Essentially, Edge of Tomorrow is exactly what it sounds like, Groundhog Day crossed with Battle: Los Angeles (or any alien invasion movie of that ilk), with a key plot point lifted right out of Starship Troopers. So, if there’s one thing this time looping sci-fi flick doesn’t have going for it, it’s originality. But, that doesn’t really matter, because director Doug Liman brings that same level of kinetic energy that he brought to The Bourne Identity and Go, and gives us an escapist blockbuster that is just a hell of a lot of fun.
It may not be the most original flick around, but it’s vibrant, has a real sense of humor- it’s nice to have an apocalyptic movie that isn’t all doom and gloom- and is overall one rollicking roller coaster of a motion picture. The combat scenes put us right smack in the middle of the chaotic action, where we can practically feel the booms of the explosions and the crunching of the metal. The special effects don’t scream CGI, even though that’s what they are, and for a PG-13 movie, the carnage did manage to make me wince once or twice. All in all, this thing is a technical marvel.
Now, I must make a small confession that might anger my fellow film buffs, I have never been a fan of Groundhog Day. I’ve always found the repetition in that movie to be incredibly tedious, to the point where the whole thing made me want to take a dive off a tall building the way Bill Murray did. Liman avoids that problem in Edge of Tomorrow, by only showing enough repetition to establish that the day is repeating itself, and then just constantly moving forward with the story from there. That the film has an infinitely higher body count than Groundhog Day does help.
The movie is also aided to no end by the charismatic, and somewhat self-deprecating performance by Cruise. Okay, so he may be a bit of a weirdo in real life, but on screen, the man is one of the biggest movie stars in the world for a reason. At the age of 52, he demonstrates that, without a doubt, he’s still got it. He’s starts off as a cowardly prick, but we gradually warm up to him as he realizes that the fate of humanity rests on his shoulders, and he has to rise to the occasion. As for the running and gunning, he’s as credible as ever.
Matching him in that arena is Blunt, who makes for quite the believable butt kicker, herself; slashing and slicing up ET’s on the battlefield, and fully earning her nickname, “Full Metal Bitch.” Her chemistry with Cruise is pitch perfect, and she manages to be quite sympathetic despite her prickly persona. The fact that she’s freaking hot as hell doesn’t hurt, but that’s my inner fanboy talking. As for the supporting players, I got to give it up to Bill Paxton, who chews the scenery with gusto as the Master Sergeant of the platoon that our hero is assigned to. His character is about as cliched as they come, but he’s such a bloody riot, I didn’t care. I dig Paxton in just about everything, and I dug him here.
What I didn’t dig so much was the logic behind the time loop. I can’t really get into it without spoiling things I shouldn’t, but I’ll just say it felt highly contrived and didn’t make a whole helluva lot of sense. The same goes for Noah Taylor’s scientist/expository speaker, who somehow invented some magical thingamajig to fight the aliens. Also, the climax is woefully underwhelming in how implausible and all-too-foreseeable it is.
These issues, while certainly noticeable, didn’t really hinder my enjoyment of Edge of Tomorrow, as I did have an honest-to-god blast with it. The final fifteen minutes or so are disappointingly predictable, and story-wise, it is shamelessly derivative, but as an exhilarating, slam-bang summer popcorn flick, it delivers the goods in spades.
