Movie Review: Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Two and Half Stars out of Five

PG13

Cage: Tom Cruise

Rita: Emily Blunt

Director: Doug Limon

Writer: Christopher McQuarrie

Cinematography Director:  Dion Beebe

Editing: James Herbert and Laura Jennings

If you think a combination of Groundhog Day (1993) and Starship Troopers (1997) starring Tom Cruise is a good idea, then Edge of Tomorrow may be your movie. Using the implicit permission that every science fiction movie gets, Edge of Tomorrow pushes reality and logic to the limit by reliving a particular day during a losing conflict between Earth’s army and bunch of murderous aliens. The Earth having been invaded by the asteroid-borne aliens is then subjected to time manipulation during the ensuing warfare. As could be imagined, Tom Cruise as Cage and Emily Blunt as Rita, members of Earth’s defense force, the UDF, fight the aliens for a while, suffer a few setbacks and then (spoiler alert) win the day – who could have predicted it?

In a mildly comic manner, Cage is initially a cowardly, marketing professional conscripted to the war effort. When he declines a front line assignment, he finds himself via the actions of a vengeful general instead in the thick of battle as a trooper fighting the invaders. Through luck and plot demands, he survives on the field of battle longer than his more-experienced comrades. Cage eventually has a life-changing encounter with one of the aliens, but loses his life in the process; this is when the Groundhog Dog day allusion takes over. Cage re-awakes at the beginning of the day on which he has been killed. This plot line is repeated multiple times with Cage learning more about the aliens and how to fight them with each cycle. He attracts the attention of a heroine from a previous battle, Rita. She and a disgraced scientist, Dr. Carter (Noah Taylor) explain their theories about the aliens, her previous experience with the “Groundhog Effect” and how they need Cage with his active Groundhog abilities to defeat the aliens.

The movie is full of logical and scientific impossibilities, but it does have a few story-telling techniques that I thought were noteworthy. The most difficult aspect of such a story is keeping the audience engaged as the movie-makers repeat the battle day in question endlessly to emphasize the Groundhog effect, to indicate the maturation effects it has on Cage, and to do so without boring the audience to death with too much repetition. It goes without saying that the cowardly Cage, the Marketing executive evolves into an incredible killing machine. However, it is interesting to watch how Cruise handles what are essentially two different personalities; it requires good acting, writing, and editing skills to make this transition believable in an otherwise unbelievable story. There is little other character definition, let alone development.

The editing in such a movie is a considerable challenge, and the team of James Herbert and Laura Jennings have done a good job stitching the story together in a (semi-)plausible, but more to the point, understandable manner. Another technical aspect of this movie that is noteworthy is sound and sound editing. In a movie where the amount of bullets and rockets fired (btw where did the aliens get their weaponry?) must have set a tonnage record, getting the sound effects and the editing to work would also be a considerable challenge. The last big technical part of this movie is special effects; they were frankly disappointing in my opinion. The CGI aliens moved so fast to emphasize their fighting potency, they are virtually nothing more than blurs; the frequent use of dark lighting does not help.

In any event, in the mode of the aforementioned Starship Troopers, or Battleship (2012), or hundreds of pulp fiction movies from the 50’s to the present, Edge of Tomorrow offers very little more entertainment than your standard afternoon B movie matinee. Given so many intelligently written, directed and acted action movies available in 2014, I would skip Edge of Tomorrow.