Review of Edge of Tomorrow (2014) by Brohug — 09 Jun 2014

Easily the best big ticket film of the summer so far. The idea of combining "Groundhog Day", "Aliens", and the Halo video game is both thrilling and funny. Once the D-day looping gets going, the audience becomes attuned to it and revels in Major Cage's Sisyphus-like efforts to advance the clock and defeat the Mimic hordes. The filmmakers keep that editing relatively tight, so we are never bored by a "oh, this part again" syndrome. In almost a tip of the cap to "Aliens", Bill Paxton appears as a Sergeant Master more than happy to send the alleged deserter Cage to his glorious doom, only later to have his Kentucky-bred drill squad speeches defused by the front-running Cage, who by then has literally heard it all before.

There are few deficiencies. Emily Blunt is less believable as a ruthless Amazon leading the assault on the French beaches, but is solid as a romantic heroine. And the J Squad members are fairly expendable, which is fine by me so that our emotional investment doesn't get too fragmented from the two leads.

Despite much of the craziness in Cruise's personal life, he's still arguably the foremost movie star of his time. His films typically deliver a high-quality product with a recent predilection to science fiction action tales. Last summer's "Oblivion" came up short in that particular department but he followed that up with the under-rated "Jack Reacher" last fall. There's a surprising amount of vulnerability on display here as well as a hilariously cowardly squirm to the beginning of his Mad Men-turned-soldier arc.

I think "Edge of Tomorrow" will live on with the original "Mission Impossible" and "Jerry Maguire" in the Cruise canon for some time to come.