Review of Edge of Tomorrow (2014) by Liam C — 02 Aug 2015

The concept of 'Groundhog Day' mixed with the sci-fi genre like 'Source Code' and probably a lot of other films because this concept isn't all that unique anymore and you have 'Edge of Tomorrow', which isn't nearly as good as either of those. 'Edge of Tomorrow' might be a thankfully smart blockbuster but that's about it. The acting was good all around, Emily Blunt gave a great performance and Bill Paxton was a lot of fun, even if he did just disappear by the end. It also has Brendan Gleeson who was good and it was fun to see Terence Maynard in this. Tom Cruise gives a typically all-in performance, his character goes on a very good arc and he does his own stunts like he usually does and he just makes this really watchable, even if I'd like to see him do some real drama again, but hey, it's his life and he can do what he wants. Brad Pitt was originally chosen but Cruise gives the character his own unique twist that it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role now. I said that this concept isn't really that fresh anymore but this film does a lot with it and answers all the questions the audience has and it is quite satisfying to watch, for a while. While I'm thankful there is an action blockbuster that actually has a brain for once, even if not as many people saw it as would have been liked, it just feels like this got so much love at the time because nobody really expected it to be the way it was, but, of course, I can't speak for everyone. I didn't go in with raised expectations because of the excellent reviews but when the end credits rolled around I, along with the other two I was watching this with, was just thinking, 'was that it?'.

The visuals of this film are outstanding and the humour was a very welcome addition as it does liven the film up a bit but the film didn't really do anything for me. Like usual with repeating scenarios you never really feel like anything has any weight or consequence and even when it starts to I wasn't very bothered. While the first half of the film was good, the second half was just average with them performing what they have been talking about during the first half; a natural part of story progression, I know, but it didn't seem to be as creative as the start and it just kept dragging the score down the longer it went on. I liked the film a lot at the start but the more it kept going the more I was losing interest. It just feels like nothing was accomplished and the overall scope of the film felt really small, as repeating scenarios usually do. One of the scenes near the end played out similarly like a scene in 'War of the Worlds', which was fun to see. It doesn't help when the film didn't have any emotional weight, oh, they do attempt, a little, at character development but besides Cruise's character arc, that was all I really grabbed on to and it had an ending that doesn't really follow it's own rules it set up, but, hey, we have to have a happy ending, don't we? We also know nothing about the war they are fighting, but the film blazes past so fast that it didn't really become the issue I thought it would be. The aliens did have a very unique design though, so there is that. They should have called Tom Cruise's character, Nic, now that would have been funny. And I saw a comment on YouTube saying that this should have just been called 'Respawn' and it would have made billions and that would have been a pretty cool name. The title, 'Edge of Tomorrow', does make a lot of sense and is pretty cool but it's the fact that it came after 'Oblivion' and people said they looked similar. As it stands, 'Edge of Tomorrow' or 'Live Die Repeat' or 'All You Need Is Kill' or whatever the hell it feels like calling itself (Cruise/Blunt/Edge? Like I saw on one poster even though I'm just joking now), might have a smart script but it's average in every other department, it wasn't a bad film, but then again, it wasn't spectacular either.