Review of Edge of Tomorrow (2014) by Kenneth L — 25 Apr 2015

It's a shame relatively few people saw this movie, as it's a genuinely exhilarating and smart sci-fi action movie of the sort the big studios often promise but only rarely deliver. Everything about it works more or less perfectly.

The premise is clever and something we really haven't seen before: Tom Cruise plays a guy drafted into fighting against an alien invader who dies on his first day of combat. However, due to some alien time-travelling blood (it makes sense, kind of, I promise) he finds himself waking up earlier in the day and living through the same series of events again (and again and again).

Ok, so Groundhog Day kind of had the same idea, but that was still a totally different type of film. This movie has great special effects and action sequences, obviously, but it also has some of the best editing you'll see in a recent movie; if you want to see how a movie can be cut for speed, humor, visceral impact, and storytelling efficiency, here you go.

Tom Cruise gives his best performance since probably Minority Report, and Emily Blunt is quite strong here too. This movie proves that big action and special effects sequences can still go together with an original and intelligent story.