First off, it is time to hand Tom Cruise his crown back, apologize for ever doubting him, and let him star in whatever he wants to…even, heaven forbid, a non-action film. Edge Of Tomorrow being an action film, however, we are once again reminded of how tirelessly Mr. Cruise works for our entertainment…here even taking it so far as to die repeatedly for our sin of unbelief. And if seeing either Tom Cruise: action star, or Tom Cruise: killed over and over again sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll want to take the time to see Edge Of Tomorrow.
Perhaps the true architect of Tom Cruise’s return to glory (or at the very least Mr. Cruise’s secret comeback weapon) is writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, who only has scripting duties here, but also wrote Valkyrie for Cruise, wrote and directed Cruise star vehicle Jack Reacher (which ended up being a good amount of fun in no small part due to McQuarrie and Cruise’s collaboration), and next will re-team with him for Mission Impossible 5! That collaboration continues to bring value to audiences, as the screenplay for Edge Of Tomorrow is perhaps the best thing about it (although far from the only good thing).
An officer finds himself caught in a time loop in a war with an alien race. His skills increase as he faces the same brutal combat scenarios, and his union with a Special Forces warrior gets him closer and closer to defeating the enemy.
Moving right along from the whole “Edge Of Tomorrow is Groundhog Day meets The Matrix” conversation, which is entirely true and yet somehow reductive, it is how McQuarrie plays with the time loop function, and dozens of other Hollywood tropes, that makes Edge Of Tomorrow such a bloody good time at the movies. We begin with an incredibly efficient montage which is definitely a world-building exposition dump, but which communicates so much about the futuristic, alien-invaded world of Edge Of Tomorrow in such a short amount of time that I started the movie in some state of awe. We’re then introduced to Cruise’s character, Maj. William Cage, who is a military spin doctor and an irredeemable coward. The sheer dedication to painting Cage as a coward is one of the first really brave elements of Edge Of Tomorrow. We aren’t accustomed to Tom Cruise: coward, but McQuarrie’s script is unwavering in this regard. Sure, all the rest of the movie will work hard to build him back up into the armored-spined savior of the world, but the fun is in that journey. We’re then treated to an incredibly impressive scenario which soon we’ll see over and over again, but now we’re seeing for the first time. An arrested-for-desertion, demoted Private Cage is thrown onto the front lines of a giant battle with the “Mimics,” humanity’s great foe.
Here is where I’ll give Director Doug Liman credit where credit is due, because the scope and the visuals on display in all of these repeated battle segments are remarkable, fluid, and have a real weight to them in part due to pure, old-fashioned, movie star power, but also due to an assured approach to the visuals on the part of the director. The sci-fi action spectacle looks great, and works from a story perspective because I’m invested in Cage, and I’m intrigued as all hell by Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski (AKA Full Metal Bitch, the toughest soldier in an exo-suit). So we’ve only just gotten through the set up of the film, and already things are moving along quite well: strong characters who are well-acted, great visuals, and a sci-fi world of which we have a decent understanding. And there hasn’t even been a time loop reset yet.
And the time loop element is where McQuarrie really begins to shine. Sure, we’ve seen Groundhog Day and Source Code use this mechanic before. But this script has so much fun with this hook that your head might spin. He’ll toy with the audience, tease out plot points naturally, show us some days and merely imply others. Sometimes we are keenly aware that Cage is making new progress that he’s never “lived” before. Other times we’ll be surprised to know that he has lived this moment many times before; we just weren’t privy to seeing it on screen. Then there’s the visceral thrill of seeing Blunt and Cruise in exo-suits doing incredible feats of action-y glory on the battlefield. The little boy inside me got goosebumps at some of the cool-looking mech fights, and my critical adult brain appreciated the fact that these tough-looking feats of leaping and power-sliding weren’t going to ultimately win the battle; our characters still needed to use their brains and try over and over again to find a way forward and out of the endless loop.
The rhythm of this kind of thing is of paramount importance, as too many cycles of the same day lived over and over again can grate on an audience quickly. For my part every time I felt like I might be getting tired of hearing Bill Paxton in drill sergeant mode repeating the same lines over and over again, a new joke or a new angle would be revealed that surprised and entertained me.
What’s that I said? A “joke”? Oh, yeah, another excellent element to Edge Of Tomorrow is the tone of the whole project. This is a funny movie; sometimes laugh out loud funny, other times winkingly clever. And this is extremely important to the overall success of the project. I’m sure there was a lot of pressure to have a gritty, realistic, Nolan-esque vibe. But Liman and McQuarrie smartly eschew all that for a zippy and fun aesthetic that is more than a little appreciated. An example would be in the way the film “explains” the reason for the time loop, as well as how our main characters can utilize the time loop in order to win the war and save the planet from the Mimics. Frankly, the explanations are flimsy and somewhat boring. And by not spending a whole bunch of time on the mechanics of the time loop, or the soundness of the final plan to save mankind, the film smartly avoids getting bogged down by endless time travel paradoxes or what varying levels of trauma re-living the same day ad infinitum would do would do to one’s brain.
So the film steers clear of grittiness, has tons of fun playing with our expectations and maximizing its premise with smart set pieces, and by taking us in surprising directions to find the solution to the destruction of mankind. It also uses Emily Blunt in a hugely effective manner, as an established warrior, and as a hero who is crucial to the proceedings. She isn’t just a female lead, but rather a genuine co-star with the toughest sword (yeah, she has a sword) and most iconic introductory shots we’ve seen in a long time.
That is a lot to like. What isn’t to like? Well, I’m not going to spoil the back half for you, but I will say that much of the remarkable goodwill I have towards this film was tested and tried in the final act. You can almost feel the shackles that being a Tom Cruise-starring, studio-funded, PG-13 summer blockbuster place around Edge Of Tomorrow. There are places I would have loved to see this film go, pushing the boundaries even farther than McQuarrie was able to do so well in the earlier sections of the film. But come on, you can only expect so much from a summer mega blockbuster, right? Well…no. Wrong. I can hope to have my expectations totally shaken up. I can dream of being truly shocked and surprised by the finale of a mega film. We should all long for something new, that we’ve never seen before. And Cruise, Blunt, Liman, and McQuarrie offer so much in this film; they toy with our expectations and smartly so. But in the end they can’t stick the landing to give this film an “all-timer” status, but rather wrap it up so neatly as to homogenize it to fit most comfortably alongside its kindred summer tentpole fare.
I had a great time with Edge Of Tomorrow. It had me thinking and chatting with friends after the fact. There were some action sequences that stand out as quite wonderful, and that I believe I’ll remember for a long time to come. The deft handling of a tricky time loop mechanic allows for thrills, humor, and endless surprises. I largely had no idea where the film was going or how it was going to get me to the end, which was incredibly refreshing. And that is why the ending frustrates me so.
There’s been a lot of incredibly positive buzz around this film, and the online critical community seems to be embracing it as not only a fun time at the movies, but potentially one of the best blockbusters of the year or at least of Summer 2014. I had a blast and highly recommend the film, but I doubt it has secured any kind of place for me as the “best” of anything just yet. Maybe if the rest of the summer is disappointing, Edge Of Tomorrow could come out on top. But as of right now I can recommend the film without hesitation while still feeling like it falls just shy of any sense of greatness.
And I’m Out.