Review of 'Edge of Tomorrow'

Warning! Contains Spoilers!

Histories, comedies and tragedies. There used to be only three types of play. Many would begin with a living breathing prologue who actually tells you the entire plot before a single boarded is strutted upon. Expectation is not the same as entertainment and originality is not a prerequisite of amusement. The trailer for “Edge of Tomorrow” hit my eyes like a drop pod during the cold winter months. Since then I have had a hovercraft full of cynics tell me that “it’s just Oblivion mixed with Ground Hog Day.” This may be completely accurate. But it’s only a presumption of premise rather than an actual description. Power suits, aliens and Emily Blunt. Those three things would look cool on a grave stone let alone a movie poster. But enough of my crusade against pessimism. Let’s keep things original. Come with me on an adventure as the Americans storm the beaches of France to rescue Europe from a supposed master race. Sigh. Show time!

Someone has had their Weetabix

After spending all their money on anti-terrorist weapons, the world’s militaries are unprepared to fight off an alien invasion. When will they learn? After our mega elite armies are overwhelmed and annihilated some bright spark comes up with the solution. Apple or Samsung or someone develop power armour that turns each soldier into a mega warrior. Swelled by millions of volunteers our armies prepare to fuck up Johnny alien and the asteroid he rode in on. 

“You know what this power armour needs? A sword. Aliens love swords.”

Now enters army PR man Major William Cage (Tom Cruise). If you joined the new global military it was probably because of his excellent promotion. When General Brigham (Brenden Gleeson) orders him to the front to get some ace promotional material for future recruitment he responds with piss weak black mail. This was not a great move. Thrown into the front line with only one days’ training, Cage is killed within five minutes of hitting the beach. Then wakes up 24 hours BEFORE his death. Time repeats itself. Each time Cage is killed he is transported back to this moment. With the help of super soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), Cage trains to break the time loop and beat the aliens. He also tries to get a kiss from Vrataski, has a pint in a less than jolly London pub and visits the Louvre after closing time. Oh and Bill Paxton plays a cool drill sergeant!

“…and there will be drop ships over

the white cliffs of Dover…”

Computer generated imagery is here to stay in our summer blockbusters. “Edge of Tomorrow” spares no expense with its massive battle scapes, massed armies, armadas of flying transports, and alien baddies that look like Octodad on crack.  For all the graphics, we get treated to two realistic constants that help us identify. The movie could be ten years from now. London looks like London, helicopters look like modern helicopters and cars look like normal cars. Then we have the power armour. These suits were actually ‘real’ props. Emily Blunt was almost reduced to tears by having to wear the eighty pound suit in the combat scenes. For all their chunkiness, the power armour looks real, it looks heavy and it looks like it was mass produced in its millions in a desperate attempt to equip the military for an ongoing alien invasion. This is handy, because that’s what it’s for. All this helps with that magic word – immersion.

Top Gear is proud to sponsor this movie

I made a snide remark in my introduction where I compared some plot elements of “Edge of Tomorrow” to World War Two. This was not flippant. The similarities continue. London is filled with military personnel from countless allied nations. Britain has become a massive parking lot ready for the ‘big push’ into the heart of the enemy empire. The Americans are here in force to retake Europe. Power armour has given rise to a new ‘citizen’ army ready to fight for freedom. At one point in the movie we see a map of alien controlled Europe that could have been taken from a 1943 documentary (down to even having an Eastern Front). The attack on Europe begins with an assault on the beaches of frickin Normandy! (Why didn’t the troop transports fly OVER the beaches and land on strategic targets instead?) Also, despite being pushed back with horrendous losses, France looks like it was abandoned rather than fought over… The symbolism almost gets tired. I get it. This is how we fought the Nazis. The Nazis were bad and aliens are bad. That makes us the good guys.

“We have to get off the littoral zone and take cover in the erosion landforms!”

Jake was really happy that his Geography Degree was coming in useful.

“Edge of Tomorrow” justifies mass armies (because thousands of troops boarding transports looks cooler than twenty SAS commandoes getting into canoes) through the mega cool power armour. The intro goes to great lengths to explain how anyone with very basic fitness and military training can now become a solider. Look! (the film seems to say) our greatest soldier is a woman! ANYONE can be a badass in this armour! What a great concept. Now you can fill the screen with a wide swathe of humanity and really make us identify with the sacrifice of all those brave, identifiable heroes. Or so it goes. Or so it should have been. There are at least two female characters in the million strong army. There are even some black guys. I would stretch to describe some other troopers as being positively ethnic. And they throw in a fat chap for some real diversity. But that’s about it. It’s basically the same squad of hero’s from “Aliens” with a return and promotion for Bill Paxton. Forward my hoard of white guys! To victory!

Stick with the push ups and one day you too could be Emily Blunt!

Cage lives the same day over and over. This means he can undo yesterday’s mistakes. From walking down a corridor without being noticed to literally shooting enemies without looking, no error cannot be undone. The only thing he has to do is make sure he dies so that the process can repeat. Cool idea. The movie is self-aware enough to realise that this is also hilarious. In one scene he dramatically runs across the beach towards the enemy only to be side swiped by a truck. To escape his platoon during PT, he must role under a moving vehicle. The crunching death cry from Cruise during his failed attempts is worth more than a few giggles. It’s about during the obligatory training montage that I realised this pattern was familiar. And I don’t mean ‘Ground Hog Day.’ There have been many movies based on computer games. Some bad, the majority terrible. But “Edge of Tomorrow” may just be the first movie based on a computer game from the perspective of the game character you control. If we could interview a Covenant Elite from the Halo franchise or a Russian solider from Call of Duty, they might tell us of the day a lone gunman appeared and cut through their mates like paper. This warrior inexplicably knew the location of every trap, each ambush. Nothing could stop him. This is the “Edge of Tomorrow” experience. Anyone who has thrown down an Xbox controller as the restart screen appears before your tears of frustration will understand. 

“Mr Cruise? Your entourage has arrived.”

With the mix of immersive setting, character depth (and progression) all tied together with fast paced action, “Edge of Tomorrow” has set the bar high for the summer. Go and see this movie with your mates for a laugh and some kick ass battles.

I give “Edge of Tomorrow” four Brian faces out of Five.