Guest Post!!~ Tom Cruises Through Time in New Sci Fi Adventure!

22 Jun

Our pal Marc is back with another guest post! Marc watches a lot of movies and reviews them on TwoOhSix.com all while defying the conventions of what a “movie critic” is typically supposed to be.

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Edge of Tomorrow is a science fiction film directed by Doug Liman who is most known for his work on The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The movie stars Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, and Brendan Gleeson.

Major William Cage (Cruise) has helped produce a new military technology that could turn the tide in a war against a seemingly unstoppable alien invasion army. When Cage is sent to the front lines after a disagreement with a ranking officer, the inexperienced soldier quickly learns the reality of combat. You can get killed really easily. Fortunately, his death is preempted by something that causes him to reawaken the previous morning over and over and he takes this turn of events to learn, adapt, and make changes in hopes of eventually winning the day.

That’s about as far into the story as I can go before it gets to the point where you just have to see it for yourself. As you can imagine, there are a lot of scenes repeated as he relives the day over and over although with sometimes subtle and other times drastic changes based on the decisions Cage makes each time through. This also allows for a lot of comedic moments to come through which brings a great balance to all the intense action and impressive special effects that otherwise dominate the picture.

One thing that should really be noted about this film is how the character of Rita, played by Emily Blunt, is portrayed as a tough, gritty, and heroic soldier who rose to prominence by almost single-handedly winning a major battle against the aliens called “Mimics”. She is a strong, confident, and capable woman in a movie where they could have easily written in a basic sidekick or damsel in distress type of character. I’m actually a little disappointed that neither the character or the actress has been featured prominently in the marketing campaign for the movie. In an era where females are taking more lead roles in top shelf blockbuster movies, this was a serious missed opportunity, in my humble opinion.

It’s not very often that we get a truly original genre movie like this that satisfies on just about every level. The story is unique and well put together, the action is big and worthy of blockbuster status, and the special effects work is some of the coolest and most original I’ve seen in some time. Bonus points for not dumbing down the story or spending too much time explaining the what and why of everything that is going on. Liman just throws you right into the story and, next thing you know, everything is exploding and crashing all over the place and it actually gives you a similar feeling to playing similarly themed video games which have your character re-spawn to continue the mission each time after being killed.

Almost finished with the review and I just realized I haven’t said anything about Tom Cruise yet! Not much to say really and that’s not meant as a knock on him or his performance in the movie, I always like what he brings to the table in big, action movies like this one and he delivers yet again. Haters are always going to hate so, if you’re not a Cruise fan, this movie will do nothing to change that.

Did I like Edge of Tomorrow? Heck yeah! This is one of those movies you just have to go see on the biggest screen you can possibly find so you can properly take in all the blockbuster type awesomeness of it all. I chose to see it in 2D, although not for any particular reason, so I have no insight about which format you should see it in.