B2K At The Movies: Edge Of Tomorrow

Oh no.  I went into this movie thinking, “NOT another Tom Cruise movie where he plays the action hero that saves the day with his poster boy good looks!”  Yet, Tim insisted we watch this film.  

I’m so glad we did!

Edge of Tomorrow is not at all what I was expecting.  I was expecting high-testosterone, alien creatures being annihilated, Cruise being the hero of the day, and Emily Blunt being his bitch throughout the feature.  Boy, was I wrong!  I was incredible wrong!  

Edge of Tomorrow is about an alien race that is wiping out the humans on Earth.  No military (in ANY country) can lower the aliens numbers because the aliens are fierce.  To be honest, the aliens in this movie make the aliens in “Starship Troopers” look like pussies.  Major Bill Cage (Tom Cruise) is the media darling who reports on the U.S. military’s progress (or lack thereof) on the alien’s progress.  He is on every news channel and every cable host’s show.  He’s a very popular, and somewhat prissy, guy.  Not at all what we’re used to seeing Tom Cruise play.  Major Cage is called into General Brigham’s office (played by Brendan Gleeson) and is informed that Cage will be joining the action on the front line.  Cage is not wanting to go to combat.  In fact, he tries to weasel out of it by using a little bit of blackmail.  Nothing is going to persuade the General any different, so off to the alien fighting goes Cage.  

Cage is scared and totally out of his journalistic element.  In fact, (as expected) he dies during his few minutes of combat.  But not before he meets the “Angel of Verdun”, Rita Vrataski.  She’s also known as “The Full Metal Bitch”, because she killed 100 aliens her first day of combat.  

I cannot tell you what happens from here because I want you to be as blown away by this movie as I was.  The chemistry between Cruise and Blunt is fantastic.  This is the Hollywood team that should be in every movie.  She turns out to NOT be the wimpy woman to Cruise’s alpha male.  Not in this movie.  After a summer of movies that were copy-cat, or comic book heroes, or light horror movies without substance that really stick, Edge of Tomorrow was a complete surprise.  There is no lag time.  Not in this sort of “Ground Hog Day” theme.  All the while, you laugh and giggle while you’re ” whoa’ing” and “wow’ing” what is being played out in front of you.  In fact, the script is so well put together that this is the first movie that I know of where you begin to participate in the order of chaos.  You start noticing bits and pieces of the scene and don’t even realize you’re doing it right along with Cage as he’s reliving the day over and over.   

The movie is based on the sci-fi Japanese military graphic novel, “All You Need Is Kill“.  The stereotypes you find in the usual Tom Cruise movies have all been shaken up.  Edge of Tomorrow is definitely one of those movies that Tim will be purchasing to put in his blu-ray library.  It’s THAT good.  We wanted to watch the movie again, but decided that watching it again would put us in a time loop.  =P 

By the way, the trailer to this movie is so much darker and heavier than the actual movie really is.  Edge of Tomorrow is a fun movie.  Nowhere near as dramatic as this trailer makes it seem.  Once you watch the movie, you’ll know exactly what I mean.