Edge of Tomorrow may be one of my favorite surprise good movies I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this year.  Edge of Tomorrow has comedy, action, a thought provoking story, incredible visuals, and a damn charming Tom Cruise.  Based on the novel, All You Need is Kill, the story follows military propaganda specialist Cage (Cruise).  When Cage resists a direct order being of joining the battle, he’s put on the front line where he dies almost instantly.  But something happens to Cage where he wakes up after death only to relive the same battle over and over again.  With the help of the army’s most badass marine, Rita (Emily Blunt), Cage uses this ability to his advantage to turn the tide of the war.  Basically this movie is Groundhog Day with space marines and Tom Cruise.

Minimal spoilers below.

All images owned by Warner Bros.

 The Story is Classic Science Fiction Awesome

Edge of Tomorrow sports everything science fiction awesome a flush combination Elysium’s personalized battle armor, Matrix-esque robotic enemies, Halo pelican drop ships, and FF7-inspired Buster Swords.  In short, we have the ingredients of a potent science fiction thriller that is tied very well with a thought provoking and gratifying story.  Edge of Tomorrow gives us the setup and rules of how Cage’s abilities work and the rest of the story and conflict build upon that in a sensical and gratifying way.  Cage dies by a random artillery fire?  He steps left in his next life.  He says something wrong to the guy you don’t want to say something wrong to?  He keeps his mouth shut.  Enough time is assumed to pass by when he goes through entire sequences knowing the ins and outs, and despite us not seeing him ‘learn & memorize’ these situations first hand, we are given the sense to assume that he went through the trial by fire and blood.  Putting these pieces together is fun for the audience and we can be entertained by both the movie’s visual effects in addition to the assumed instances that occur during a pivotal day.  All of these things make Edge of Tomorrow an overall fun watch.

Tom Cruise as Cage is Hella Charming and Badass

Tom Cruise as Cage is a blast to watch.  Cruise channels his slick tongue and witty one-liners that is reminiscent of his cocky roles like Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt and Top Gun’s Maverick.  Everything likable about those characters are brought to Cage’s character.  Cruise brings his charming self as he evolves from a cocky, scaredy cat in a military suit to a cocky badass in a military suit.  The number of times Cage ‘dies’ in the film is significant and each one has a sense of hilarity, delivered by Cruise’s sense of the inevitability and indifference to each death.

Emily Blunt as Rita is 2 Kinds of Pretty.  Traditional Pretty and Pretty Badass

Also catching my eye is Emily Blunt’s Rita the ‘Full Metal Bitch’.  Rita was a symbol of the war, the pinnacle of what it meant to be a super marine, and a badass character who can cut through plenty of ‘mimics’ on her own.  Blunt brought a degree of badassery and sex appeal to the character that made it fun and enticing to watch.  She had her own twisted sense of humor when she ‘reset’ Tom Cruise multiple times in order to advance his training.  Holding a plot twist of her own, Rita was a vital component to saving Earth.  This movie also proved that she can be a certified badass action movie star (despite and on-set story about her crying about wearing the 85 pound armor, to which Tom Cruise said, “man up”).

You’ll Laugh, Be Wowed, and Even Feel.  A Pretty Solid Movie

Edge of Tomorrow was never really on anyone’s ‘holy shit I need to see this movie’  summer 2014 list.  It sported a lot of the key story elements in the trailer and seemed like a generic science fiction movie with Tom Cruise.  I came in with interested intentions after reading reviews that it was legitimately a good movie and left the movie theater with the same conclusion.   Like all great science fiction movies, Edge of Tomorrow is a movie with fun action and a good original story that we haven’t seen before.  The story device and execution by director Doug Liman created a lot of fun and gratification in watching it as well as the entertainment value of Cruise and Blunt tearing it up on the screen.  I’m going to recommend this movie to as many people as I can as 2014’s most underrated action film.

Bye bye sweet heart