Director: Doug Liman
Writers: Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth
Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt
Runtime: 113 mins.
2014
What if a big budget summer blockbuster could be more than ingratiating?
What if that blockbuster didn't focus on visual effects at the expense of all else? What if it treated every aspect of the film with respect and attention? What if it tended to script, performance, pace, and tone in equal parts?
What if that script had a more pristine structure than some Oscar contenders?
What if this film came from a director whose filmography has been radically hit or miss? What if it came from a team of writers who have arguably one excellent film between them--a film that came out in 1995?
What if the star was a former Grade-A man's man of a movie star, who has recently been perceived as "going off the deep end" and "box office poison"?
What if, despite the presence of said man's man movie star, the real badass of the film was the female protagonist? What if the male protagonist was cowardly and hopelessly out of his league, and he had to learn the ropes from her? What if the film didn't relegate her to the position of trophy girlfriend? What if the movie didn't focus on their romance and instead allowed them to be real characters with a real, mature, and evolving relationship?
What if, in addition to all of this, the movie delivered on everything that is expected of a blockbuster action flick? What if that delivery was a heavy dose of sci-fi and some of the haul-assed best mech action and convincing special effects this side of Avatar?
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| Actually I liked these effects better than Avatar's. |
This is Edge of Tomorrow.
I hope that bombastic intro got your attention, because frankly it feels like this movie is on nobody's radar, and justifiably so. Nobody thought it would be any good, myself included. Director Doug Liman, who brought us the mixed bag of The Bourne Identity, Jumper, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, probably wasn't catching anyone's eye, and Cruise doesn't pack the seats like he used to. In fact, there's no way I would have seen this movie until I encountered Devin's great review. This misperception of the film's inevitable mediocrity was in no small part thanks to a really sub-par advertising campaign. The trailers made Edge of Tomorrow look like some cheap knock-off of Oblivion with gimmicky shades of Groundhog Day.
The comparison is not in itself unfounded, though. The film begins with news reports that waste no time in setting up the conflict. An alien horde has swept across Europe, decimating all human armed forces. These aliens have been dubbed Mimics, because they always seem to anticipate our moves before we make them. That's all about to change, though. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a military talking head, and he's hyping up our next step, Operation Downfall. This operation is supposed to take back Europe from the bad things. But when Cage is ordered to the battlefront to document the projected victory, it's revealed that he's actually a mamsy-pamsy scaredy cat.
Anyway, through a series of events rather unpleasant to him, he finds himself strapped in a mech suit and jettisoned onto the beach of France from an air dropship. The D-Day allegory is compelling, and accurate, considering the army walks into an unexpected slaughter at the hands (tentacles) of the terrifying alien creatures. The fatalities are massive--including the poster boy... poster girl... poster woman of the military, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a helicopter-blade wielding soldier also known as the Angel of Verdun, also also known as the Full Metal Bitch.
And then Cage dies too. Movie over so soon? Nope! He wakes up the day before the battle, and everything around him is completely reset. How did this happen? How can he prevent the slaughter? How does Vrataski figure into all this? Mysteries abound!
Those weren't spoilers, by the way--that was the premise. There are plenty of twists and turns remaining in the near two hour runtime, don't you worry.
I don't want to get heavy into discussion about the film, because it's best to let it unfold and work its magic on you without knowing too much beforehand. But I will make a couple observations.
First is that the structure of this movie is exquisite. We begin the movie with a hero who is assuredly not the invincible badass action hero we've grown accustomed to, and this is refreshing. The time travel plot allows us to see him in every stage of his training, from helpless fool to mediocre sharpshooter to absolute horde-mowing tank. This progression is also bound up in changes in his attitude, demeanor, goals, etc. That's called a character arc, something that is missing from the majority of generic blockbuster action movies. We get to see the countless respawns of the same traumatic day weighing on him (Cruise commits to this performance and the result is mesmerizing), a theme and series of images that invoke the most achingly poignant parts of Murray's performance in Groundhog Day. We also get to see his increasing competence and eventual mastery in a way that is satisfying rather than merely expected, an arc that has led some to call Edge of Tomorrow the first excellent video game movie.
Second, I want to point out that as on point as Cruise is here, Emily Blunt steals the show. Between Edge of Tomorrow and Looper, Blunt pretty much has a monopoly on compelling female characters in action films over the past couple years. As poorly represented as women are in film as a whole, it gets worse when you venture into action and sci-fi. But what we see in Edge of Tomorrow is a character who not only is represented as an exemplary soldier, but is written with a depth of character, sense of propulsion, and agency near-unheard of in Hollywood. She also manages to completely subvert her "Full Metal Bitch" moniker over the course of the film in an important and meaningful way.
Finally, I just want to say that this script is amazing. It's not just clockwork tight and big budget action compelling, but it's packed with small, subtle character moments too. Throwaway side characters are filled out. Jokes are made, then unmade, then made once more. Recurring dialogue takes on new meaning again, and again, and again. The movie grows and folds in on itself like a fractal. It's stunning to see.
If any of this sounds enticing to you--and I'm trying as hard as I can to make it so--I implore you to go see this movie on the big screen instead of waiting around until it's released on DVD or TV or Netflix. I say this for two reasons. One, the spectacle is worth it (I even enjoyed seeing it in 3D!). Two, I can't shake the feeling that Edge of Tomorrow is going to get absolutely slaughtered by The Fault in Our Stars at the box office. Nothing against TFiOS, people are apparently going nuts about how good of an adaptation it is. But EoT deserves better than getting lost in the shuffle. It's not often that Hollywood produces an unexpected gem like this one, and if we want more like it we have to speak with our hard-earned money-bought tickets. Let's not put up with reliving the same Transformers-caliber tripe over and over again. Edge of Tomorrow is a gift, so take it.
4 / 5 BLOBS
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