“Edge of Tomorrow” Review

You may have missed this film at the theater because it had such a generic title: ‘Edge of Tomorrow’. Now on home video its been given the title ‘Live Die Repeat’ with the subtitle ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ in the corner of the cover. Well, that’s a slightly better title and at least superior to its novel source entitled ‘All You Need Is Kill’. Well you can call this film anything you like, but I call it one of the best films sci-fi films I’ve seen all year.

Tom Cruise plays a Major who is demoted down to a grunt for a D-day style offensive against an invading alien force known as Mimics. Cruise is killed minutes within the battle, but not before getting some nasty alien blood into his system. The blood of these aliens has time-travel abilities which ends up sending back to relive the same battle again. He’s sent into combat again, dies again and the whole thing starts all over again, hence the title. Think of it as a science-fiction version of ‘Groundhog Day’. The only one who believes what Cruise is going through is Emily Blunt’s character, a veteran soldier who has had the same experience. She’s aware that the only way to stop the cycle is to either get a blood transfusion or kill the hive mind of the aliens. And since Cruise seems doomed to die in this alien war, the latter is a much more tantalizing goal.

Just like ‘Groundhog Day’, ‘Live Die Repeat’ makes great use of the repeating day concept to be both clever and amusing. Not-so-typical for Tom Cruise’s usual characters, he doesn’t play an action hero from the start. In fact he makes several mistakes that result in multiple deaths until he finally trains enough to become a more efficient soldier. When he does, there’s an undeniable charm to the way he strolls through key events as a psychic who seems to know everything about everyone from the accumulated knowledge. It’s also just as hilarious to watch him fail each time. One of the funniest montages involves his training scenes with Emily Blunt where any serious injuries incurred by Cruise’s character results in her murdering him to reset the day once more. There are several great moments where Cruise tries to walk off his injuries claiming its not that bad only to be shot by Blunt and start all over.

As much as it is a tongue-in-cheek comedy, it also succeeds at being a sci-fi/action blockbuster with brains. The mystery behind the invading alien creatures is just as intriguing as their designs. The closest thing I can relate them to are like rabid starfishes able to change their shape and attack multiple targets. Once Cruise and Blunt finally form a solution, they carry out their plan of attack with incredible efficiency and tact in sensational action sequences.

Director Doug Liman completely delivers on a film that’s goes above and beyond the expectations. The action sequences are well-shot with some rather some impressive computer graphics given the abundance. You’d think that a film repeating key scenes over and over would grow dull, but the it’s edited tightly enough to keep the energy and drive of the picture going. I had a lot of fun watching this film trying to decipher the Mimics and watching Cruise learn from his deadly mistakes. This is a film I’m going to be going watching multiple times in the future just to see if I can see something new each time. Needless to say, it’s a definite buy.