Edge of Tomorrow
(2014) Review
Director – Doug Liman
Stars – Tom Cruise,
Emily Blunt
As soon as we heard that Tom Cruise was making another
action movie it wasn’t a huge surprise. After all Mr Hollywood has managed to
be cast in a variant of ‘photogenic hero’ since the 80’s and he isn’t showing
signs of slowing down. However this isn’t a criticism, Cruise has been ‘ahem’
cruising (sorry) through a major blockbuster pretty much every year, each one a
standing testament to what he does best. This time round he is joined by Doug
Liman who is also an action veteran (The
bourne Identity, Mr and Mrs Smith) Thus far so good. Based on the critically
acclaimed Japanese novel ‘All You Need is
Kill’ by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, the film has a great foundation to work off of
and also has high expectations from the original fans.
Within 10 minutes of the film we get a huge chunk of the
plot; most of the earth has been taken over by ‘mimics’ jelly fish type robots
(think ‘The Matrix’ sentinels with superior
CGI) and the cowardly Major Cage (Cruise) has been sent to the front line for
an imminent battle across the English channel. Within this battle lies a majority
of the action and film. After Cage kills an Alfa Mimic, in the process killing
him, he gains the Alfa’s ability to‘re-set’ the day thus giving a ‘Groundhog Day’ effect. This enables
Cage to live (and die) the same day over and over again, as this progresses we
meet the infamous Rita AKA The full metal Bitch (Blunt). Blunt gives the film a
different dynamic as she is the dominant solider, being the first time cruise
has played catch up we see a nice element of comedy in the otherwise dramatic
battle fields. Liman provides plenty of these action sequences which are able
to grip and entertain us, whilst giving them a subtle edge of grit which suits
both Cruise and Blunt well. The movie places most of its emphasis on these two
leads who share great chemistry, and although we aren’t given a huge amount
about Rita’s back story we can grasp a basic idea of her motivation within the
war. It’s also refreshing to see a headstrong woman making Cruise feel slightly
inferior, her hard exterior makes us attached to their story and the
difficulties they face. This said it would have been great to have seen more of
both of Cage and Rita’s past and also their future as the film does decide to
end with a semi-teaserish feel.
All in all this is defiantly not a standard blockbuster, it
has a great script, cast and heart that make it more notable than most of this
summer’s offerings. It’s only flaws can be forgiven and although it spoon feeds
most of the story it’s hard to judge with its leading man and lady giving it
everything on screen. If only more big budget productions based their ideas on
well written books rather than Hasbro toys (that’s right Optimus Prime) we
would have a higher calibre of cinema.
RATING 4/5
By Joshua Tanner
No comments:
Post a Comment