Edge Of Tomorrow Review

Edge Of Tomorrow is one of this years biggest blockbuster action films. The film comes from director Doug Liman who you might know for his work with the Bourne Identity (2002), Mr. & Mrs Smith (2005) and Jumper (2008). The film brings with it one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Tom Cruise and also Emily Blunt for its main cast. Edge Of Tomorrow is a science fiction action film in which Cage (Tom Cruise) and Rita (Emily Blunt) go up against an unstoppable alien force that is more than a match for the world’s modern military. They must do everything they can to convince those around them to help them stop it.

Edge Of Tomorrow is actually based on a book from Hiroshi Sakurazaka of Japan called All You Need Is Kill and is adapted from the books story. The plot of Edge Of Tomorrow is sort of like Ground Hog Day meets a first person shooter video game. Cage (Tom Cruise) lives out every day over and over again. It’s the day he goes into battle and that battle is impossible to win. Each day he is killed and has to start over, at the start Cage has no idea how to even fire his weapon but he slowly gets better as the film progresses. Emily Blunts character, Rita, is there to help him out and help him understand the world around him. I don’t really want to talk too much about the plot because I don’t really like giving it away, you can surmise it from the trailer. It’s not a hard to follow film and actually the plot is a big plus as there aren’t many inconsistencies with the storyline. It’s just “Live, Die, Repeat” and that’s easy to follow!

What is great about Edge Of Tomorrow is the action sequences. There is more action in the first half an hour of this movie than there was in the entire feature length of Godzilla. A big plus is that you actually get to see the action and a lot of it is really cool. There are massive battles in Edge Of Tomorrow and the 3D is also quite good. I would say that the 3D is worth seeing and is definitely much better than what we got in Godzilla, which sucked in terms of the 3D.

Edge tomorrow also has a great look to it. I quite liked the design of the suits and the mechanics of the military gear. It’s a mech like suit that assists a marine to fight the enemies and is officially called “The Exo Suit”. It’s big and it’s robotic and looks really great on screen. I thought that it was good that they didn’t go for the whole CGI suit for this movie and it’s great to see that they actually put in the effort to create them. The suits that were worn were actually designed by Pierre Bohanna, Batman fans might know him for his work with The Dark Knight (2008) and you can watch a video interview with Pierre Bohanna about the suit right here. The suits were quite heavy and weighed about 85 pounds so the actors needed to learn to adapt to walking with them. Emily Blunt did a lot of training and preparation for this film and as did Tom Cruise and the actors definitely stepped up when it came to moving around in these things.

Speaking of the acting all of it was great especially from the two main cast. Tom Cruise usually always delivers in all of his films and I have no issues with his acting in Edge Of Tomorrow. Tom Cruise is a great actor and did well for both the emotional and action scenes and was exactly what I expected and needed in this film. Emily Blunt did incredibly well with her character who had become known as the “Full Metal Bitch”. Emily Blunt was both very interesting and tough when she needed to be which suited the characterisation of who she was playing. In terms of the rest of the cast all of them were great as well and looked to be trying their best with their roles. While nobody was really focused as much as the two leads there were some good moments from actors like Brendan Gleeson (General Brigham), Bill Paxton (Master Sergeant Farell) and Charlotte Riley (Nance).

The tone of Edge Of Tomorrow is not so serious and leans towards more of an entertainment side of things. There are some really funny laugh out loud moments in this movie mixed in with the serious action sequences which is a good balance to have. Last year’s Tom Cruise movie Oblivion (2013) while being something that I also liked a lot, was something that was maybe a bit too serious for some people and didn’t really make you laugh at all. This movie by having a good mix of jokes and action makes it something that I think would entertain a lot of cinema viewers.

The directing by Doug Liman is something that I will also award a bit of credit for towards the good end as a lot of the scenes mesh well together throughout the film and action scenes are really great. Cinematography is also well done and some of the long shots across a battlefield were very much appreciated. Cinematography in Edge Of Tomorrow comes from Dion Bieebe who also worked on Gangster Squad (2013), Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005) and Chicago (2002) and he did some good work I thought in Edge Of Tomorrow, not as good as the cinematography in Transcendence (2014) but still quite exceptional by my standards.

The musical elements of the film were quite well done as well and added to the suspense in a lot of the scenes. Again in comparing with last years Tom Cruise movie Oblivion (2013), I think maybe Oblivion is a bit above this film in the music department as it has more of a memorable score, but Edge Of Tomorrow isn’t too bad with its own music either. I don’t really have much complaints about this film and to me the screenplay holds up quite well from the beginning to the end. While some could nitpick here and there about certain parts of the story, there isn’t really that much there for me to complain about.

Overall I quite enjoyed watching Edge Of Tomorrow. It’s a very well put together science fiction action film that is well worth your money and a trip to the cinema. I do recommend the 3D for this movie and if you can, go to the biggest screen you can find as you’ll have a better experience. The actors do well with their characters and also in their action sequences. You get more action in Edge Of Tomorrow than most films this year and after watching Godzilla it was clear to me that this was an action movie done right. Edge Of Tomorrow is a great experience for you and your friends at the cinema and I gladly recommend you all go and watch it.