Action Movie Fanatix Review: Edge of Tomorrow

Live, Die, Repeat

Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Director: Doug Liman

2014 | 113 Minutes | PG-13

“While it is an honor, General, I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline. I can’t stand the sight of blood. Not so much as a papercut.” – Cage

I’m far from a Tom Cruise fan. I find him to be a monster douche. But I can’t help but watch every single one of his action oriented movies. Somehow he always gets himself into awesome roles. It must be the Scientology.

Military officer Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) hasn’t seen so much as a day’s action but he’s been sent on what amounts to a suicide mission against the alien invaders. Once killed, Cage finds himself in a time loop, forcing him to repeat his mission over and over again. With each battle, Cage and United Defense Force badass Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) – aka The Angel of Verdun – get closer to defeating the enemy.

Interestingly enough, Tom Cruise isn’t the hero… at least at the beginning. SPOILER ALERT He saves the day at the end but for most of the movie is a pretty big wuss and Emily Blunt is the badass… or as her promo posters proclaim her – a “Full Metal Bitch!” It was a refreshing change of pace for an action / sci-fi movie… much less a Tom Cruise movie.

It’s also pretty dang funny to watch Major Cage suffer through his repeated deaths. You wouldn’t think an action/sci-fi Groundhog Day would work but it definitely does.

As much as I loved the first Starship Troopers movie, they left out one very crucial piece from the original book… the mech suits. The suits in Edge of Tomorrow are almost exactly what I would have imagined the suits to look like in the Starship Troopers book. The futuristic military technology is just right… not so futuristic so that it feels unrealistic but futuristic enough to still be super cool.

The action is gritty and intense with Cage and Rita dying over and over again as they move closer and closer to their ultimate goal of stopping the alien threat. Edge of Tomorrow is only PG-13 but it never feels like they are holding back on the violence. Tom Cruise dies over and over in really painful looking ways.

Edge of Tomorrow was easily one of the best action movies of 2014… maybe my favorite. I literally can’t even think of a single thing to knock it on. Start to finish it is a ton of fun.