A satisfactory Sci-Fi film actually justifies itself

Rating: 7/10 (11 June 2014)

Action-packed summer tent-poles continue with EDGE OF TOMORROW, Tom Cruise stars in this hardcore alien slasher (with an estimated exorbitant budget of $178,000,000), directed by THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002, 8/10) alum Doug Liman, although it has been dead on arrival in the domestic box office, Tom Cruise' more appealing international star-power can be the last straw to make the ends meet.
Blatantly ripping of the time-loop concept from GROUNDHOG DAY (1993, 9/10) and SOURCE CODE (2011, 8/10) , the film craftily grafts it on a Sci-Fi battleground with Mimics, an alien species (with metal tentacles and high-speed mobility) invading the Mainland Europe, after his first-day in the front-line, rookie soldier Cage (Cruise) dies in a blast together with a giant blue Mimics (Alpha, one out of several millions), doused in its blood, he miraculously wakes up alive and kicking at the camp one day before, afterward, every time he dies, time jumps back to this exact same time slot and he gains experience while others are oblivious of all the happenings.
So, there is a quite plausible explanation about this whimsical setting, after meeting a female warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt), who has undergone the same situation months earlier and been deprived of her ability after a blood transfusion, Cage sides with her to find out a way to destroy Omega, the highly-intelligent brain behind all the Mimics who can anticipate human race's every and each move because it has the ability to turn back time, whenever an Alpha one dies, time- loop is intrigued to revive it to a near time-line, by coincidence Cage is mistakenly resuscitated in light of covered with Alpha's blood, he becomes a surrogate of the Alpha he killed as far as in Omega's mindset, it all lies in the blood.
After umpteen death (sometimes conducted by a cavalier Rita and teems with satisfactory gags here), Cage has evolved into a competent warrior and finally, they are on a one-last-chance journey (after Cage loses his ability too) to exterminate Omega under the Louvre Museum before the losing battle begins.
Slyly imitating the WWII D-Day invasion, the movie is a rip-roaring riot with its fast-paced editing (cheap-looking CGI though, makes one wonder how do they spend all that money? Cruise's pocket, maybe), Cruise is always in his tiny hero mode although this time he starts as a total greenhorn, the opening two-hander between him and Brendan Gleeson (as General Brigham) is rib-tickling as though the hefty Brigham is going to personally teach Cage a lesson for being a smug business man who gets cold feet when coerced to enter the real battlefield.
Emily Blunt (fresh from Rian Johnson's time-travel enterprise LOOPER 2012, 6/10) brings about a potent pulse as a bona-fide heroine, almost equally shares the save-the-world undertaking with Cruise, pitifully, the film is betting on Cruise's trademark, what would happen if it is Rita who drops the grenade near the coda? Maybe with a bit flashback of the expedition about how she finally cracks the time-loop theory in the first place. I cannot even imagine that, how awesome it would be!
Anyway, the picture is compelling entertaining, with a sophisticated script behind to support its primary assumptions, with a video-game setting of immortality to pander to its core audience, and efficiently omits the tiresome context-supplement process every time Cage restarts his routine day. We can only blame Cruise's waning sway in North American for its lukewarm debut weekend, it is time to consider Blunt as an action lead and she will shine no matter what.