Very well done

Rating: 8/10 (23 September 2014)

This is a welcome return to big budget form for Doug Liman after stumbling with the mess that was Jumper. This high concept screenplay is explored to its fullest potential and perhaps its greatest achievement is its sense of humor throughout. It's basically light gallows humor, watching Cruise die over and over again.
The film is very well made and it's a welcome change of pace to see a vfx film shot on 35mm giving some grain and texture to the effects. In an era of filmmaking where most effects sequences are pre- visualized to an almost sterilizing degree, the action filmed feels remarkably spontaneous - thanks to Liman's chaotic, figure it out on set style of filmmaking, that has been aptly named 'Limania.'
As Cruise gets caught in this time loop where he repeats the same day over and over, the script fleshes this scenario out where it never feels repetitive or predictable. A concept like this is prime for writing itself into a corner and forcing a last act to resolve everything, but Edge of Tomorrow avoids such last act problems. A minor gripe with the script would be that no one recognizes Cage as an officer, yet he is a prominent media figure that got millions of recruits to join the fight. That aside, Edge of Tomorrow is a hell of a lot of fun.