A surprisingly good movie

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2016)

Contains spoilers.
So I just watched this film for about the fifth time and decided it deserved a review.
Part of what made this movie so good for me was that I never expected it to be as good as it was. I think many people felt this way and as a result it didn't do exceptionally well in the box office. Having said that, it's this unexpected nature that is making it a cult classic. I've seen very few people disappointed with it. Many movies oversell in the trailers and often I expect too much and I'm disappointed. With this movie I expected very little and was blown away.
Let's start from the beginning. When I first saw the TV trailer, I was unimpressed. The aliens reminded me vaguely of the sentinels from the Matrix. The story line seemed to mimic Groundhog Day. The CGI felt unimpressive in the TV trailer that I saw and I just wasn't interested. I just felt like I'd been there and done that.
When I first saw the movie I was a little buzzed. I'd just come from the bar with my friend and he suggested the movie and I thought ...whatever. It was my first time in the local AMC, which since I'd been there years before, had installed wide, comfortable recliners. This didn't hurt the experience.
From the beginning this movie took me in, immersed me and not for one second was my concentration on anything else...from beginning to end. It was in one word engaging.
The acting was excellent. Bill Paxton was a little too stereotypical along with the lines he delivered. The same could be said of a couple of the troops, but it gave the cast variety and for me didn't break the bounds of being too excessive. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt were impressive. Cruise delivered on his character, a sheltered soldier and a former ad man who sold over-polished BS for a living. Cruise's progression from coward to a serious, battle tested soldier was seamless. He delivered in everything from dark comedy to tragic love. Blunt equaled his performance and this movie wouldn't have been the same without her. The best romantic movies work only because the characters possess the ability to make you fall in love with them and it's hard not to fall for her. Beautiful, fit, adept and focused, yet allowing glimpses of pain, femininity and fragility to occasionally slip through the cracks to the surface. This was the brilliance of her acting.
The comedy is dark and mixes into a film that is dark, but it's subtle and well done. Although there are some small CGI parts that could be cut in my opinion, the aliens were well done and were more original than the trailer I saw led me to believe. The mood of this film is somber and the often clouded skies complement the mood. The battle scenes were epic in magnitude and there was so much to be seen beyond the trailer I first viewed on TV.
Although the film was generally well done there were three aspects that I really loved about this film.
First, the effects weren't often your typical CGI. The director mixed the CGI with life. When a tentacle would hit the ground there would be a very real feeling because dirt would fly realistically into the air. This grounded a lot of the effects and gave them a reality that pure CGI just can't do yet. Yes, there were some scenes that were not as well done, but in general the effects felt more intertwined with reality than the typical CGI film of today.
Second, this film did an excellent job of telling the story of a repeating day without feeling boring or repetitive and sometimes it was executed with extraordinary creativity. "bang...on your feet maggot...bang...maggot...bang...maggot." As I said this film has a satisfying dark feel I really liked and even the comedy came woven with death.
Third, and this is probably my favorite aspect to the film, was that in a way, it was a very tragic love story that was creatively hinted at, rather than being blatantly overt. It doesn't gratuitously throw sex and nudity in your face to sell itself as Game of Thrones does. Instead, it is subtle and more complex. It's the tragedy of falling in love with someone that barely knows you. It's the tragedy of watching this person you've grown to love die over and over. It's the tragedy of knowing this person you love has gone through the same thing before with someone else. She's aware you might be going through the same and she puts distance in between you with purpose. It's a longing for more that keeps you wanting. It almost forces you to imagine your own happy ending. In my mind the next words are: Cruise: "Can I take you out when you have a free moment." Blunt: "Are you seriously hitting on me right now?" ::she turns away in disgust:: Cruise: "I have what you had and I have a story I think you'll want to hear. ::Blunt turns around:: Cruise: Can I buy you a cup of coffee?" Sure, maybe that's roughly implied in the movie, but I still need to hear that extra step in my own mind.
After five times, I still am very much a fan of this movie. His and her battle suits have crossed my mind every Halloween since seeing it. Sure, perhaps the end time jump doesn't make sense. Being a programmer as a hobby since I was 15 got me creating theories regarding embedded loops to explain it, but in the end, I really don't care. I love this movie. Even with some flaws. Here's to hoping my now high expectations are exceeded in number 2.