The fun kind of ridiculous

Rating: 7/10 (20 August 2014)

Last night I spent $1.50 to see Tom Cruise scurry around in his newest blockbuster sci-fi action comedy extravaganza Edge of Tomorrow. Let me tell you, $1.50 is the perfect price to pay for this film. Now, don't interpret that as me saying this movie sucks. It doesn't. Is it worth the usual price of admission, which here in Los Angeles can be as much as $20? No. Is it worth the theater experience, though? Yes, absolutely. Edge of Tomorrow is loud, shiny, and extravagant, and it definitely entertains for two hours.
Edge of Tomorrow takes place in the midst of an alien invasion as the humans of Earth try to battle back a vicious race of bizarre looking aliens called Mimics. Cruise plays Cage, an officer who finds himself stuck in a time loop where he repeats the same day over and over a-la Groundhogs Day. This day just happens to be the day that a beachfront attack on the aliens would go horribly wrong, resulting in an absolute slaughter on the human side of the battle. When Cruise meets up with Emily Blunt he finds out that, because of his G-Day syndrome, is the only chance civilization has at stopping the Mimics. The only catch is that he has to keep dying so that he can relive the same fatal day until he pretty much gets it right.
The easiest way to label this movie is by calling it a mix between Groundhogs Day and Starship Troopers. If that logline sounds absolutely ridiculous, it is because Edge of Tomorrow is absolutely ridiculous. It's an absurd concept carried throughout by absurd exposition driving an increasingly absurd plot. By about the halfway mark it should have been very easy to start hating this film, but it's saved by one thing; it's own self awareness. Edge of Tomorrow knows how silly it is, and it embraces that right off the bat. It hits the ground running with a good sense of humor and a protagonist who is intentionally a complete pussy. Of course, reliving the same day over and over allows Cruise's character to come into his own, and the transition from wuss to hero is pretty well done.
This film sets itself up well for non-stop action. It only takes about 20 minutes for us to get our first taste of combat in an epic D-Day inspired beach battle. Then we of course repeat this battle again and again, making for a battle sequence that technically lasts the entire movie. How many films get to say that?
This unfortunately sets the film up to be a little long winded, and I felt like a solid 15-20 minutes could have been shaved off to save some of the alien battle fatigue I was feeling by the third act. I was really enjoying Edge of Tomorrow from the get go, but after a while Tom Cruise getting smacked around by aliens and robots gets a little tiring and repetitive. Given the film's premise it's probably not totally fair to call the film repetitive, since that's sort of the point, but other similar movies like Groundhogs Day proved that you can still keep a repetitive movie fresh, and for most of the film Edge of Tomorrow is good about this. By the third act the film did something really smart. I won't give away any specific plot points but it definitely raises the stakes, keeping the plot freshly exciting, but the on screen action was more of the same.
Edge of Tomorrow starts significantly stronger than it ends, but that doesn't stop this film from being a solid sci-fi action movie. It's a memorable popcorn flick that I can admire solely for the fact that it's not a sequel, prequel, remake, or reboot. I always enjoy original sci- fi, and Edge of Tomorrow is no exception. Especially given how dreadful this looked from the trailers, I give major kudos to Edge for keeping me entertained enough for it's two hour runtime.