Despite hokey premise, 'Alien' meets Groundhog Day as Cruise delivers in entertaining sci-fi action-adventure

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2014)

There are a number of reasons why 'Edge of Tomorrow', a Tom Cruise sci- fi action-adventure vehicle, did quite well at the box office in 2014. Primarily it's the overall concept: a 'Groundhog Day' mixed with the alien invasion genre.
Cruise adopts a variation of the 'Bill Murray' role, playing a former advertising executive turned public relations officer for the US Army, and assigned to a United Nations-like 'United Defense Army', who have been entrusted with the difficult task of battling a bunch of nasty aliens who have taken over almost the entire European continent.
Cruise plays 'Major' William Cage and he's similar to the narcissistic Phil Connors in 'Groundhog Day'. Both must go through the trial of time repeating itself before they develop the insight to change their personalities. Connors' character flaw that he must overcome, is misanthropy; Cage, on the other hand, must overcome not only his lack of competence as a soldier, but his 'cowardice'. It's General Brigham who sees through Cage's phoniness and lack of bravery right away and has him arrested after an escape attempt; as punishment, Cage is stripped down to the rank of private, and finds himself assigned to a forward operating unit at Heathrow Unit in London, about to be shipped off the battlefield on the French beaches.
Cage ends up under the charge of Master Sergeant Farrell who bullies him continually after learning that he's labeled as a 'deserter'; Cage meets the various soldiers, who he ends up fighting with against the aliens on the beaches of France. Cage is petrified as he's parachuted down on to the field of battle. Before being almost immediately killed by one of the aliens (called Alphas, larger aliens who command the foot soldiers, the Mimics), he meets Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who tells him to seek her out, when he 'wakes up'.
The film becomes much more engrossing and entertaining when Cage suddenly wakes up and finds himself back at Heathrow and being escorted once again by Sergeant Farrell to meet the same fellow soldiers he met before. He realizes he's in some kind of time loop but doesn't know why. In order to meet up with Sgt. Vrataski, he must find a way to escape from his platoon and there's some comedy thrown in when he tries to sneak underneath a truck and gets crushed, only to have Sgt. Farrell quip, "What the hell were you thinking?" But after getting killed, we see Cage make a second attempt going under the truck, and this time he makes it.
Cage hooks up with Vrataski who puts him through a grueling training course to learn how to successfully navigate his way through the battlefield against the mimics. Each time he fails, she finishes him off with a bullet from her gun and he goes through the same training, eventually perfecting his craft as a warrior.
Vrataski also introduces Cage to Dr. Carter who explains how he came to acquire the power to continually to go through the time loops. The explanation proves that the film's premise is not grounded in science but rather fantasy—so for those Ingmar Bergman aficionados out there, do not be disappointed if this explanation doesn't turn out to be 'rocket science'. Cage ended up getting sprayed by the blood of an Alpha after he killed it in battle and somehow, since the Alphas are hooked into the hive mind, the Omega (who controls the time looping ability), that somehow allows him to take over the Omega's fantastic power. This power can only become undone if one ends up getting a blood transfusion (which is exactly what happened to Vrataski before, when she was wounded on the battlefield and brought to a field hospital!).
Obviously getting too caught up in analyzing the pseudo-science behind the whole time-looping premise, will only detract from the enjoyable machinations to come. Cage, now fully a 'battle machine', has been clued in about the Omega's visions, which may lead him to where the 'queen bee' is hiding. After several scenarios on the beach where Vrataski keeps getting killed, he decides to proceed inland himself, but discovers that the Omega hiding out at a German dam, is only a ruse.
The plot now thickens when Cage, Vrataski and Carter decide to lift a 'prototype' which has been developed at the Ministry of Defense, to locate the Omega. That seems rather convenient but there's enough 'action' along the way, to keep your interest. And this is when Cage is injured and ends up getting a blood transfusion, losing his power to reset each day.
The climax is slightly anti-climactic. Cage of course finds out where the Omega is hiding (under the Louvre of all places!) and must destroy the big blob in order to disconnect the rest of the interconnected Alphas and Mimics. This whole idea of an interconnected hive, tied to a controlling 'brain' (and forcing the good guys to destroy it) has been done ad infinitum. Cases in point: the Borg series in Star Trek: Next Generation (with the 'brain' taking over the body of Picard and now calling himself 'Locutus') and 'Vikki', the chief operating system in 'I Robot'.
Since Cage gets splattered with the Omega's blood after it explodes, he gets one more reset. This time he wakes up where it's announced that a 'power surge' in Paris causes a cessation in all alien activity—the threat is neutralized. Cage is now back being a major and meets Vrataski, who of course, doesn't recognize him.
In addition to the enjoyable plot and pulsating electronica score, 'Edge of Tomorrow' features some neat battle suit designs (based on real-world exoskeleton initiatives), as if appropriated from an 'apocalyptic' Mad Max set. Kudos to Mr. Cruise for the excellent stunts. 'Edge' maintains its edge despite the hokey premise and a few clichés along the way. Definitely worth a look!