The Definitive Summer Blockbuster of 2014

Rating: Null/10 (25 June 2014)

The summer of 2014 has already seen few behemoths in the form of Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past & How To Train Your Dragon 2 but nobody was really expecting this Tom Cruise starrer, which debuted on the silver screen a few weeks ago without any significant buzz, to surprise them the way it has & with every passing moment, it continues to gain momentum with its strong 'word of mouth' praise.
Edge of Tomorrow tells the story of Major William Cage who hasn't seen a day in combat but finds himself caught in a time loop after killed within minutes in a war against an alien race. But as he's forced to experience the same battle over n over again, his skill to handle the adversaries of war gets better and with the help of a Special Forces warrior, he ultimately gets closer & closer to defeating the seemingly invincible enemy.
Director Doug Liman has made excellent use of the available resources here to craft an action film that's as smart & engaging as it is entertaining. The screenplay is inspired from the Japanese novel, All You Need Is Kill, and also infuses elements from cinema classics of the past to come out with an original storyline which is then further refined with clever use of action, wit, drama & unpredictability to deliver a cinematic experience that's highly rewarding.
Coming to the technical aspects, cinematography expertly exhibits the director's filming trademarks & makes prevalent use of frequently cut hand-held shots. Editing is undoubtedly its finest aspect as not for once does its repeating segments feel dull or tiresome, VFX & sound are state-of-the-art stuffs that never take the viewer's focus away from the story and the background score ends up adding even more intensity & energy to the whole package.
Edge of Tomorrow features an overall dependable cast amongst which Tom Cruise & Emily Blunt end up impressing the most. Playing his most challenging, funniest & meatiest role in a long time, Tom Cruise delivers a fabulous performance as William Cage but was constantly challenged by Emily Blunt who truly kicks ass with a ruthlessly aggressive rendition of her character, Rita Vrataski aka "Full Metal Bitch"; the decorated veteran who guides & trains Cage after recognizing his current predicament.
Although the film is no doubt an endlessly entertaining extravaganza, I still had few minor issues with it. One being the ending that isn't very fulfilling in accordance to its build-up & other is the inclusion of a romantic arc near the end which was absolutely unnecessary. Still, the positives outweighs the negatives by a huge margin as Edge of Tomorrow manages to get most things right & is the perfect summer blockbuster of the year with enough quality & quantity to dazzle most moviegoers.
On an overall scale, Edge of Tomorrow is a smartly scripted, cleverly narrated, brilliantly directed, energetically photographed, tightly edited, timely humoured, wonderfully scored & strongly performed motion picture that may look like an action-laden video game but damn me if it isn't a remarkably well-played one by its cast & crew. If you still haven't seen it then cut the foreplay & just go for it before it completes its run on the big screen. You can thank me later.
Full review at: cinemaclown.wordpress.com