Cruise in One of His Better SF/Thriller Role: The Title Hints at Main Character's Primary Dilemma

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2014)

Of Cruise's several recent science fiction roles, including "Minority Report", "War of the Worlds" and "Jack Reacher", "Edge of Tomorrow" ranks as one of his better offerings. Even some of the later Mission:Impossible installments are not as strong as this latest action-SF thriller. The one issue with this film is that if I describe the main plot line, all future viewers' cinematic experiences will be spoiled beyond repair. I will offer only some basic premises and refrain with giving away the main plot twist which occurs early in the film.
Tom Cruise plays Lieutenant Cage, a former ROTC student at University who ends up producing advertisements for the US military. Extra-terrestrial baddies, sort of a cross between "Predator" and "Alien" with the speed of the parasitic "Alien" creatures who impregnate unsuspecting human beings, have infiltrated the world and threaten to exterminate all human existence. We learn from the get-go that humankind and "baddiekind" have already engaged in several confrontations. Cage has gone on a television campaign to recruit the best and the brightest to fight the baddies.
Cage is then summoned to Europe and learns from a gung-ho Scottish/British commanding officer, General Brigham, that the latest military operation is to throw everything the international military has at the beasties on the western front of France, sort of an SF reenactment of D-Day near the beaches of Normandy. The General wants Cage to command the mission. Cage declines siting as his excuse that he's only an officer in name, but not really a soldier. And besides he's in the US military, and not under British or European jurisdiction. However, he finds he has been put under the general's command and after trying to weasel his way out of military service, Cage is forced to become a low-level combat soldier. He becomes, in a sense, his own recruitment.
Thrust into the middle of regular enlisted men and women who use large body armor suits, similar to the one used by Ripley in "Aliens", Cage engages the battle with other soldiers. The battle turns out to be a route in favor of the alien baddies since they appeared to know every step and every move the humans made during the combat even before they made it. And then towards the end of the battle, a strange circumstance pivots Cage into another reality of sorts, the details of which I will fore-go revealing lest I be banned from writing further reviews on IMDb.com! And this is actually where the story really begins...
A very satisfying cinematic SF experience. The film has an excellent balance between action and a compelling storyline. Cruise is excellent at pulling his viewers with him where he wants to go, provided it's a compelling script, which "Edge of Tomorrow" is. Emily Blunt plays a fellow soldier, far more seasoned in the "ready aim" department than Cruise, and the two achieve good chemistry. I will mention, by the way, Blunt's character's name is Rita. Interestingly, another film, whose main character has a similar dilemma to the one experienced by Cage has a female lead character, also name of Rita. This is essentially the SF equivalent of that other film, which shall remain nameless.