Blu-ray Review: Live/Die/Repeat – Watch Tom Cruise Again And Again In EDGE OF TOMORROW
Edge Of Tomorrow is one of the the few action movies to grace recent summers that hasn’t been a superhero franchise, a sequel, a prequel or a reboot (or all of those combined). Tom Cruise stars in this Doug Liman directed science fiction film that feels incredibly fresh in the face of the aforementioned nuisances which now blights on the cinematic landscape (despite the fact that it has often been billed as Groundhog Day meets Aliens by lazy reviewers).
In the opening of the film Cruise plays against type as a cowardly army media manipulator who ends up on the front line after he attempts to bribe a high-ranking General (Brendan Gleeson). However, this isn’t a normal battlefield, as Earth is under attack from a race of aliens (known as Mimics) who are waging war across Europe. Cage dies within minutes of landing on the battlefield – only to wake up and relive the same day over (and over, and over) again. He continues to die but soon learns that he might be able to become the hero that nobody thinks he is capable of being. He’s assisted by Emily Blunt’s ‘Full Metal Bitch’, who seems to know quite a bit about Cage’s odd case of Deja vu.
Liman delivers the spectacle that is fitting for a movie of this stature, peppering the film will impressive visuals and top notch special effects. Meanwhile writers Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth lace the film with a dark sense of humor, one that is not unlike the old Warner Bros cartoons. We watch Cruise die many times and each one is darkly comedic, one with the added bonus of Cruises’s interpretation of the Wilhelm scream. As always, Cruise is committed to the role, showing an interesting and rather detailed character arch for a big-budget tentpole. Blunt offers a good balance to Cruise, possibly portraying one of the strongest female action leads since Sigourney Weaver taught us that no can can hear you scream in space.
Edge Of Tomorrow clocks-in at a little under two hours, and it moves at a brisk pace. Liman keeps the editing tight and each replayed scene offers something new and interesting. The ending may dip into the usual over-pixelated denouement that plagues action movies, but that’s a small sin when the rest of the movie is so much fun.
Live. Die. Repeat. Watch again and again. Edge of Tomorrow is an original, brash and fun blockbuster that deserves to be seen.
Special Features
The Edge of Tomorrow Blu-ray comes loaded with a batch of informative and well presented features – the best being the candid On the Edge with Doug Liman, a 45 minute documentary piece on the making of the movie. There’s also about ten minutes of deleted scenes.
