Based on the Japanese light novel “All You Need Is Kill” by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Edge of Tomorrow follows Bill Cage, a public relations officer for the US army in a war against an unstoppable alien force known as the Mimics. When Cage, played by Tom Cruise, is forced into participating in a desperate charge into enemy territory by his superiors, he is killed in combat. However, he reawakens, and eventually realizes that he is reliving the same day on repeat. Now, with the help of veteran soldier Rita Vrataski (played by Emily Blunt) he must find some way to break out of the loop in which he now finds himself so mysteriously trapped.
Edge of Tomorrow begins with an interesting premise, despite sounding a bit like Groundhog Day but with explosions. Bill Cage is not a hero, at least, not at first, and that’s what’s refreshing about seeing Tom Cruise portray this character.
It’s compelling, and also a bit comedic, to see the actor as someone who does his best to avoid combat and peril at all costs... to play the coward for once.
Granted, he does get to put his action hero prowess to use during the latter portions of the film, but for the most part, that title is shared with Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski, who demonstrates that she too can carry a film’s drama and comedic beats, of which there is a surprising amount, and to the film’s benefit.
Too many films take themselves too seriously nowadays, but Edge of Tomorrow isn’t afraid to play up the humor that comes with being in the almost a video game-like scenario that Cage does. Whereas too much humor in the wrong places is a bad thing (coughTransformerscough), Edge of Tomorrow never misplaces a chuckle for a moment. You see, what this movie does so well is striking the right tone, which a lot of other movies in recent memory seem to struggle with. This is in part thanks to screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and director Doug Liman who, no strangers to action, balance the quieter moments and loud ones with ease.
Satisfying in all the right ways, Edge of Tomorrow also brushes up against indicators of what may be a trend that is slowly re-emerging in Hollywood; adaptations of Japanese source material. With Warner Bros. finally moving ahead with its adaptation of the hit manga Death Note (with the recent hiring of highly acclaimed director Gus Van Sant), as well as hiring new writers for its long-defunct live-action Akira film, perhaps we are seeing signs that Hollywood is finally taking these projects seriously.
Hopefully we can soon forget the garbage fests that were Dragonball: Evolution and The Last Airbender and the immense disservices they did to their respective highly acclaimed source materials and embrace a more sophisticated retelling of manga and anime stories.
Granted, there are a few notable differences between the movie, Edge of Tomorrow and the novel, All You Need Is Kill, the most evident of those being the identity and ethnicity of the main character, but the changes that were made eased the transition from one medium to another, as opposed to being change solely for the sake of change (which is almost never a good idea).
Immensely smart and entertaining, despite being rather simple in plot and premise, Edge of Tomorrow can still be seen at several discount theaters and will soon be arriving on blu-ray dvd and redbox. If you like being treated like an intelligent moviegoer with brains and good sense (coughTransformerscough), you’ll probably enjoy it as much as I did.
Also check out my YouTube Channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeltXpef0zbKH1qGHk_mzOw