Edge of Tomorrow Review

Jon Pardew Movie Review: 8.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Rated: PG-13
Sexual Content: 2/10
Violence: 6/10
Profanity: 5/10
Drugs/Alcohol: 2/10

Edge of Tomorrow is an action packed sci-fi war movie, and it is awesome!  Major Cage (Tom Cruise) does not want to go to the front line of battle against the alien army.  He is arrested and forced to go anyway. Though very inexperienced as he is he manages to kill some aliens before he dies.  He then wakes up at the beginning of the previous day.  Something happened that caused him to be trapped in a time loop.  He then tries to find Rita (Emily Blunt) every day for training.  It is up to Cage to find a way past the enemy on that looped day and destroy them.

Edge of Tomorrow is loosely based on the Japanese military science fiction light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka with illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe called All you Need is Kill.  They even pay homage to the book by naming the main character Cage.  The character in the book is named Keiji, but the Americans pronounce it Cage. All you Need is Kill was published in 2004 and it was Sakurazaka's breakthrough novel.

Edge of Tomorrow is a great summertime movie.  There is a time loop but you don't lose interest because it is executed very well.  Tom Cruise does an excellent job at taking you through the time loops and making you wonder how many times he has been through this even though it is your first time seeing it happen.  The actors do a good job to bring you into the movie and experience real battle with aliens.  The design of the aliens were magnificent.  They are creatures that will haunt you.  The movie was also surprisingly but pleasantly funny.  There were about 5 or 6 times that the theater had a good laughing moment and a few more times when everyone cheered making it fun to be there.

This movie does not ask you to think much.  There is no deep philosophical idea behind it but it does make you want to have the ability to start over every day until you are able to complete a task perfectly, like a video game.  Imagine if you could have a redo on taking your final exams until you got a perfect score, or repeating a job interview until you come out doing it right and getting the job.  Perhaps you are in the middle of a huge battle with an alien army. Another interesting thought, today marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day. I wondered how much that was planned for the release of Edge of Tomorrow since the human army attacks the aliens on the beaches of France and it looks much like a D-Day type invasion. Coincidence? Probably not.    

Written By: Jon Pardew