If you’ve seen the trailer for Edge of Tomorrow, then you
know the premise of this sci-fi blockbuster. The word “blockbuster” comes from
a description of the biggest bombs used around the time of World War 2 – the
ones that could destroy a city block. The Mimics (which is the name given to
the barely-defined bad guys in the film) certainly fit that description, both
in their destructive capabilities and the quality of the special effects
bringing them to life. Major William Cage relives the same day, the same fight
against the Mimics over and over, seemingly until they are defeated.
The show opens with some footage explaining the arrival and
progress of a marauding invading force called “Mimics”. It’s hinted that
they’re from space (something that is repeated later on in the film) and they
look like the sentinel robots that attack the ships in The Matrix. There are
other bad guys too - all Mimics, but more senior ones.
Tom Cruise, plays Cage, who has avoided military duty by
producing morale-boosting propaganda clips encouraging people to join the fight
against the Mimics. This is Tom Cruise in “default mode”, which in this case is
no bad thing. I enjoyed his performance in “Minority Report” hugely and this is
similarly enjoyable. Cage is a coward and when General Brigham (a brilliant
Brendan Gleeson) asks him to go to the front line to shoot a film that will
glorify Brigham’s strategies (but
probably see Cage killed), Cage ducks, dives and finally refuses to go.
He’s arrested and sent to Heathrow, now an operating base for a huge deployment
of soldiers wearing massive MechWarrior-style exo-skeletal fighting machines.
Some great script-writing is evident – plenty of little waypoints we’ll become
familiar with in the first reel of the film are interspersed with well-balanced
plot-devices setting up subsequent events.
As the trailer makes clear, Cruise’s character starts the
day again, “Groundhog Day” style each time he dies. His role, for reasons which
are made clear enough, is to get better and better at fighting the Mimics to
help the Allied forces (yep, there are plenty of WWII parallels here, including
a map with arrows that suggest a tipped hat to “Dad’s Army”). Along the way, he
meets Rita Vrataski (played by a steely Emily Blunt) and teams up with her –
harder than it sounds when he has to introduce himself to her (and everyone
else) every time he dies.
The set-pieces that play out Cage’s daily rebirth are
well-handled and I didn’t tire of the restarts at all. It could have been an
arduous film if we’d seen too much, over and over. Or it could have been just
confusing if we hadn’t seen enough.
The entire supporting cast are great – everyone seems to ham
it up a little, not least Bill Paxton as Sergeant Farrell. The mild overacting
could be a curse, but it helps drive some minor characters forward in the face
of spectacular special effects, A-list colleagues and a plot that calls on them
to very deliberately repeat certain things in subtly different ways.
Cage and Vrataski are helped in their quest to win the war
by Dr Carter, played by Noah Taylor who is nearly great in the role. I don’t know
if he was a good-but-not-great choice for the role or whether he was
regrettably underused but there’s something excruciatingly minor missing from
the Dr Carter character. Or maybe I was just expecting too much. Carter helps
explain that there’s a central brain controlling the Mimics and it is this
brain that must be destroyed. Of course Cage has to convince Carter of his
“rebooting” each time. Trust me, it never gets tangled and you won’t get bored
of it.
The resolution of the film is strange. Obviously I won’t
give anything away, but I was surprised.
I watched this in 2D – it’s available in 3D too. I
imagine some of the special effects would have looked cool in 3D, but since
seeing “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” by Werner Herzog in 3D, I can’t imagine
anything getting close. I enjoyed Edge of Tomorrow thoroughly in 2D.
See the trailer here:
Steve Fair - 2014
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