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 Who
couldn’t use good PR? Even the armed forces meant to save the world
benefit from some heroic sound bites that will have the bright-eyed and
patriotic queuing up to join. One of the folks responsible for that
influence is Major William Cage, a master at marketing and not a whole
lot else that’s useful to the United Defense Force; a fact no one knows
better than himself. His shock and growing panic is then understandable
when he’s called upon to suit up and head to the front lines of a war
offensive.
Currently, the earth is overrun with mysterious species of
extraterrestrial creature that seem rather set on the destruction of the
human race. Victories are few and the prospect of one in this assault
is nil, so it’s of no help whatsoever to the effort that Cage has zero
battle training nor does he have a clue as to how to operate the
standard heavy metal ExoSuit that is a soldier’s only defense.
After
being dropped directly into the heat of battle, the inevitable happens
and Cage is quickly, horribly dispatched. However, instead of waking up
in front of Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates, he rises in the same place
this nightmare began; at the barracks with the squad he was attached
to. The exact same scenario plays out and while he is able to make
minute changes to this dreamlike replay, he still hasn’t figured out
enough to stop his imminent demise. Practice make perfect as Cage is
obliterated over and over again, yet retains the memories he’s stored
since the previous death. Now when Cage returns from the hereafter, he
does so taking his training seriously and learning all he can learn
about the creatures.
Inch by excruciating inch, he begins to alter
things, but he knows that there’s only one person who might be able to
make a real difference in the world’s fate. The hero of humanity is one
Rita Vrataski, a legend known on the battlefield by a tough but
none-too-flattering epithet. Rita had appeared in an earlier version of
Cage’s death and clued him in as to what was happening. Rita’s belief
Cage’s outrageous tale is based in her own experience with the phenomena
and subsequent loss of it. She and Cage then repeat days over and over
in training to prepare for their chance to destroy the main Mimic.
First, they’ve got to hope their luck and Cage’s do-over power doesn’t
run out.
We’ve
seen this day caught in a loop premise done excellently in 1993’s
Groundhog Day, so the question is how to make it stand out from such a
perfect template? Loads of action would be a good start, and Edge of
Tomorrow packs it in. The shots of the opening battle are like a
compressed mecha version of Saving Private Ryan’s Normandy nightmare.
Gray-toned chaos amidst unstoppable carnage, some of the brutality is so
senseless it’s almost laughable.
Director Doug Liman paces the rerun
days so quickly and smartly that they are a story unto themselves and
increasingly funny, even as Cage gets smarter, faster, stronger, etc.,
by virtue of many painful deaths. The questions of which way Cage will
turn given a particular situation and how that result will turn out if
he does just one thing differently is a fascinating demonstration of the
butterfly effect. The déjà vu all over again transforms Cage not only
into a better soldier, but a better man; one capable of sacrifices he
would never have made at the beginning of the film.
The action is rapid
fire and jarring, but doesn’t get overly grim. Rita realises quickly
that she must occasionally help along Cage’s reboot process with a handy
.45, which is a gallows’ laugh. Tom Cruise, for all that he’s the hero,
forgoes many of the tricks and affectations he’s become known for in
over thirty years of filmmaking. He allows himself to be the callow guy
at first, then the terrified wreck and weakling, and even after the many
crash courses in how to toughen up and kill the Mimics, doesn’t play it
like Superman coming to save the day.
I’m not entirely sure I bought
Emily Blunt as either a legendary warrior, or as a love interest for
Cruise; the chemistry wasn’t so much. She does gives her usual
intelligent performance, which works great for the banter and humour
between Rita and Cage, which is in itself another power source for this
film. In a much too small role, Brendan Gleeson plays the UDF general
that sets our hero on his path - seemingly to destruction - and his
disdain and bemusement at Cage’s apparent uselessness is rich. There’s
also Bill Paxton in a bit as the sergeant who gives Cage his first taste
of actual UDF life. Of course my mind immediately zoomed to Aliens upon
seeing the actor in military gear, which was only enforced when someone
exclaims “It’s game over” when discussing the Mimic threat. The ExoSuit,
a slimmed-down, high-firepower version of the armour that made it
possible for Ripley to face the Alien Queen, is what enables the
soldiers here to have half (and only half) a chance to survive
against their outer-space foes. Small things like that made me
appreciate this film more for acknowledging at least one of its mommies.
The
Mimics look like long-haired tumbleweeds with whipping, spearing cable
tentacles eviscerating their prey and any ammo shy of a Gatling gun is
useless against them. Cage discovers there is more than one type of
Mimic and they are all in service to keep outsiders from coming near the
inner sanctum of the Omega, A.K.A. Mother Mimic. They aren’t terribly
much to look at and could’ve been rendered more substantially, but
they’re enough to give the impression of the relentless, blinding fast
damage they can do, particularly when they’re terribly difficult to
track when in hiding. You might be walking along minding your own
business and *pop* from out under your feet comes a Mimic, then you have
no feet.
The sense of being overwhelmed by the enemy that just flails
its many tendrils and makes you dead is aptly conveyed. Scary as they
may be, it’s really the clever handling of Cage’s own personal Groundhog
Day and the evolution of the character that gives the movie substance.
The audience takes for granted after a while that Cage will just get
back up every time he falls, but with the revelation that may not always
be so, the suspense builds with the aching increments of Cage’s efforts
to get as close as he has to vanquishing the aliens, as well as the
finality of it really, truly being life or death should Cage or anyone
close to him be killed after the loop ends.
Confession time: When I went into the screening of this film, I hadn’t
read the novel, All You Need is Kill by author Hiroshi Sakurazaka, or
the manga adaptation illustrated by Death Note artist Takeshi Obata.
Both those oversights have been rectified. However, it presented a
problem as to how to view this film. I felt I had to address the lack
of similarity to the source material, because it exists. Many fans of
the popular manga will complain that this is another Hollywood
bastardisation and there’s some truth to that.
As opposed to the
middle-aged Cruise and thirty-ish Blunt, the protagonists of the
original novel and manga are barely out of their teens and have always
had the aliens in their lives; imminent death has always hung over their
heads. What’s lost by the change is the philosophical depth of having
kids barely out of puberty fighting and dying repeatedly, which, but for
the reset ability, is not terribly different from wars today. We see
the internal changes and straight-up damage dealt to the mind and soul
of the hero as a result of having to see his friends and himself
destroyed over and over. The connection he feels with Rita for their
shared experience is lessened in the film in favour of a romantic bent.
Edge
of Tomorrow isn’t trying to be heavy or make a point as Sakurazaka’s
work was, it’s just trying to entertain, which is does in spades. Only
the outer skin of the source was used to make this a proper Tom Cruise
summer blockbuster; one of the best of his of recent years. That’s how
I would suggest audiences go in looking at Edge of Tomorrow, because
it’s extremely fun and totally worth the big tub of popcorn.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
June 6th,
2014
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