Edge of Tomorrow [Movie Review]

Ah, yet another wonderful weekend with a science fiction movie. I'm gonna miss this. Why? I think for the next few weeks, or couple of months, there is not a single summer movie left. Not a single film I'm gonn go spend matinee money on. That's a tragedy.

"Where am I? What movie am I in this time?!?"

Tom Cruise's last few movies have been pretty fun. I really enjoyed Oblivion, and now the Edge of Tomorrow. It was pretty fun, pretty good.

4.5 out of 5 stars

"Oh, yeah, this movie. I'm gonna die a lot."

The tag line I've seen for this movie always runs along the lines of, "Oh, it's like Groundhog Day mixed with Starship Troopers." And this is honestly not inaccurate. However I would hasten to add that the Starship Troopers in the reference is more likely to be the book and not the movie (since the movie does not have powered body suits).

"I die too. But I get to kill you a lot as well. We'll laugh."

I would also hasten to add that Edge of Tomorrow is better than either Groundhog Day or Starship Troopers (the movie one). I was shocked at how absorbed I was in the film. I lost track of the time, I thought it would go longer. But when it finished, I glanced at my phone and saw that a touch more than two hours had passed. I was not bored for a single minute.

"-Grin-. You know what I'm insinuating."

The often seen power armor is interesting. It resembled a powered frame more than anything else, a support system for mounting heavy weaponry. I like that they have multiple styles... however after glancing at some of the manga, I'm kinda sad they did not go the full manga route. 

The best change I've seen from the manga is the alien design. The mimics in the manga are kinda boring-ish. The ones in the movie are spastic balls of tentacle (thank you -_-) menace with fanged mouths. Much more menacing, much more thematic, and yet somewhat hard to see until they sit still.

"Time to use the reset button."

By the way, this movie based on the light novel called オール・ユー・ニード・イズ・キル, which if you read Japanese is pretty easy reading, and kinda funny. It literally says, 'Oru Yuu Nido Izu Kiru,' or All You Need is Kill.

There is also a manga series based on the light novel. It looks pretty good. Since there are lots of volumes (at least six, if not more), it goes into more details about what is occurring. It also goes into details on how painful reliving the day over and over again becomes. But that is the manga. Oh yeah... in the film the main character's name is not Tom Cruise, he just looks a lot like him. No, his name is William Cage. In the Japanese light novel and manga his name is Keiji Kiriya. Rita Vritaski is correctly named, and played by Emily Blunt. No idea about the rest of the cast. Oh! Save for a few of the actors. You get to see Brendon Gleeson with two eyes (he was Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter series, and Brendon Gleeson is the father of Domhnal Gleeson who was also in the Harry Potter series). You also see Bill Paxton, and if you watched the Robin Hood TV series on the BBC, you get to see Jonas Armstrong, aka: Robin Hood, in this movie. Good cast. Well, I liked the cast.

Manga. Smallest girl is the most bad-ass.

The movie was good enough to make me very interested in the manga. I'm gonna have to get a hold of it.


Back to the movie. 

Some other interesting things. The whole time loop stuff is rather well handled. The big behind the scenes aspects are never discussed, it is not something the audience actually needs to know. The smaller details that audience needs for the plot, are covered. It's well done. They avoid making up any gibblity-blather to confuse the audience. It is clean. That is impressive, and good writing.

It is a fun movie.
I was always entranced, so much that the time just flew by.
I want to go out and get the novel and the manga.
Oh, and it is a dark comedy at times. You will not be able to stop yourself from laughing at some of the ways he dies. It is funny. 
Those are all good points.

I can completely recommend this movie, especially as a matinee showing. Grab a ticket, maybe grab some popcorn or nachos, and get a drink. This movie is worth your time, especially if you like science fiction. 

I honestly cannot find a credit for this, if it is not the original artist. If you know one send it to me. Please. The art is good and really captures an element that is really more central to the manga. I like it.

I do not do this often. However after this movie had more time to sit in my brain and be mulled over... I have revised my rating for the film. It goes up. This was an amazingly original film from Hollywood, completely and utterly and totally worth your time and money. I know it is almost out of theaters, but if you have not seen it, you really should. Go. Run! See this movie.