Tom Cruise is a smiling happy PR man in the opening scenes of Edge of Tomorrow. He’s in the army, but he’s not a soldier. His job is to get people to sign up for the Big Push to beat back the alien invaders. This is one of the weakest aspects of the story. Europe has fallen to an alien invasion and the rest of the world won’t be far behind, do you really need some smiling recruiting officer to get people to join the fight?
Tom is smiling and happy as he meets up with the Commander of the human army in London. He is less happy and smiling when the Commander tells him he will be on the front lines with the rest of the army in the morning. When Tom objects, he finds himself labeled a deserter and tossed in with a group of losers to die on the front lines. Seems a tad harsh, but hey, this is War.
The battle is Ohama Beach with Aliens and our troops are mowed down by robotic tentacle monsters. Tom manages to kill one and then another before he dies covered in the blood of the second alien. Snap back to that moment when he wakes to someone yelling at him. This scene is repeated several times as Tom tries to convince people that he knows what is going to happen. Along the way he meets the super soldier Emily Blunt, who battles the aliens with a cricket bat shaped sword.
Death after death, Tom gets closer to victory. There are countless battles and re-lived battles and everyone dies a thousand deaths. The ending is a little off, but I still liked it. I liked all the actors and the special effects were good. Edge of Tomorrow was a very good movie.
A few years back I read this odd little book called Syrup by Max Barry. In it, he talks about brands and million dollar ideas. His main character ends up making a movie. A movie starring Tom Crusie and I think it was Gwyneth Paltrow. In the movie, Tom is the action hero and Gwyneth gets rescued a lot. Then the story gets a rewrite, so that Gwyneth is the action hero and Tom gets rescued a lot. I couldn’t help but think of this movie rewrite as I watched Edge of Tomorrow, where Tom plays a clueless loser for much of the film and a beautiful blond woman is the role model for all action heroes. I wonder why they didn’t get Gwyneth? I could so see her swing that cricket bat around.
Edge of Tomorrow was fun.
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