Edge of your seat fun for ‘Edge of Tomorrow’

An alien race has smashed into Europe and spread like a Nazi menace both east and west leaving an allied humanity scrambling to figure out how to stop a seemingly unbeatable foe. Finally, they have a miracle at Verdun where a female warrior, Rita (played by Emily Blunt), manages to kill scores of the beasts single-handed and gives humanity the hope to fight on. In order to boost recruits and encourage morale on the home front, Cage (Tom Cruise), a slippery military communications specialist embarks on a television tour to promote this new hope while avoiding battle himself. Soon, he finds himself demoted, thrown in with a platoon of misfits, and launched on a modern re-enactment of the D-Day invasion against the tentacled aliens. While humanity is expected to survive, Cage is not, and since he is considered a deserter and a coward, no one much cares. The aliens, however, have led humanity into a trap and mankind’s army finds itself being decimated on the beaches. Cage manages to survive the first attack, but then dies with his second alien encounter being smothered in blue alien goo in the process. Then he wakes up, destined to experience and remember the same day over and over again. Turns out this blue alien goo has transferred the power to “reset time” into Cage.

“Edge of Tomorrow is “Groundhog Day” meets “Alien” as Cruise suffers through the same brutal day again and again until he can figure out how to defeat the monsters…and how to keep his love alive.

The evolution of Cruise’s character is a hoot to watch, going from Jerry Maguire (pre-epiphany) to the world’s toughest warrior in the course of one eternal day. The film takes time to set up the story, allows for laughs as Cruise’s character grapples with his predicament, but takes it all seriously enough to deliver genuine thrills for the audience. Gore (with the exception of one face-melting early one) is kept to a minimum, there’s some salty military language, but all-in-all, a pretty safe PG-13 thriller. Cruise has done solid science fiction before in Minority Report, but he’s never had so much fun.

“Edge of Tomorrow” is popcorn fun worth the price of admission!