Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Directed by: Doug Liman
Country: USA / Australia

Movie Review: Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt starred in sci-fi action film “Edge of Tomorrow” from the acclaimed director Doug Liman, most known for having started Jason Bourne adventures in 2002 with “The Bourne Identity”. Cruise plays major William Cage, a confident US army officer who is perfectly aware he’s not really a soldier but rather an advertising strategist. Used to other kinds of battles, and regardless the fear and inability to deal with guns, Cage is forced to go to war against the invaders, intelligent alien forces and time manipulators known as ‘mimics’, ending up dead in the battle field. For his surprise, as awakened from a dream, he’s transported to a previous point in time where he will have the possibility to repeat everything again and learn until being succeeded in the mission. This faculty of dying and reborn, which they call ‘the power’, is also shared by Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Blunt) who sees Cage as the key element to solve the perpetual lost offensive. The screenplay, based on Japanese novel “All You Need is Kill” by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, was written by the Butterworth brothers, Jez and John-Henry, who already had worked with Liman in “Fair Game”, in collaboration with Christopher McQuarrie (director of “Jack Reacher”). The impressive scenarios and special effects will be a delight for the sci-fi aficionados but I didn’t feel any special vibrancy in “Edge of Tomorrow”, an invariable combination of “Alien” and “Elysium” with time-shifts. At least, both Liman and Cruise were far better here than in their last incursions on sci-fi, with “Jumper” and “Oblivion”, respectively.