'Edge of Tomorrow' features Tom Cruise's best performance in some time
鈥淓dge of Tomorrow鈥� is like 鈥淕roundhog Day鈥� except it鈥檚 about聽gigantic spidery alien invaders and it stars Tom Cruise clomping around in聽an 85-pound exoskeleton.聽
Let me explain. Cruise plays Major William Cage, a military PR officer聽who is unwillingly recruited into a hopeless combat mission against the聽marauders. Killed almost immediately, he finds himself thrown inside a聽time loop that has him repeatedly fighting, and dying in, the same attack.聽Each time out, though, he survives a bit longer because he is savvier about聽the onslaught.
How many times can he expire and be resurrected before he exits the聽loop and defeats the aliens? And will Cruise end up tipping over from all聽that hardware?
Based on an illustrated Japanese novella and directed by Doug Liman聽from a screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and聽John-Henry Butterworth, 鈥淓dge of Tomorrow鈥� has a few too many time聽loops for my taste. It took a while to get the hang of the 鈥淕roundhog Day鈥澛燾oncept, but once I did, I didn鈥檛 especially look forward to the serial spin-cycle convolutions. The film鈥檚 relentless clangor is assaultive.聽
Cruise is better than he鈥檚 been in a while because he damps down his聽usual all-intensity-all-the-time MO. He鈥檚 best here when his character聽seems the most scared. And Emily Blunt as a commando legend聽is indomitable, a credit to her聽exoskeleton.聽Grade: B- (Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief suggestive material.)
