Tom Cruise gets a bad rap. He really does. Dude honestly picks good movies. Yeah, he's batshit crazy in real life, but the guy knows how to pick films. Other than his latest sci-fi failure, Oblivion, his choice in sci-fi/action is generally stellar. War of the Worlds was underwhelming, but he was good in it and Minority Report is arguably his best work in his lengthy filmography. Other than the blight of Knight and Day (which we can all agree was ruined completely by Cameron Diaz) and his personal life, there's no reason to distrust Tom Cruise's film choices. Yeah, he kinda looks like an aged-pretty-boy midget wiener, but he's picking roles now that honor that about him. His role of Cage in Edge of Tomorrow does this best I've seen. What I'm trying to say is this: of the films released thus far in 2014, Edge of Tomorrow is by far the best.
Edge of Tomorrow will suffer in the box office due to two distributing errors. One, due to his vomit-inducing craziness, Tom Cruise is a tough box office sell. And two, here we have another sad case of poor trailer representation. The trailer doesn't really give much away except that Tom Cruise is in another science fiction movie where he is apparently the sole badass. The trailer poorly represents the awesomeness that is Edge of Tomorrow. Cruise plays Cage, a major involved in the PR side of the war against aliens that have come to Earth in an asteroid. He's not a fighter. He's a huge wuss that wants nothing to do with the way. He's the spokesman to the people to let them know that the armed forces are doing everything they can to get rid of the alien force. Then, when he's unwillingly sent to the beaches of France to fight in the biggest battle yet, he's forced to find the man-testicles that have eluded him in his career thus far. Unfortunately, they don't last long when he's killed on the beach by an alien, or Mimic. However, once he dies, he's sent back to the day before the battle has begun to relive the same day over and over and over again.
He doesn't understand how he's achieved this ability, but by having it he's able to join forces with British female badass Rita, dubbed "Full Metal Bitch", train to become the soldier he's portrayed himself to be, and hopefully figure out how to stop these aliens from destroying the planet as we know it. Without giving anymore away, this is a great premise for a sci-fi. Taking the best elements from Groundhog Day, combining it with what worked so well in films like District 9 and Independence Day comes one of the best sci-fi flicks I've seen in a long time.
What's great is the Cruise doesn't try to take control of the film with his movie star ego. He allows everyone else, soldiers who actually have warlike ability, to show off their skills and teach him a thing or two about the fight. It only makes sense that a four-foot-two scientology dwarf would be able to learn any skill, even if that is how to perfectly fight a manic alien force, with the repetition of the same day playing out over the course of what could be years. Hell, anyone could. It's how Cruise handles himself as a self-aware puss with no real tactical skills that adds that extra level of sophistication to the already tight script. Unlike the recent Godzilla, it actually makes time for character development that feels organic to the story. And, the aliens are actually something new we haven't seen yet that don't look like CGI laziness.
Everything about Edge of Tomorrow works well. It will probably be one of those films that will do much better at Redbox than it does in theaters. I strongly suggest anyone reading this to get out there and see it. It was offered in IMAX and 3D. Not being a fan of 3D myself, I don't necessarily think this is one that needs to be seen in that format, but IMAX, on the other hand, may just be that perfect, visually powerful sci-fi we've been waiting for. Great film.
A
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