I Jumped Off The Edge Of Tomorrow!

It looks like this week I am just reviewing things that The Paladin has already talked about, but so be it.  For Christmas I got the Blu-Ray of The Edge of Tomorrow, and after watching it, I am quite happy to have it in my collection.  This movie had several things against it: people think Tom Cruise is crazy, Cruise just released a not so great Sci-Fi flick a year ago, and the marketing people had no idea what to call this movie.  They still don’t.  My Blu-Ray case clearly says, “Live, Die, Repeat!” on it, and I had to look pretty hard to find Edge of Tomorrow.  It is a shame because this movie deserved to be successful.

By now everyone has heard the concept, it is a Sci-Fi action Groundhog Day where instead of wooing a woman, William Cage (Tom Cruise) learns how to fight alien squid.  He gets trained by the joint military’s best fighter Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt).  She also had this happen to her.  Which is probably why she is so good at killing alien squid herself.

The writer of the light novel Hiroshi Sakurazaka said he got the idea from video games where the player gets better every time they die because they learn the layout and enemy locations.  He also admitted that he was a big fan of Groundhog Day, so the story kind of wrote itself.  I have to say that since I am a fan of video games and Groundhog Day that this movie really worked for me.

I liked the fact that Emily Blunt didn’t need Tom Cruise to save her.  It was in fact the other way around.  I liked that the aliens, while being squid, weren’t overused or over designed.  I also liked that the action felt real and grounded.  It wasn’t just a bunch of random impossible stuff.  It all just worked so well.  This movie even made me like Tom Cruise again, which is something that I didn’t think could happen.

Edge of Tomorrow was a very good movie, and one that a lot of people missed for various reason, but now that it is on home video, I hope that it gets a chance to find a larger audience because it really deserves one.  Support good Sci-Fi and watch this movie.