The International Writers Magazine: Review

Edge of Tomorrow • Sam North review Yes yes by you know the pitch - Groundhog Day with Aliens - this time its deadly serious.

Actually you can see Jez Butterworth with Chris McQuarrie who wrote the screenplay based on the Japanese novel by Hiroshu Sakurazaka (All you need is kill) pitching it to Doug Liman (Bourne Identity and Go) and getting quite animated about it in the style of The Players - so many years ago. I'm kind of glad they did - we finally have some all out kick-ass fun to see in the movies this year.

Tom Cruise gives a real performance - going from PR Major Coward to Gung Ho alien killer after a whole slew of getting killed either by aliens or Rita - the toughest, smartest soldier played very straight by Emily Blunt. It's quite refeshing actually and you warm to Cruise as he goes from total fear to fearless warrior and there's no zen master to explain stuff and slow you down either. He has to learn his lessons fast.

I am not going to explain the plot. You already have it at the top. But this is fun - sure it's repetitive- but that's the tough learning curve Major Cage (Cruise) has to go through. Be killed over and over until he gets it right and each time he thinks he's cracked it - he gets killed again. Any similarities with any video games is well er obvious. This is what kids have grown up with. It's all about getting to the next level and this is a movie that takes you there.

Tom Cruise likes sci-fi and I am glad he does. A lot of very stylish films wouldn't get made without him. From Minority Report to Oblivion. It takes itself way more seriously than Shield movies and is all the better for it - but it does have a sense of fun. Last year I was disappointed by Neill Blomkamp's second movie as it degenerated into guys just hitting each other. In Edge, Cruises' Major grows in confidence and uses the time warp to his advantage to learn to kill with some skill by the end. There are shades of Starship Troopers here - and to be honest that's no bad thing. No sexy showers scenes - there's no time for jokes either. The aliens are smart and perfectly designed to wipe out humans. No more need to be said.

Blunt give a geninue tough performance matching Cruise blow for blow and there's some good support from the J-Crew of misfits Cruise has to ship out with to the battlefield.

This is fun and your adrenaline will flow.
Enjoy.

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