Unintended metaphors stick out from Edge of Tomorrow like machine guns from clunky metal exo-skeletons.
On one hand, the movie mirrors the career of its aging lead, a once-formidable
superstar struggling to cling to the last vestiges of his fame and hurtling
through action extravaganzas as though he wasn’t now past 50 years old. One
early scene shows our hero William Cage, a spokesman and officer in the United
States Army Reserve, reacting with incredulity to the news that he will be sent
into combat for the first time in his military career, and it’s hard not to see
that moment as tongue-in-cheek, Tom Cruise poking fun at his own cushy
celebrity status. After all, though tarnished, his image is still apparently
enough for studios to keep shoving tent-poles at him. He still looks as
handsome and bright-eyed as ever – damn near indestructible.
The
movie could also represent the precarious position of contemporary filmmaking.
We’ve all read enough think-pieces lamenting the demise of cinema and rolled
our eyes in jaded exasperation at the announcement of yet another superhero reboot. Yet as clichéd and overblown as the
cynicism may be, going to the theater does sometimes feel like déjà vu, a
never-ending cycle of carbon-copied battles and catastrophes. We’re like Cage,
throwing ourselves into the turmoil again and again, hoping that this time, it will be different, only to
be continually disappointed.
On
paper, Edge of Tomorrow seems like a
continuation of the same pattern, just another disposable blockbuster that will
be forgotten in a week. Even the title (once upon a time the endearingly
ridiculous All You Need Is Kill)
screams “generic”. Yet somehow, despite the name and the hackneyed premise, it
works. Of course, this being a moderately budgeted science-fiction spectacle, a
decent chunk of screen-time is consumed by elaborate set-pieces involving
bright lights, loud noises and quick editing. But what the action lacks in
ingenuity, it makes up for in efficiency; at the very least, it makes sense and
helps to advance the narrative instead of stalling, overwhelming or distracting
from it. Although the plot carries echoes of numerous other movies (it’s
essentially Pacific Rim crossed with Source Code), director Doug Liman has
such a blast playing with the central gimmick that it doesn’t feel like a
simple retread; in fact, it surpasses both of the aforementioned films, buoyed with
enough humor to eschew the pompous melodrama of the former and enough energy to
ward off the staid repetitiveness of the latter. The whole thing is just enough
cheeky, absurd fun that you can forgive its more familiar moments and logical failings,
at least until the letdown of an ending.
Also, perhaps
more crucially, the end-of-the-world stakes here actually feel like, well,
stakes. Whereas so many recent blockbusters (aka most superhero movies) have
crumpled under the weight of their apocalyptic scopes, drained of any concrete
suspense, Edge of Tomorrow supplements
its heroes’ quest to save humanity with something more personal. It helps that
Liman keeps the focus tight, limited to Cage’s point-of-view, so we get to know
him as a person rather than just as a pawn in a larger scheme. We don’t want
him to succeed because we care about the survival of mankind; we want him to
succeed because we care about him. There’s
a gem of a sequence halfway through the movie, which consists of nothing except
two characters talking in a car, observed by a static camera. It may not sound
like much, but amid the chaotic battle scenes and hyperactive plot, just one
moment of peace and quiet can be a revelation.
There
lies the movie’s biggest achievement: that even with all the CGI monsters and
explosions, the frenetic, time-hopping plot, it occasionally pauses to let its
actors act. And they do – thrillingly.
These aren’t the kind of performances that garner awards attention, but in
terms of sheer presence and charisma, you can’t do much better than Tom Cruise
and Emily Blunt, who show, yet again, that being an action star requires more
than having a pretty face (sorry, Henry Cavill). The latter arguably gets the
showier role as a mysterious, hard-nosed super-soldier who thrives on combat
even as she wearies of it, and after years of being woefully underused by
Hollywood, Blunt doesn’t disappoint. She’s nothing short of a powerhouse, her
lean, muscular physique reminiscent of Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, an era when women didn’t need to be sexy in order to kick
ass, and her eyes a riveting maelstrom of expression – one instant ice-cold and
the next smoldering with quiet fury. Hopefully, it’s only a matter of time
before she nabs that starring vehicle she so richly deserves.
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