A curious sense of déjà vu envelops you barely a half hour into Edge of Tomorrow — and it’s not just because by then a fateful day in the life of Maj William Cage (Tom Cruise) is already on a loopy re-run over and over again. Cage, a television talking head on military matters, has been thrust into the frontlines of an inter-galactic battle, just as the earthlings are preparing for what they reckon is a final offensive against alien invaders. But the landing on a French beach, mirroring the D-Day offensive exactly 70 years ago (which marked the beginning of the end of World War II), is an alien trap, and it all goes horribly wrong for the earthlings — and for the hapless, cowardly Cage.
The sense of déjà vu is prompted rather more by the fact that within those first few minutes, Edge of Tomorrow puts you in mind of two other masterly films: Groundhog Day , which explores much the same time-warp phenomenon (with Bill Murray reliving a day in his life, but in a far less grim setting), and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan , with its dramatic opening sequence depicting the Allies’ Omaha Beach assault.
And yet, in the deft directorial hands of Doug Liman (he of the Bourne series and Mr and Mrs Smith fame) from there onwards Edge of Tomorrow acquires a life of its own and a born-again (and again and yet again) spirit that rivals Tom Cruise’s back-from-the-dead reincarnation loop. Sci-fi action flicks, of course, require viewers to suspend their sense of disbelief — some of the strands in Liman’s narrative otherwise don’t stand up to intense scrutiny — but in return for credulity, what he offers is an enormously entertaining blockbuster.
As spectacular action-packed alien war films go, Edge of Tomorrow is predictably grim and suspenseful — right up until the end when Cage and his comrade-in-arms Rita Vrataski (played by Emily Blunt, who manages to look sensuous even in combat gear) save the world. And, yet, Liman succeeds in infusing even so martial a storyline with a light touch. For as long as a befuddled Cage takes to figure out what’s happening to him in the time-warp, the barrack-room drollery matches Catch-22 or M*A*S*H .
And the manner in which the loopy storyline is kept moving, with every successive iteration fleshing out the plot just a bit more but without excessive repetition, is engaging in the extreme. The narrative technique, and the manner in which Cage acquires combat mastery, has a videogame quality to it: if you end up dead, for instance, you can begin again and up your game based on your experience of the previous round.
Cruise begins in an uncharacteristic role — of a wimpy pretender in uniform — and essays it with consummate distinction, but before long, he is in more familiar terrain as a world-saver. In the end, when the pin has been pulled on the last grenade, and the time-warp loop has ended, you’re left with a film that may sometimes challenge your sense of reason, but will have kept you delightfully entertained for one hot summer afternoon. Even if you get the sense that you’ve seen it all before.
Genre: Sci-fi action
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Paxton
Storyline: A reluctant soldier in a battle to save humans from an alien invasion becomes an unlikely war hero, thanks to a time-warp that reboots the day every time he dies.
Bottomline: Groundhog Day meets Saving Private Ryan for an enormously entertaining Cruise action flick.
