EDGE OF TOMORROW

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3.5 stars
With all of Europe now occupied territory, Britain is the frontline in a war against the Mimics, an extra-terrestrial species who will inevitably claim the entire planet. Lucky for us we've got Tom Cruise. So starts Doug Liman's (The Bourne Identity) energetic sci-fi romp which massages Groundhog Day into The War of the Worlds, and succeeds. For against expectation, his biggest asset is Cruise himself.

He plays Cage, an army PR manager flown to London to help sell the war. When dispatched to the front line by the Chief of Operations (Brendan Gleeson - The Company You Keep), he resists, runs, is arrested, demoted and sent to the front line anyway. With one day of basic training Cage lands on the battlefield in France (the D-Day origins of this story are quite clear) and is summarily dispatched by the enemy. Things get interesting when he wakes back in London the day before he was sent to France. He's thrown into basic training, and sent to the battlefield, again and again. Live, Die, Repeat, as the poster says.

Liman injects a nice line of humour into the story which Cruise uses surprisingly effectively as his adman turns from coward to hero. With death eliminated (Cage knows exactly where and when he'll wake up), being killed turns to his advantage. More so once he encounters another soldier (the always appealing Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria) who was once stuck in the same time loop. Assisted by tech-geek Noah Taylor (The Double), together they stand a chance at beating the Mimics. Liman also resists any obvious love intrigue to concentrate on the action: his design is interesting, the sinewy alien robots are disturbing, chaotic 3D staging is exhilarating.

There's a certain amount of, ahem, been-here-before about the earth-under-siege-from-alien-invaders narrative, yet Edge Of Tomorrow does have a terrific popcorn sensibility. Writers Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie) and Jez Butterworth (Fair Game) see to that. Although the repetitive premise initially makes the most of its comic opportunities, it does begin to wear thin. Fortunately it doesn't wear out before Liman tips us into a thrilling finale and throws us out the door. This is a lot of fun, all the more so given there's not a super-hero in sight.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on 1 June 2014
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CAST
Tom Cruise
Emily Blunt
Bill Paxton
Noah Taylor

DIRECTOR
Doug Liman

SCREENWRITER
Christopher McQuarrie
Jez Butterworth

COUNTRY
USA

CLASSIFICATION
M

RUNTIME
113 minutes

AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE DATE
June 5, 2014
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Edge of Tomorrow (2014) on IMDb
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Stacks Image 56