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Edge of Tomorrow




The most entertaining movie I've seen in a while.

I just saw Edge of Tomorrow, so I'm sorry if this review is a little bit late. But, I must say that this was one of the most fun times I've had at the theater in a while. I walked into this movie thinking it was going to be a bunch of action and some cheesy jokes thrown in every once in a while: and man, was I wrong. I was pleasantly surprised that this movie got as many laughs out of me as it did. There are some genuinely funny scenes in this movie, and they work well. They don't feel out of place or unnecessary, in fact they help move the story along in a unique and often times hilarious way.

Here's my synopsis of the movie: Tom Cruise kills a creature that gives him the power to come back again and again, so when he "dies" he wakes up back at the army base. (A lot like Groundhog Day) Anyway, his mission is to kill this Omega thing to save the human race or something. The story is a little confusing at first, but you learn to just go along with it and it starts to become clearer as the movie goes on. Seeing Tom Cruise fail over and over again in a darkly slapstick sort of way is quite funny and keeps the crowd interested.

The story is different from most stuff out there right now. I wouldn't say it's anything groundbreaking, but it's entertaining and different enough to keep your eyes on the screen. Now that we've talked about story, lets move on to actiing.

The acting is pretty good in this movie. There were only a few cases of noticeably bad acting, and they weren't too bad. One is a southern female character in "J Squad" who's accent seems to go back and forth and not quite seem constant. Bill Paxton's acting wasn't all that great but hey, does it need to be? He plays an exaggerated and goofy Master Sergeant and his goofy acting works for the character.

Tom Cruise wasn't that bad in this movie. I expected to be annoyed by his higher pitched voice and refused to see him as a badass when I saw the trailers. But, I actually ended up liking him. Cruise plays William Cage, a whiny and cowardly officer who doesn't want to be on the front lines. They actually didn't want you to like his character at the beginning of the movie, and that works out well. Seeing Cruise transform from a cowardly wimp to a bonafide killing machine is really rewarding.

Ok, enough Tom Cruise, lets move on to Emily Blunt. Emily Blunt delivers in this movie. You expect her to be a harsh and lethal trainer and soldier and she is. But underneath this tough disposition in the character, you can see real emotion and sadness. You can see that her character has been through a lot, and it takes real acting skill to combine all those traits into one character. Plus, she's not too bad on the eyes either.

I really did love this movie, but that's not to say I didn't have some problems with it. There are some parts of the story that were left out that could have been helpful. Also, I feel that many of the characters were too underdeveloped. For example: I feel that General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson's character) should have had more development and story behind him. And just about everyone in "J Squad" could have used more story behind them so we could truly be rooting for them in the final battle. I also feel that the scientist character should have had more back story and development. But these are minor things. Did the movie necessarily NEED these things? No. But would it have been better if it had these things? In my opinion, yes.

The camera work is about what you would expect from a movie like this. A lot of shaky camera during action scenes, which normally would turn me off to the whole movie, but in this case, it works. The action scenes are quick and frantic in a lot of instances and the shaky camera helps create that feeling. Plus, it's not super over used. You can still see what's going on in the scenes despite the shaky camera for the most part. I didn't mind it because I found the story more interesting than most of the action scenes. While the action scenes are great and really get your blood pumping, the training and buildup to those action scenes are even better. This movie takes story over action and I absolutely LOVE that about it.

Overall Edge of Tomorrow is a fun, mostly unique story, with quite a few good action scenes. If you're looking for a couple of hours to kill and want to see a fun movie that will thoroughly entertain you, watch Edge of Tomorrow.