I wanted to review this movie in light of the announcement that came out this week for Edge of Tomorrow 2. That’s right somehow they manage to think up a sequel for this one and it has me curious because the first movie seemed to have wrapped up the story. I will have to re-watch this and see what else I can find to hint at a sequel, and I do like this movie anyways so why not watch it again.
If you haven’t seen this movie and I am sure you have some weird reason why you didn’t, sorry, you missed out on a movie that is a better version of Groundhog Day. No, I am not comparing to Groundhog Day, but there is a similarity that you will be familiar with. The best part of the movie has to be why and how he keeps coming back to the same day and at the same exact moment. I know what you are thinking and no, it won’t get repetitive to the point of boredom. When coming back to the same moment happens often it serves a purpose to the plot of the movie and moves the story forward even though we keep going backwards.
The movie has a great strong female lead in Emily Blunt and she handles the action and the character just fine. You believe her to be the strong soldier that can defeat the aliens of the movie. For once in a movie with Tom Cruise he is not the hero of the show in the beginning, he is the rookie and the damsel in distress who needs Emily Blunt’s Character to survive. Sure we get the end that you would expect with Tom Cruise being the lead, but its her lead that help him get there and why the movie takes the turns that it does. So I said the movie moves forward even though we keep going back and the beauty of the story telling makes this movie not repetitive, I remember when I first told my wife about the premise of the movie and she rolled her eyes and the first thing she said was, I hated Groundhog Day. The automatic response that most people will have. You need to give the movie a chance and don’t let the fact that a guy that relives the same day over and over means this is going to be a lame movie. Every part of the movie when he goes back again drives the story so we can get to the end.
The smart story telling helped me get invested because I understood what Tom was doing and to what end, the movie has some great effects, great acting and another character that stand out is the one played by Bill Paxton, he is the strong and take no crap drill Sargent who takes his soldiers into combat knowing full well there will be casualties, but his belief in the army and what he is doing for mankind makes the notion of dying a muter point for him. His interaction with Tom in the movie is great while helping us have some light humor in the movie. The movie does have many great moments between all of the characters, you will laugh, have suspenseful moments, lots of great action with aliens and between the main characters. There is also moment of peace making this movie a great time to spend at home watching.
The ending of the movie at first for me was a little confusing, you need to pay attention to a lot of little things through out and it makes sense. I had to watch it a second time to understand, I think my wife got it the first time, but after talking to her about it again we understood it better and it worked just fine. She enjoyed it and her idea of it being another Groundhog Day I would say went out the window because they made the story work. So I say go watch it and it is my 2GO pick for you.
