Edge Of Tomorrow: A Pleasant Tom Cruise Surprise

Every year there’s always a few certainties in the film world. There will be some over hyped summer blockbuster that does not live up to the hype, a buddy cop duo flick, there will be some foreign film that wins a billion awards that no one even saw coming, and Tom Cruise will debut another movie (more often than not involving Aliens and him running).

Has anyone in Hollywood put in as much work as Tom Cruise in the last 30 years? Maybe Samuel L. Jackson with his insane run of movies in the 1990’s but nothing to the caliber and success of Cruise. I am not a Tom Cruise fan and I’ve only enjoyed a handful of his movies in my life. So when I saw previews for The Edge of Tomorrow, it was going to be another Cruise movie I would just wait to be released on Netflix. 

But with family in town for the weekend, I decided a nice movie would be fun, and I figured although I’m not a Tom Cruise guy, a lot of other people are. I read some reviews sans spoilers for the Edge of Tomorrow, and saw that it had an 89% rating on RottenApples.com. A Tom Cruise movie in 2014 with that high a rating? Interesting. So I figured it couldn’t be that bad now could it?

This was going to be another Cruise “saves the world” alien movie with foolish dialogue, over the top heroics and boring action. Boy was I wrong. This was one of the best Tom Cruise movies I have seen in quite some time, and it’s a great movie from start to finish. I should have figured it would be a good movie with Doug Liman at the helm as director (Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs. Smith).

I won’t give too much away because I also hate spoiler reviews, but just picture this being an alien invasion version of Bill Murray’s classic movie Ground Hog’s Day. Cruise is great in this role because he’s not the all-conquering bad ass he is in so many of his movies. He’s just a normal guy that turns into the hero while being subjected to a cruel fate countless times. The plot is very well written and acted, the chemistry between Cruise and Emily Blunt isn’t forced and comes off perfectly in this film.

Blunt plays the role of Rita Vrataski who is an army hero for her exploits in a prior battle against the invading aliens. Her significant past and that of Cruise’s present are well-balanced and give the story-line an easy to follow feel without bogging that film down with non-stop mind numbing action sequences. There is also a few scenes involving Bill Paxton, and it’s Bill Paxton at his best. When a movie puts the always intense Tom Cruise with the usually laid back and funny Bill Paxton in the same scene repeatedly, and it comes off perfectly, then there’s a good chance the director knew exactly what he was doing to get the film to where it needed to be entertainment wise.

(Check out this funny story about the movie on Yahoo! On 8 things about this movie that are similar to other movies. Great read https://www.yahoo.com/movies/deja-cruise-8-classic-movie-moments-hidden-in-edge-of-88031609402.html) 

The Edge of Tomorrow is definitely worth seeing in the theaters, and whether you are a Tom Cruise fan or someone who tends to not be in love with his films like myself, this is one of his best movies in a good while. If you’ve seen Tom Cruise’s 2013 movie Oblivion, then you should definitely roll the dice on The Edge of Tomorrow. If you haven’t seen Oblivion then don’t, and see this movie instead and act as if Oblivion never happened. 

Overall, I give The Edge of Tomorrow 3 stars out of a possible 4:

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